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David Ardley

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About David Ardley

  • Birthday 11/10/1963

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://www.intst.net/dt
  • ICQ
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  • Yahoo
    v2education@yahoo.com

Profile Information

  • Location
    Toulouse, France
  • Interests
    Design & Technology education (mainly applying the history of design - product and industrial - to design technology work), collecting Industrial and Product Design, driving cars (Caterham in particular), collecting toy cars, Rugby, a good beer (or bottle of wine!) and my kids (Alexia - 9 years old and Charlotte - 2 years old!). Oh, and my good lady of course, Laurence (French and wonderful!).

David Ardley's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

  1. Hi John - sorry for the rather large delay in replying! No, I left the IST in August last year and I am currently running around advising on school design & development strategy, IB diploma/MYP/PYP Design & Technology, ICT and Visual Arts (in addition to my work as an IB Diploma workshop leader and Online Curriculum manager for Design & Technology). I have set up my own educational consultancy and work freelance which is pretty scary! So far, work has been very interesting. I have worked with schools and agencies in Portugal, UK, Hong Kong and the Middle East. I am looking to start the website again (for IB & A-Level Design Technology) and also produce some documents on the development (or not!) of ICT in schools. How are you? All the best for now. David David Ardley L'Ancienne Ecole de Musique 4 Rue Arago L'Isle Jourdain 32600 Gers France v2education@yahoo.com
  2. "Cyber Flirting" I like that term David
  3. What about the idea of saying that unless you make a post on the forum you do not gain your degree I lurve these icon smilies! Bye for now. David
  4. I am as guilty as the next person but it's a crying shame that more folk are not using the forums to offload things whatever they may be . I do not have an anwswer - it is really frustrating trying to get these initiatives going. We must battle on though David
  5. C'mon then Andy. Don't hold back.....it's been two years now What did you buy ?
  6. A couple of simple Word guides to creating a starter web site in Front page - aimed at students starting secondary school but useful for young and old alike! Admittedly it is aimed at those doing Design & Technology but you can simply cross out the 'DT' bit and write in in crayon what you want Cheers for now. David Introduction_to_web_site_design___1_basic_web_site.doc Introduction_to_web_site_design___2_What_do_I_include.doc
  7. Guilty as charged! Nice to be back! My time is spent working on several forums (mainly IB related as I am now the faculty manager for online Design Technology with the IB) and this has taken alot of my time since the beginning of the new year. I am also travelling alot which does not help. I will now make it a priority to contribute to this forum - I have posted already on the IB DT forums about this forum so I hope numbers of interested folk will increase. Forums are fantastic for sharing, encouraging, crying, laughing and learning. Cheers for now. David
  8. Hi folks - just want to wish you all a happy new year (bit late but Hey Ho...) and look forward to some good forum discussion here on in. Cheers for now. David
  9. No Lego artists out there? Any ideas, thoughts, resources....?
  10. Hi Kevin. I am quite sad that no one has taken you up on your offer - its a wonderful resource to help support a range of activity from mechanisms through cycling to automata. Best of luck with it. David
  11. This is an excellent contribution Caterina - thank you. I love the fact that you are coming into the DT/'CAD' arena from another subject specialist standpoint. I will delve more into the link you offer above and see how 'blender' really works. Initial browsing indicates that it could be quite addictive!! Cheers for now. David
  12. Thank you for that feedback gentleman . I am glad that I am not alone in my thoughts. But how can we address the issue to encourage greater use (of sketching etc.) .
  13. Hi Andy and Graham! Just shows you - I though Andy Davies was still in charge of this area but good to hear from you Andy (t'other one!) I have posted some posts to invite anger, er, I mean to provoke thought and hopefully response. Whilst at IST we had quite an active Design Technology forum second only to Jonseys History one (will anyone ever beat the guy at forum supremacy?!). Lets see how we do. I am involved in many forums for Design (and technology) and they are normally pretty active. As Graham says I too enjoy the inter-subject banter and discussion. On the IB forums this is quite good but in a general 'D&T' sense there is not much about. Lets see how we can improve things. All the best for now. David
  14. It is becoming more and more disappointing to me when I see portfolio work arriving on my desk for moderation with several 'CAD' produced drawings looking rather good but behind the scenes only some very rudimentary skills applied at the design and develop stage - the 'out of the box' divergent thought bits - the creative stuff. As much as I see the need (and applaud the CAD into schools initiative in the UK ) it seems to have gathered momentum at the expense of the thumb nail sketch and this is criminal - both for the students and for our future as a world that develops design and wealth creators. Like CAM, the focus has shifted at the expense of the fundamentals and this is a concern. Students need to sketch; to explore ideas and thoughts, to share that 'thumbnail' sketch with peers and teachers and parents, to shape and play and refine line and form BEFORE hitting their Macs or PC's. They must be encouraged and guided to sketch freely and boldly first before moving to CAD to generate assembly drawings, final views and so forth (in fact these could be sketched too but thats another issue). This is NOT SOLEY a demain of the Art class Sketching is an aid for language learning too. Having taught for six years in a school where English is not always the first or second language a quick sketch to convey the idea or item often saw lots of understanding and nodding faces quite quickly. Sketching is a key skill for our subject; a major factor in the development, generation and plucking of ideas from young fertive minds. Let us not allow it to slowly disappear please. And let us not allow those teachers/parents/managers with 'little knowledge' of our subject look at the shop window of a CAD image and think "my, isn't this child a wonderful designer". Very dangerous indeed.
  15. I have recently returned from a (self financed!) weekend conference that was excellent - held at Oakham school and sponsored by the Audi Design Foundation. Lots of lovely CAD and CAM kit on display and workshops offering insight available. Whilst I hold high the need to be technology aware and competent I have concerns about the way that these initiatives and processes have gathered the limelight in recent years at the expense of some of the more basic (read intrinsic) manufacturing skills that I believe students need to genuinely develop good designing skills. High end manufacture (CAM) is here to stay as an important part of the manufacturing process (laser cutters, routers, CNC Mills and lathes and welding centres etc.) but I feel students are losing some of the basic 'hands-on' skills that they need to nurture and develop a design in the manufacturing environment; feeling and touching the materials, exploring, making mistakes, understanding..... Do not misunderstand me here. Any good department will have some CAM facility I am sure, to help convey an important component of design & technology.... ...but at what expense? Any views?
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