A key aim for us at BSD is to help teachers bring real world applicable technology projects into their classrooms. Not only does this help prepare students for future life, but, importantly, it helps them understand the relevance of what they are learning. By building something real that can be shared with the outside world, students learn new skills and see the impact those skills can have. This increases engagement, inspires creativity and develops student ownership.

The ‘real world’ can be brought into the classroom in a number of different ways, but one highly effective option is to make connections with ‘real world clients’. Through this approach, students are given a brief and go through the design thinking process to fulfil the clients’ requirements. A great example of this can be seen at Riverside School, Ahmedabad, India where the students complete client projects across all grades.

This video shows one of these projects in action and highlights the impact this style of learning can have on both subject knowledge and ‘softer’ skills, such as collaboration, problem solving and giving and receiving feedback.

If you have brought real world clients into your classroom, we’d love to hear from you! Please share your stories with us….