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And why we don't teach like we're in school.
Many students' experience of the classroom is from school. Often the teacher runs the class from the front, imparting their words of wisdom, with all the students following along, doing the same thing at the same time. We've all been there, as teachers or students, and in theory it can work well when:
There's an argument that in academic subjects with small classes, a high degree of streaming (or setting) and a fixed curriculum, some of these assumptions are more likely to be true. Even then, we would question whether this is really the case.
Many teachers also find this style of teaching the easiest: if the teacher has taught the topic before, it needs minimal preparation, and a gifted communicator can often 'blag it' pretty well! (Don't get us wrong – we've been there, and understand the pressures teachers are under, with minimal preparation time and having to 'teach to the test'.)
We teach rapidly evolving topics, with courses that are new every year and practical projects where students build complex things. It's never possible for all students to be at the same point without making everyone go painfully slowly!
We teach topics more advanced than most senior schools, so we cater both for those just starting out and for those geeky kids (we can say that – we were those kids) who are up late at night teaching themselves the latest in programming and engineering.
Schools are under strong pressure to focus on the lowest-performing 10%, an admirable aim, but with 'traditional' teaching it leaves little time to stretch high-ability students. We have a LOT of high-ability students, and everyone needs stretching, novices and experts alike.
So what's the alternative? Highly differentiated teaching, with each student working at their own rate, often on very different 'strands' of the course material. This is much trickier to do: it needs far more curriculum material, allocating students to different groups, and continually going around all the students, helping each one progress as well as they can.
We have developed our own electronic learning system, based on teaching these kinds of courses since 2008, that lets all this happen quickly and effectively. Different streams of course material can be made available to different students at different times, and the tutors control what material is visible at any point.
When students first start, it can look as if they're 'just following an online course', but this is far from the case. As well as giving each student the best version of the course for them, it frees up the tutors enormously: after a short introduction to each lesson's key idea, they can spend almost all their time helping students with problems and answering the clever questions that Tech Campers always come up with. With small groups, this lets a novice 9-year-old make as much progress as a geeky 17-year-old.
Tutors are typically highly technically able undergraduates studying Engineering or Computer Science at some of the UK's leading universities. We give them a rigorous technical interview and also assess their communication skills. They are supported by managers, typically highly experienced educators, who monitor, train and give feedback to the tutors, and brief them every week on the educational needs of that week's campers, based on the information parents give us.
Every session in each course has interactive moments with the tutors, often at the start and/or end. Depending on the course, there are whole-group activities, group games, competitions, presentations, and discussions about what the campers have just learnt and what's coming next. These consolidate learning and keep up energy and enthusiasm, particularly where there's lots of individual work time.
In our experience, 99% of campers adapt really well to this teaching style, but they do need both the reading ability and the motivation to follow instructions by themselves for much of the class time, with the tutor coming around to help.
Our tutors are effectively splitting their time between 8 students, which is a much smaller group than most classrooms, but they can't spend much more than 1/8th of their time with any one student. This means the style often won't suit students whose reading or conversational English is significantly below their peers', or who for other reasons struggle to concentrate and motivate themselves on extended tasks like these.
If you think this applies to your child, we'd encourage you to talk to us before booking about whether this is the right experience for them. Tech Camp may also not suit your child if they frequently need 1:1 or small-group help in a typical school classroom.
So what does this look like in practice? Let's look at 3D Print Studio, which runs two levels in one class.
The week starts with a short getting-to-know-you session led by the tutors, and a presentation on the history of 3D printing and its technologies. The students are then shown how to use the learning platform, and start building their 3D printer. We're one of the few camps in the world where each camper has their own printer, and rarer still, where each camper takes their printer home at the end of the week.
All campers start at this same point, but once they have built and tested their printers, they design in Extrudle, our own design software, at one of two levels. The tutors help the campers at both levels, solving problems and tackling their own project ideas throughout the week. They'll regularly bring together the whole class or individual groups to share successes, discuss problems and celebrate some of the amazing designs the campers have been creating.
For first-time campers. Lesson by lesson they learn a new design tool and a new rule of designing for 3D printing, from their first keyring to toys that move straight off the printer, such as flexible creatures, hinged boxes and a crystal dragon.
For campers who have done one of our 3D printing courses before. After a speed run of the Designer tools, they design the way real products are made: snap-fit lids, gears and ratchets, threaded inserts and a battery table lamp.
Every lesson has extension projects, so fast learners can go further while others take their time and explore their own design ideas with the tutors' help. Some students may not have seen this style of teaching before, particularly if they're used to a teacher 'teaching from the front' all day at school, but they can achieve far more this way, and explore their own interests while learning valuable technology and engineering skills.