David Ardley

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

"Cyber Flirting" I like that term David

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

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

C'mon then Andy. Don't hold back.....it's been two years now What did you buy ?

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

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

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

No Lego artists out there? Any ideas, thoughts, resources....?

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

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

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.) .

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

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.

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?

I was doing some analysis of recent IB Internal assessment marks (for my own benefit) and it occured to me that the majority of the marks tend to get 'moved' en masse when moderation happens. Sometimes I fully understand the shift but at other times . I was wondering with the AS and A2 coursework if similar frustrations exist? Is moderation fair? We all need to be moderated for sure, but once done do we understand (agree ) with the feedback we get? Click the poll and let me know or add a message to the thread - be good to have your feedback. David

Hi Andy. Is this forum still alive . I see that John posted in April but there have been no threads since then. Can we help generate interest in some way? Hope all is well for now. David (Ardley - ex IST Toulouse)

Hi John. Just to follow up on this post. DT Online is an excellent UK based resource. There is also a wealth of information there that can be used by design technology teachers from around the globe. Snippets of CAD/CAM, control, graphics, resistant materials, design method and so on. I would be interested to hear about other web based initiatives from colleagues that they have used - UK based or otherwise! Bye for now. David

Hi Peter. I have just read your post and although the dates have since long past I was wondering how successful you were with linking up to another school(s). Was your trip useful? Fun? Where did you visit (the Design museum for example). It would be great to hear how your trip went. Cheers for now. David

Hi Andy. I have just been appointed as the IB 'faculty manager' for Design Technology at the On Line Curriculum Centre (OCC) at the IBO . I think that our roles are very similar in terms of attempting to generate resources, forums, interest and all round subject support for Design Technology. There is obviously plenty for us to work on and I am sure plenty of opportunities for us to share and develop resources on a genuine world-wide (web!) scale. I post this reply not so much for you and I (we share similar philosophies and desires to forge ahead with our subject Andy....and we both enjoy a beer every so often !), but to hopefully stimulate colleagues into submitting material and resources for us to use, add, nurture and basically support the development of our subject. Let us see what happens eh? All the best for now. David

Hello folks. Following on from what jonsey has mentioned I have a few still images and a couple of videos showing the first components of the 380 fuselage passing through L'isle Jourdain in the Gers here in France earlier this month (April 2004). I was rather annoyed because I passed the components on trailer in the daytime for the first time but was without my camera. By the time I got back it was dark! There were about 1500 to 2000 people gathered to see the lorries off on the final part of thier journey fropm L'Isle Jourdain to Airbus at Blagnac (Toulouse), a distance of about 30 km or so. The convoy, despite its bulk, actually moves quite quickly. I counted 20 Gendarme motorbikes and 6 Gendarme vans in support. The whole thing was really impressive. The infrastructure that has developed over the past couple of years to support the logistics of this enterprise has been phenomenal; New (A380 use only) roads, access and rest points (such as that in L'Isle Joudain), the burying of electricity pylons and telephone poles along the routes, the development (and redevelopment) of towns and villages along the way plus the unfortunate downsides to such development such as the culling of trees and loss of green belt areas in some regions and so on. There is so much to look at with this project - not just from a Design & Technology perspective, but History, Geography, Modern Languages, Math, Economics, Science.....a wonderful educational opportunity for all. This aviation thing should be quite a good asset and a lot of fun for everyone! Bye for now. David Video 1 Video 2

Well G'day Tony M8! How are things down under? Great to hear from you! Things are slowly developing here at the IST in the DT arena. I am focusing on several initiatives currently including the IB side of things (where I am now involved in the Group 4 review, the Internal Assessment criteria and also soon to be the new IB Design Technology guru at the Online Curriculum Centre which will be a challenging and rewarding role) So, girls and D&T. What are you after sir? IS MGG is looking to introduce the subject, or to resource a facility or to build upon already established practice? Let me know and I will offer whatever help I can sir! Hopefully I will speak to you very soon! Love to the two girls, a pat to the dog and take care for now you old *******. . Davo PS If you want to talk about rugby or need a shoulder to cry on just give me a call......

Hi Andy. Thank you for your kind and supportive words sir! It was really good meeting you too. My only frustration was not being able to find time to sit down and 'shoot the breeze' all things Design and technology over a couple of beers in the sun. That said, it will now be a priority to find the opportunity sometime soon!! I hope the end of your 'exam' courses go well and that all is not too frantic back at base. I have managed to start to collect some interesting information on the Aviation project too (see other thread) and I am really looking forward to continuing this initiative with all of those involved. All the best for now and I will make sure that we will meet up again soon. Cheers for now m8y. David

Hi. My name is David Ardley and I am currently 'Head of Shed' for Design Technology at the International School Of Toulouse in France. I set up the department from scratch when the school opened in 1999. Prior to moving here I had taught in Private schools in the UK for 12 years. We currently offer IGCSE Design Technology (Resistant Materials primarily) and the IB Diploma in Design Technology (a great course!). At KS 3 we have a hybrid course that incorporates several different curriculum models linking Art and Design and Design and Technology, Design being the common philosophy between the departments. I spent my childhood overseas (Australia for a short while then Hong Kong where I spent all of my secondary education at Island School) prior to going to the UK for University. I studied for a four year B.Ed in Design Technology at Middlesex. I am married to a French Girl and we have two daughters - Alexia aged 7 and Charlotte aged 3 months. I love rugby, collecting Industrial and Product Design, Toy cars (rally cars by Dinky, Solido and Corgi mainly), real cars including Caterham 7's and most sports saloons and a good beer or glass of wine.....but obviously not at the same time! I also enjoy ribbing my trusted friend and colleague Richard Jones-Nerzic (History Forum) about the current state of Welsh rugby..... I currently have a web page on the department at: Department Of Design Technology at IST I have also purchased the following URL to develop a site devoted to post 16 Design Technology Education (a forum of resources and information for students and teachers of IB and A/AS Level Design Technology). IB and A Level Design Technology for Students and Teachers I hope to be able to get it up and running very soon

Hi there all. I was wondering what thoughts colleagues have with regards to this issue? I have been teaching Design Technology for 17 years now. Prior to coming to the International School Of Toulouse in 1999 to start up a department from scratch (including introducing IB Design Technology), my only post 16 experience was A - Level and then the A/AS scenario in schools in the UK (although I was educated overseas in Hong Kong where I followed the A-level Design Technology course as a student). Personally, having now taught the IB for 5 years, I think that it has significant advantages over the A/AS level courses for a variety of reasons, not least that it really does delve into a broad range of Design and Technological issues and the three examination papers are really quite challenging. The downsides currently (although these are soon to be addressed in the 'new' DT syllabus for IB I hope...) are the lack of 'design' work on paper (A3 and A2 portfolio work) required. For me, this design development sketching is probably the most important component....Having read the mixed reviews recently about the current A/AS levels (and results in the UK press) I would be interested to hear other viewpoints from other DT colleagues. Any other thoughts? David