TD&T127 Podcast and personal update

Its been a while since its just been me on there, but this week I'm giving an update on what's been happening, some additions to the podcast and plans for the future.

Episode transcript

Mentioned in this episode

Redesigning D&T project:

18 contentious questions

Ciaran Ellis posted a thought-provoking question on LinkedIn recently: Do design decisions involve value judgements?

What do you think? Join the conversation over on LinkedIn and let us know what you think. 

Transcript

It's been a while since I've given an update about the podcast and what I'm doing with the podcast and in terms of work, so I've been given a little bit of a kick at the backside by
Charlotte Marshall, who does the podcast promotion to get on with recording a
podcast. So here I am this morning giving you an update on ahat I've been doing. It's all been a bit quiet and some of the directions that I'm going to take the podcast in. From here and kind of reaching out for your thoughts and views and opinions as
normal. 

So it's been a bit of a quiet year on the podcast for a couple of
main reasons. I've had some significant changes in personal circumstances
and people who know me will know what I mean when I say that and I want to say
first of all, thank you very much for their support. This year and their ongoing support and friendship and love. And that means a huge. But secondly, I've had a major project which I can't talk about, which is really
difficult for me because normally I'm very open about the work I'm doing, but I'm under contract. On a project at the
moment that we had hoped would be finished and published by now, I think it's
going to be really useful for design and technology teachers, not just in
England but beyond. And we're hoping that will be out in 2024 when I will be doing some more
podcasting about that and I'm really excited about that. It's been intellectually challenging for me. I think it's really made me think some things differently and confirmed some of my views
about design and technology. So I think when that comes out, that would be a great thing to have. Them debate about a game. People who know me
really well will know the code that I'm speaking in and know what I'm talking
about. As I said, it's not through choice that I'm not saying anymore, but I am under contract and at
the moment the contract says that I can't talk about it publicly. So there you go. Being a bit of an enigma.  

So in terms of other
things that have been going on, it's not that I've been
not doing very much. It's just that I've not been doing things on the podcast. I've had loads of conversations with D&T teachers, which
came out over the summer and and the podcast has now hit 35,000 downloads,
which has been really
exciting. And it's just so lovely to know that there are people out there that
are finding. Interesting. And I love talking to different people about
design and technology and having them on. So to that end, I have been talking about D&T quite a lot
in England. 

There's been quite a few things going on around design and
technology and trying to lobby governments about the decline in numbers in
design and technology, people will know that the design and technology
association have been working really
hard on this and and other people have been coming up with different
initiatives. And so that's led to and and
stimulated a lot of conversation which has been very exciting and I've been very privileged to be involved in some of that and.
And I'm sure you can imagine that as
usual, I've been given quite a different
perspective. I'm going to record a podcast where I'm sharing my perspective, so it's all open and transparent. I like to do that as people know,
so I'll be out as well in a couple of days, maybe weeks
time I'm not quite sure just yet. So that that's been happening and I am planning a series of episodes around shaping the
design and technology curriculum that have been based on those conversations. So I've got some people lined up for that podcast series. Which
draws on some of those national conversations, gets people sharing publicly
their views about design and technology, and and what needs to be done, if
anything. And
there are there are different solutions and there are different
thoughts. So that's going to be really exciting. I expect that to be coming out sometime in November, December. At the moment I
think I've got about 14 episodes planned. I've invited some people who've come back and said yes, great other people. I'm still gonna wait to have some conversations with. So that's going to be evolving about who's going to be
involved in that. T 

he other big thing that I've got coming up is PATT40, which is the pupils's attitude towards technology 40th Conference, which is being
chaired by the lovely Matt McLean up at Liverpool John Moores. And the lovely
Sarah Davies has been the editor in chief for the publication of all the
papers. I think there's about 76 papers.
So that's a conference that's happening up in
Liverpool. I am. I know the bookings closed on the 22nd of October. I'm going to hopefully get this one out on the 17th that's tomorrow. So this is a bit of a lastminute.com episode. But do follow
people on social media to keep up to date with that, the papers will be
published afterwards, and that's going to be international research about design and
technology in a very, very broad range of
perspectives. It's really exciting.  

I love it as a
conference. It's the first one I've been to face to face for a few years so. Looking forward to catching up with old friends and
meeting new friends, and I know quite a few D&T teachers from England will
be going along to that, so that's something else that I've. Been working on. Excuse me. As
well, over the last few months and and I've now been working with Sarah to get some of the copy editing
done for that publication. 

The other
thing that's been bubbling
along is the redesigning D&T project. And I've got a fantastic team that are actually leading on that now. So I've got Amanda. Mason, Ciaran Ellis and Andrew Halliwell, we've got a paper at the pack conference talking about where we've got to with that. I've just had ethical approval for the next part of the project.
So we're going to be recording a podcast where we can get people
involved in the next stage, which is debating our contentious questions. I'll put some links in the show notes to the previous episodes so you
can kind of catch up and be ready for. That I'm going to really encourage people. So when I say people, I'm being very specific in this one, it's design and technology teachers in England because it is
around taking the national curriculum in England and thinking about how do
we design A curriculum for primary and secondary schools based around
that. So it's not a one-size-fits-all, but it's a design. Project around that that
national curricula. And the Department for Education are interested. I've got a meeting in my diary with them in November. They want
to find out how the projects going and hear what teachers are saying. So I'll be reporting on that. But yeah. So look out for that and we'll be putting links up soon to that and putting a podcast to
get people involved in. 

That so
that's. Kind of like a couple of big things. So they've been quite on the
podcast. I've been pretty
busy in other areas and I've got a book proposal in. Which if you are a patron and that means you financially support the
podcast. You'll have already
heard. And that's kind of like a nice little lead
into the next bit is some of you might have seen on social media a post last
week where I am going to be doing some premium content on the podcast Now what
that means is. And why I'm doing it? Why am I doing it? I do this one first
of all, so I try and run the podcast on a not for loss basis. That
means I don't make any money from doing it. I don't advertise on it. I have had offers of sponsorship at
the moment I've said no, but it does cost. It costs me about $12.00 a month to host the podcast. I
then pay £8.00 a month for transcriptions, and then I also pay. I can't remember. Now I've cancelled the subscription the
for the recording software. If I'm doing interviews cause it's a much better quality that's on Riverside. So All in all, it can cost me about £25.00 a month to run the
podcast and I try and pay for that out of my consultancy money. But due to the
personal circumstances which I've hinted. Beginning things are not quite as comfortable as they were, so I am having to look at how I
can continue to do the podcast and make as much of it as free as possible, but actually
start to cover the cost of the podcast. So there will be coming out. I think my plan at
the moment is that I'll still do one a week or one approximately a week. That is 3 and one a week, approximately a week and that will be part of the premium content and that's going to run at about $4.00 a month. If you are a patron. And you are
contributing $3 a month £3.00 a month and you'll get the content free through that. You don't have to pay extra for the premium content. So it's been a really
difficult decision to do. I do like to make as much of my stuff freely available
with 120 episodes. I have kind of got to be realistic about how much I. Keep putting out. For
free and I do do consultancy and work with a whole range of different organisations, but a lot of that money I do through the university
and and a small proportion of that comes to me. But I have got to cover the cost and I hope people understand that at 25.
Around a month, it's not something that's sustainable if I'm not doing it and not for loss. And I say deliberately and
not for loss because I'm not looking to make profit on the podcast. I try and give
money away to support different organizations as I go along. If I do ever get
into that position
so that that's what's happening. So give me feedback, let me know what you think. I'm happy to hear thoughts on what that premium content should
be. It's likely that some of the major project that I was talking about earlier
in the this episode will be part of that premium content, but again, not all of
it because I do want to be inclusive and that's that's one of the reasons why I do the transcriptions as well,
because not everybody can hear and access the podcast through listening. And so by making it written, it means that more people can access.
So yeah, it's not been an easy decision, but it's a pragmatic decision for now. 

And then
finally, I am thinking about and being actively encouraged to apply for
professor this year, and I say actively encouraged by friends and colleagues.
You know, the work I do, I applied for associate Prof and talked about it on
the podcast a couple of years ago and. I mention it here because as part of the
application it's collecting evidence about the impact that my work has. And
and so if there is anything that you think that you've used of my work or
conversations with me that's had an impact on how you do design the technology
then please do drop me an e-mail that's links in the show notes to my contact
details that would really help me I'm I'm applying for professor as I said last time for a number of
reasons. It gives credibility for the subject to have professors. They are
rather few and far between in England. I'm not saying that I'm any better than anybody else who might apply, but I know
that titles do help. Another very practical reason is, is I quite fancy another
fancy title. I'm I'm an associate Prof and you only put that at the end of your
name. Is Doctor Alison Hardy associate Prof whereas? Off bit goes at the front, so I feel like I can tick that
box on my car insurance which might make a difference. You never know. But
yeah, I. So if you feel that you can write me a testimonial that be
absolutely fab. If not not to
worry, but I'll keep you updated about how the progress is going on that
application. These things do take quite a long time. 

Anyway, thanks
for listening. I just wanted to give that update on where I'm going with the podcast, what's been going on, why things have been a little bit quiet, why
I'm making some decisions about premium content. And some of
the other projects, please do look out for updates about the redesigning DNT
project. As I said, the Department for Education have put a meeting in my diary
for November. They want to hear about it. They're really interested because it's gonna be input from practising design and technology teachers, and it's being led now by these three fantastic teachers that I'm working with. I love working with. I'm Andy, Kieran and Andrew. They really keep me
on my toes and so do get involved. Do think about
writing, drawing, recording a a voice audio for what you think about any of
these contentious questions as usual. Thanks for listening and come back to me if you've got any thoughts or feedback.