Explorations into bottom up strategies for the teaching of Computer Aided Design

When Computer-Aided design and manufacture became freely available to teachers and schools, the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) was commissioned by the Design and Technology Association (DATA professional association) to explore the efficacy of 3D modelling software as a tool for use in Design and Technology. A synopsis of the findings and their relevance to design and technology teaching was presented to the PATT 11(2001) The research examined learners' and teachers' attitudes to and capabilities with the new software made available free by Parametric Corporation to schools. The research highlighted the fundamental pedagogic challenge of this new technology in the classroom - particularly concerning the very different responses of teachers and learners to the new technologies. The paper reports comparison of paper and screen-based designing activities and notes that the potentially liberating effects for creation of screen-based objects is often counteracted by the difficulty encountered in modifying those objects. The opposite was the case with pencil and paper-based designing activities. Thus the '�combining' of these on and off screen activities is now commonplace commercially and in schools.