Students at Braes High School have been designing websites for ...

Students at Braes High School have been designing websites for local businesses using industry-standard Adobe curriculum Students from a wide variety of backgrounds have pulled together as a real ‘workplace’ team to reap the benefits of the Adobe Digital Design Course at Braes High School.

Real world motivation

“The increase in some of the pupils’ confidence levels was amazing. This is such a motivational course. You are doing something where it is really easy to show real world examples where companies are using the products. The environment at school can seem a bit constrained, but then you start to work with external clients, from the concept, to keeping in touch with them as the project progresses.

Computing teacher Alasdair Smith says the first course has proved highly motivational and taught the students, a 19-strong group of 16-18-year-olds, a much wider range of skills than simply the ICT elements of the course.

“We modelled how we would interview clients, how we would ascertain their needs and explain that there would have to be a contract in the real world. They looked at how they would control the project. A lot of pupils wanted to get on and get the website designed, not plan it. So we let them go and then asked them what if the client didn’t want it, how are you going to get them to pay for it? We used web space for forward planning and it was nice to see the students thinking ahead. It really went so well. A few were a bit hesitant at first, but the class really gelled as a unit. It was like a big team.

“Many of our staff thought we would only be taking pupils that had previous experience of ICT but we made it clear that it was open to anyone with a keen interest in website design. We had a very rich tapestry of skills in the class but that was far from being a bad thing.

“We had arty people and those into ICT. Each had their own skills. Once we got into it they started to share skills with each other. If one member of the class had difficulty we would encourage other pupils to support them. In a few cases pupils came up with ideas that even I thought ‘that’s a great way to do that’,” said

“For example, we had one particular girl, an excellent designer, but not great in coding. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it but she wasn’t too keen to work with the code, a pre-conceived notion that it was boys’ stuff. But when others were helping and she was helping them with the design part, there was cross-fertilisation. She was quite shy, and she really came out of herself. At the beginning she was loathed to give an opinion, such as ‘that’s a good website, that’s a bad one’. But as the course went on she really started to join in.

Mr Smith.

Students ran classes providing tutorials to other students and worked on websites for businesses in their community giving the course a ‘real-life’ feel. The Adobe Digital Design course has been piloted with 350 students in 11 schools and colleges across Scotland following professional development workshops led by an Adobe trainer from the US headquarters of Adobe. The course has now been mapped onto units in the Scottish Qualification Authority’s award structure – the National Progression Award in Web Design Fundamentals – so that schools and colleges can benefit from learning opportunities that are related to the world of work.

Practical skills for real jobs

“All students have developed practical IT skills in the use of a variety of digital equipment including DV and still cameras and scanners. They have learned to optimise content for different audiences and delivery requirements, for example, video for the web, and to take into account wider considerations of usability and intellectual property. Students have learned to value the contribution individuals can make to group projects, and to recognise and learn from those with 

work is complete. Then their work can be uploaded to any web server and web space. “Then it is ready to go. All links are ready - it is a virtual test environment,” he added.

Great for staff and students

“This is a great ‘subject’ to teach. Pupils can see staff enjoying it. It is made to split into three units but I would recommend running the whole course. The possibility for integration of the subjects across a year is fantastic. So many things develop with the pupils,” said Mr Smith. Now work is under way to create an industry qualification for the course as well as its SQA accreditation.

In Brief

Through the Adobe Digital Design Course, students are encouraged to use ICT to communicate their ideas to their classmates, both during individual and group work. Students learn to plan, design and implement websites and multimedia elements to effectively communicate their ideas using ICT, often acting in the role of client or designer. Teaching is via a series of small digital projects using the Adobe suite of software products (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash). Students are encouraged to share knowledge with their classmates, e.g. with each given the opportunity to present tutorial sessions, demonstrating a feature of the package or a method of achieving a particular result which they have discovered themselves. Students work closely together via a dedicated server workspace to help each other test, evaluate and improve upon their digital work. Students also use this space to further each other’s learning by contributing to an online glossary and by submitting useful web links and information. Experiments have also been conducted where students have completed written revision homework collaboratively online.

strengths in particular areas. Developing various digital ‘products’ has provided pupils with a real sense of achievement,” said Mr Smith. “The way the course is structured is helpful. It is interrelated and you can see it being used in the real world. Open any IT magazine and you will see Dreamweaver mentioned. The students for web design have all heard of Dreamweaver and Adobe Acrobat reader is everywhere. They are already familiar with the brand names and products, Flash, for example, is used in games on the web. They can see there are jobs available.

“The course is highly motivational, shown by the obvious effort students have put in to their work. Sharing expertise has helped develop individual confidence and taught students the importance of being an active and reliable team member. A number of students have used skills learned in class to contribute and become more widely involved in the school community, for example helping to re-develop the school website, producing a prototype 360-degree tour of school facilities for P7 information visits and developing promotional material for school events.” Alasdair Smith

Peer review and skills sharing

“Teacher led demos have their place but in the real world it is very much a case of sharing skills with other colleagues. We all have different ways of sharing skills and experience and this course certainly gave pupils a taste of that. Pupils were encouraged to share their skills and they were involved in testing each others ideas,” he added. Mr Smith said students’ enthusiasm for the course has spread quickly around the school with this year’s programme, starting on June 1st, fully subscribed. He is already making improvements for next year. He has plans for every pupil to have a virtual web directory which only class members can access until 

BRAES HIGH SCHOOL Braes High School is part of the Schools of Ambition project and Mr Smith is the acting principal teacher for the project. Already the school is working with Microsoft on its internal ICT and digital systems to enable it to access the Scottish GLOW Project as soon as it is on line. Other digital and ICT developments include digital media around the school showing the morning assembly and other events.

One of a series of stories commissioned through the DIVA (Digital Media and ICT Vendor Alliance) Programme. DIVA is the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s flagship initiative to collaborate with industry, education and employers on updating and expanding the Scottish ICT and digital media curriculum and awards. Find out more at www.sqa.org.uk/diva

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