Goldsmiths - University of London

Context

Proof of Concept (d&t)

Project e-scape originated in a QCA project (2003-4) entitled 'Assessing Design Innovation'. In that project we developed an approach to assessment in design & technology that encouraged creativity and teamwork, and was based on a 6 hour structured coursework activity.

The approach has since been adopted by OCR as the 'innovation challenge' in their new Product Design Specification.

In the process of developing that system we became aware of the possibility that digital tools could be used to enhance the assessment activity. The DfES was keen to promote more effective and widespread integration of ICT within subject teaching and learning. Design and technology had shown that this integration was possible, and a number of studies (e.g. DfES 2003, OFSTED 2004) reflected increasing use and positive effects. DfES and QCA supported a phase 1 'proof of concept' for project e-scape (e-solutions for creative assessment in portfolio environments).

Brief

"QCA intends now to initiate the development of an innovative portfolio-based (or extended task) approach to assessing Design & Technology at GCSE. This will use digital technology extensively, both to capture the student's work and for grading purposes. The purpose of Phase I is to evaluate the feasibility of the approach..." (QCA Specification June 2004).

Phase 1 of the project (Jan 05-Jun 05) was - in several senses - a "proof of concept" phase, to explore the feasibility of the concept. The idea was that learners - working in classrooms, studios and workshops - could create real-time web-portfolios of their performance. These portfolios would not be reconstructed stories after the event (which most portfolios are), but would rather be the real-time 'trace-left-behind' by their normal work as it unfolded minute by minute. The phase 1 proof of concept operated at four levels; technological, pedagogic, manageable, and functional. Each of these four 'proof of concept' deliverables was explored in schools through a series of small-scale trials.

Methodology

We started our explorations with a range of 'peripheral' digital technologies - typically hand-held (e.g. digital pens/PDAs) - that we used to enhance the designing activity. Specifically, the activity we were seeking to enhance was the 6 hour 'light fantastic' activity developed for the Assessing Design Innovation project. This activity was capable of subdivision into a series of component parts, and - for the purposes of exploration with digital peripherals - we divided the activity into a series of 'work-parcels' - some focussed on supporting learners' designing and some on supporting teachers' assessment. We undertook a series of school-based trials between Jan and May 2005, with learners from year 6 to year 12. The second area of work concerned the technical systems that would need to be in place for the learners to be able to develop their solution to the task in a webspace - accessible to the learners themselves, and their teachers, and (ultimately) to examination board assessors.

Outcomes

We were able to show the potential that hand-held digital tools can bring to the creation of web-portfolios and thereby to the assessment of school-based coursework. We were able to demonstrate that technologically and pedagogically the approach was highly effective and moreover that it was manageable in schools. Because of the small-scale nature of these explorations we were not able to demonstrate the assessment functionality at this stage. However we had dome more than enough to persuade QCA and DfES to commissioned us to take the work forward to a working prototype system. This became e-scape phase 2.