Richard Harris saw how South Korea taught technology. Suddenly, a light switched on his mind and changed his whole approach to education technology.
The best, most effective method of teaching anyone is to get the students involved in the subject as far as possible. The winner of our Education Technology Medal for 2024 has certainly arrived at novel ways of involving his students in Design and Technology.
He is Richard Harris, Head of the Art and Design Faculty at Raynes Park High School in London. Within that role, he teaches Design and Technology GCSE, Art, Design BTEC, and Key Stage 3 Design.
Switching on
A good example of Richard's approach to using tech in the classroom is how he used Augmented Reality (AR). As Richard tells it, "[I] first came across that when I saw students playing a Pokémon game, and they were using their phones to catch Pokémon. I thought, 'This is great. Kids do interact well with the phone. How can I bring that into a lesson? I found quite a few companies already create interactive features for students. And one of the ones I went for was a Starbucks cup."
The idea is that the student will design the cup as a flat, two-dimensional image. The pupil can then hover their phone over the design, and an app will turn that flat, two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional virtual cup.
Richard said, "The kids are shocked because their drawing suddenly comes alive. They can almost grab it, feel it." They took this one step further by attempting to produce a 3D car design, but that was not as successful.
Some Raspberry Pi, please
In another example, Richard persuaded the school to let him use a stock of old Raspberry Pi 3Bs.
"I got the kids to play around with them, and we started making retro arcades. It just happened that the GCSE theme that year was 'playing games.' One student made a double joystick in the Street Fighter 2 theme. It was very nice, with classic buttons. Someone made a mini arcade, and another student went down the programming route. They wanted that digital feel, with it lit up. Their aesthetics really did ring true with that retro feel.
These were actual products they made. So, they made an arcade unit with the Raspberry Pi to set them up."
Early career in Korea
Richard has found highly innovative ways of bringing technology into the classroom or taking his pupils to the technology. All of this grew out of seeing what was possible when he worked for four years (between 2014 and 2018) as a teacher in the Republic of Korea, where the approach to using technology in schools is markedly different.
A fascination for technology made him one of life’s early adopters of new gadgets. He described installing a Windows operating system on an old Orange phone when Windows Phone first appeared.
He said, "I noticed that to get the students engaged, Samsung and LG, both Korean companies, had a lot of workshops, and they had a lot of kit in the schools or sent the kids to use the technology."
Naturally, he was mightily impressed by the 3D resin printers. If the school could not get access, they would link with a company that might have a prototype in the area and allow the students to engage with it. I thought, 'Okay, I'm going to use this recipe and bring it back to England.'
Stemettes
After contacting Dyson and the Design Museum (who were both highly helpful) for help getting technology into Richard's classroom, he decided it would be good to contact Stemettes. This is a social enterprise aimed at encouraging girls and young women to take up STEM as a career. The organisation sent out a box set containing a weekly task, one of which was to engage with artificial intelligence. It might involve interacting with an AI speaker, selecting and typing keywords, or involving the students in using new technology.
Raynes Park was one of the few schools selected by Stemettes to use a new package with them. The workshops were done as an after-school club. Numbers were limited, but the effect was noticeable. The girls that took part all went on to do STEM A-Levels.
Later, our school was one of the only schools selected by Stemettes to use a new package with them. We turned this one into an after-school club. So that was quite nice. Again, it was limited numbers, but the girls that had the opportunity have all gone on to do STEM A-levels, so the effect was evident, and it was the result the school wanted.
Gathering the Magic
Wizards of the Coast is a company owned by Hasbro. They have a game called, 'Magic: The Gathering.' To use this to bring his students into the technology, Richard got his students to design a Magic: The Gathering card using Photoshop and Illustrator. Next, he contacted several schools to suggest they cooperate on a card game tournament. The students can design their cards and play the game. The creator of the best design has their work printed professionally and used as a card in the tournament, which was the ultimate 'wow' factor for the children.
To develop the project, Richard contacted some of his former colleagues - international teachers he knew in Korea, now following their careers elsewhere in the world in places like Dubai and China. The schools grouped to organise a global competition.
The games were played online until it came to the final. For that, the contestants were put on a stage, with a visualiser placed above the cards being played so the audience could follow the game in real time. That has worked so well that Hasbro now sends out their free card packs to the school.
Warhammer
Another helpful gaming company was Warhammer, which agreed to send kits to the school. Some students were interested in battling with the game, which helped turn Warhammer into another good path to thinking about and using technology. He would challenge students by asking them, 'Why don't you make your scene ready? Why don't you 3D print? Why don't you try different techniques in painting?'
The idea was to get them using different equipment and not be scared to develop various methods, for example, cutting up foam, painting it with plaster of paris, building up layers of painted washes and dusting it with baking powder to make a snowy mountain scene. Others painted models to create armies or scenes with terrain. They would use MDF and paint it with Warhammer paints to make the fake wood look like real metal. They used fine arts air guns, 3D printing and laser cutters to make scenery and design characters.
One student used a laser cutter to create a complex multi-terrain. It was so impressive that the Design and Technology Association magazine will feature the students, and it will be shown at other schools. Richard thinks the student does have copyright.
The best were chosen through a school competition, and the results were photographed and sent to the Warhammer team, who linked Raynes Park School with a local branch in Kingston. They send kits to the school with tasks such as - paint five models, create a scenery, make your own model, adapt a model.
One thing led to another, and Warhammer eventually asked Richard to give a presentation at that year's Warhammer Festival.
"I created some slides, did a couple of recordings, I made the PowerPoints and showed some of the models. But before I could get out there, I had Covid." All Richard could do was share his slides. The exercise coaxed his students into producing work of such a high standard that it looked like products that could be bought off the shelf.
Richard's emphasis on a more hands-on approach to using technology in the classroom has produced results in two areas. Grades have improved in the school, from 46% 9 to 4 (A to C as it used to be) to 100% last year. Just as significant is that this approach convinces children that they, too, could work in the technology field and make a career in it.
Reward
One of Richard's students nominated him for an award based on how he brought technology and new ways of doing things into the classroom and motivated his students to take it up. At least, that is what the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) told him when they called him up and invited him to make a presentation about his achievements at Raynes Park High School. Richard thought it was a fake call, and he took some persuading it was genuine
He was coached by an actor from TV's Horrible Histories to help prepare, who told him, "Just be yourself. Just go up there; they ask you questions, and you give them advice." The audience was young game designers and the game companies themselves.
Richard is a natural performer; he brings a contagious enthusiasm to his topic. Something that went down so well BAFTA asked him to do some game design workshops for would-be designers at the Cheltenham Book Festival.
They say, 'Travel broadens the mind.' For Richard Harris, it changed how he thought about bringing technology into the classroom. He takes every chance to evangelise on the subject, and being a natural performer, he is persuasive, not least because his methods have produced the results that matter - teaching children and young people what can be done with technology, both for their careers and their minds.
Share your thoughts!
What are your thoughts on using Augmented Reality (AR) in the classroom? Have you seen it used effectively in other subjects?