Planning

Planning is Important



 * 1) Effective planning for practice should ensure we are efficient at resource management, that is the management of materials, time, money and people.
 * 2) Planning for practice can be thought of as the organising practice of technological practice.
 * 3) By using effective planning techniques/tools we become informed and can respond to all milestones in our technological practice.
 * 4) A plan can play a vital role in helping to avoid mistakes or recognize hidden opportunities.
 * 5) A plan helps to clarify, focus, and research your project's development.
 * 6) A plan offers a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured and reviewed.

Supporting Learning Environment
To support students to undertake planning for practice teachers could:
 * 1) ensure that there is a brief against which planning to develop an outcome can occur
 * 2) support students to critically analyse a range of planning tools that have been used in past practice
 * 3) support students to select planning tools that will provide appropriate support for their practice and efficient recording of why key planning decisions were made
 * 4) support students to ensure appropriate resources are available (stakeholder/s, materials, components, software, equipment, tools and/or hardware) suitable for their outcome
 * 5) support students to use selected tools to manage resources to ensure completion of an outcome(s)

Focus students on creating ‘fertile’ questions that allow a **//critical//** analysis to be undertaken. ||  || Model this with a case study of someone else’s technological practice, including their use of planning tools. Start with a past/present student’s work or Techlink student showcase ([|www.techlink.org.nz/student-showcase/]). What planning practices did/might they have been used? Then move onto Techlink classroom practice case studies ([|www.techlink.org.nz/Case-studies/Classroom-practice/index.htm]), and then use a real world technological practice case study. Use these points as a class to create focussed questions in which to approach the critical analysis of a case study... Students add to this list of foci questions. ||  || Students critically evaluate their own practice focusing on such things as: Students discuss pros and cons of each and determine their effectiveness in informing ongoing practice. Students undertake feasibility studies on these issues and determine the likely technological practice and key stages required to develop an outcome that addresses the issue. ||  || Refer to //Effective Literacy strategies book for Secondary Schools//. ||  || What are the advantages / disadvantages of these tools? When would you use each tool? ||  ||
 * **Focused Learning ** || **Teaching Strategy ** || **Explanation ** || **<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Modification/Reflection ** ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Critically analyse own and others use of planning tools to inform the selection of planning tools best suited for their use to plan and monitor progress and record reasons for planning decisions || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">What does //critical analysis// mean? || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Students develop questions that enable them to critically analyse a technological outcome (or a photo of an outcome) in regard to a specific functions/attributes (e.g. ergonomics, fitness for purpose).
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Now move to critical analysis of planning practices.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">what overall planning and project management tools were use?
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">how did these tools ensure fitness for purpose of their(own) outcome?
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">what strategies were used to gain access to stakeholder feedback
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">what resource management techniques were used and how were these planned for.
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Students critically analyse own past planning and organisational practice. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">(Above activity ideally done first)
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">their overall planning and project management
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">how they ensure that their outcome would be fit for purpose
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">strategies they used for gaining access to stakeholder feedback
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">resource management techniques used and how this was planned for. ||  ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Use planning tools to establish and review keys tasks, identify and manage all resources, and to determine and guide actions to ensure completion of an outcome || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Use of physical and virtual (modelling) planning tools. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Students encouraged to use a range of different physical and/or virtual planning tools.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">What issues were identified in their use?
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">How can these risks minimised/eliminated to ensure the successful completion of their outcome
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Were there better tools that could have been used at different stages within the practice? ||  ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Identify the strengths and weaknesses of different planning tools. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Focus on answering questions such as:
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">what is the planning tool and how is it best used?
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">what is the likely information the planning tool will elicit when used in practice?
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">what key stage within practice is this planning tool most suited to in terms of providing informed projections
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">what impact is the information gained through the use of this tool likely to have on future practice
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">how much Iteration is necessary between the planning tool and the ongoing development of the technological outcome to ensure the outcome(s) developed is fit for purpose? ||  ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Use planning tools to record initial plans and ongoing revisions in ways which provide reasons for planning decisions made || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Explore contexts and issues. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Provide students with a variety of scenarios (contexts) which they can critically evaluate to identify issues that provide opportunity for the undertaking of technological practice.
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Literacy development – using linking words to provide justifications. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Encourage students to use linking language when justifying aspects of their planning practice. Such words could include:
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">as a result of...
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">because...
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">therefore ...
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Model justifications. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Students to formulate ‘model justifications’ (explanations) that draw off each students previous planning decisions ||   ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Explore the use of a range of evaluative tools. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Evaluation tools could include:
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">PMI
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">CAMPER (consequences, actions, minify /modify/magnify, put into another use, eliminate, reverse)
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">SWOT/SWOB analysis
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">What if questions
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ryan’s thinkers keys
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Evaluating dice – with key questions
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Question Box – with key questions (colour code for different levels) see Blooms taxonomy.
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Justifying the management of resources in terms of the physical and social environment in which they are used. || <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Students to critically evaluate:
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">others practice (case study and/or observation of a practicing technologists practice) to determine how well they managed resources within the physical and environmental location in which they were used.
 * <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">own past practice to determine how well they managed resources within the physical and environmental location in which they used. ||  ||