Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT)

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

STRATEGY Since 2000, the i~design project has been successful in engaging with key stakeholders from designers to policymakers and industry. The time is now right to see inclusive design practice embedded in education. The i~design project has teamed up with the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University to allow integration with leading practice on creative thinking, as well as practical expertise on working in schools. The key strategic direction of this project is to enable the teachers, seen as the gatekeepers to initiating and sustaining change in schools, to reach pupils through the provision of high quality resources. This gives a highly leverage outcome for the effort put in by the project and will enable many more pupils to be reached than if the project team only worked directly with pupils. The baseline target is to reach 10,000 new Key Stage 3 pupils per annum through the embedding of inclusive design approaches in the curriculum of schools. DIRECT BENEFICIARIES: The aim is to bring about a substantive and sustainable change in the way design is taught. As such it engages with a section of the population who have the greatest potential to bring about long-term change towards a more inclusive society. The following categories of stakeholders will be directly benefit from the project: 1. Teachers, policy makers and educators 2. Pupils and Parents 3. Inclusive Design Researchers LONG-TERM BENEFICIARIES: The implications of inclusive design will have an impact on how we design everyday things, whether they are products, services or even organisational structures. These can either be designed inclusively or not. This project aims to 'include' pupils as part of this process, to think and design inclusively, to enable them to design our tomorrow to be a more inclusive one, as designers and as consumers of this future world. Their awareness and skills are key to bring about this change and bring the benefits to society as a whole. APPROACH This project has 4 key elements that bring about the desired impact. These are: 1. The development of high quality 'standalone' resources that enable teachers to embed inclusive design in their core curriculum work at Key Stage 3. 2. Assisting the 6 partner schools to embed the resources into their normal teaching. This will mean that around 1800 (assuming a 10 form entry) new KS3 pupils will be reached per annum. 3. Promote the resources more widely through the following routes: - DATA with its 6,000 members, their publications and annual conference with the target of signing up a minimum of 100 teachers who are interested in the resources. Assuming a conversion rate of 10% to 30% this will reach an additional 3,000 to 9,000 pupils per annum. - Special training sessions will also be conducted for the Design & Technology initial teacher education programme at Cambridge University, which trains 20 D&T teachers annually. This also gives access to a further 25 schools which means that if 30% of schools adopt DOT, then potentially another 2,500 pupils per annum will be reached. - The RSA hope to promote the work through their network of 300 schools that are part of the Opening Minds initiative. - The Design Council will help promote the resources through their various channels. In addition they will consider adding the inclusive design challenge to their Design School Challenges initiative. - The team also has a good relationship with Teaching Resources based at Middlesex University who publish a free newspaper that is sent to every Design and Technology school department, 3 times a year. Through these various initiatives the project believes that it can attain the target of reaching of 10,000 new KS3 pupils per annum empowering teachers. 4. The resources will be promoted and made available via a web-site that gives the potential for more schools to use the resources thus extending the reach further beyond the end of the project.