Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Donnelly.

And by now I hope you know that I'm one of the teachers for Oak Academy, I teach design and technology.

This lesson is the second lesson in unit four and it's all about new technology, and how many of us have got this new technology, even on our phones, but are not using it to its full capacity.

Hopefully by the end of the lesson you will be more aware what things are up and coming and how technology is going to change your life for the future.

It's going to be really exciting.

And I'll see you in a minute when we get started.

So in this lesson there are three things that we're going to do.

The first thing is, we're going to focus on how technology is developing.

We're going to look at some of the impact of these developments.

And then as you learn more you should be able to form your own opinion about what it is that you've learnt.

As always with my lessons, you'll need some plain paper and a pencil.

And this lesson is mostly about research, a bit lots of tasks for you to research.

Once you found out the information jot it down on the paper, so you can recall what you've learnt.

As always there are some key words and if we can understand these at the start, then it will help you understand all that I say during the lesson.

So the first one is, artificial intelligence.

Now you might be able to work out what this means from the two words.

Artificial means that it's something that's not really there in compared to the intelligence that we have because we are here.

And intelligence is a measure of how clever something or somebody is.

When I say something because a computer wouldn't be regarded as a person.

So artificial intelligence it's getting a computer to try to act a little bit more like a human.

The next word is 3D printing.

Now you may have a 3D printer at school.

You may even be fortunate enough to have one at home.

And they work by building up layers of different material.

There were lots of different materials now that can be 3D printed and it will allow you to design something onscreen in a digital form, and then have that digital image made into something of three dimensions by layered materials.

And then the last term is, a virtual reality where you might have virtual reality goggles which allow you to interact and engage in a virtual 3D digital environment.

So three really exciting things all to do with technology which are developing at the moment.

Now before your time, me being a child of the eighties, every Sunday, I used to look forward to watching a programme on the television called Knight Rider.

There was a character called Michael Knights and he drove a car called Kitt.

Now Kitt was a form of artificial intelligence.

Michael Knight could talk to the car, it would ask questions.

It would give him a bit of a hard time if he was a bit grumpy, it was almost like a person but the car was the person that did the thinking.

So sometimes Michael Knight could even get into the car, set, relax, have a sleep and kit would take him where he needs to go.

It could even drive without anybody being in the car, really good fun programme to watch.

If you were to watch it now, you'd probably think, Oh it seems a little bit out of date, but if you're interested, I'm sure you'll be able to find a few episodes of Knight Rider on the internet where you could have a watch yourself.

So what I'd like you to do now, first simple little task based on what I've just said about Knight Rider.

I want you to have a think, how close do you think we are to having driverless vehicles on the road? So if you could imagine having a car or any vehicle for that matter drive on the road without a human controlling the car, how close do you think we are to that? The first thing to find out.

The second thing to find out is what do you think artificial intelligence is? So trying to find your own definition rather than just using the things that I had said already.

So pause the video, find out those two things, write them down on your sheet of paper and then come back in a second.

So what did you think? How close do you think we are to having a self-driving car? And a few questions that I've got now, what do you think the dangers are at self-driving cars? A while ago I used to watch top gear on the television and it was back in the day when Jeremy Clarkson used to present, he had a I think it was a BMW M5 and he absolutely lathered it round the track as fast as he possibly could.

And then there was some way that the car could copy the exact path and manoeuvres that Jeremy clients had made.

And he was absolutely terrified because he pushed the car to its limits, drove as fast as he possibly could but then handed over all that control to the car to copy exactly the route that he took.

So how do you think you'd feel getting in a driverless car knowing that you've not got control? What do you think the dangers are? The next thing, What safety features do you think we'd need in a driverless car? Because there wouldn't be a person actually driving the car.

So what things do you think would have to be in place to make it safer? Who would be responsible if there was a crash? It's a difficult question to find out but I'm sure you'll be able to find the answer.

The last thing, what do you think the good and bad points are, about having self-driving cars or buses? Now, I don't know if you can make it out but the little picture in the middle, it shows a tiny little cartoon of a red car with a sensor.

Now, the sensor you can imagine there's going to have to be lots of sensors on these cars to make sure that they can sense if there is an object or something in the road.

What might happen is if the sensor was to fail, who would be responsible? Would that always have to be a driver there to take over if the sensor didn't work? Last year there were over a hundred thousand car crashes on the road that was all related to driver error.

So if a driver doesn't look fiddles with a radio Sat Nav, wrongly touches their phone.

All of those things add up to over a hundred, I think it's 108,000 different crashes on the road just down to driver error.

Now, if we had a driverless car that was fully automated by computers, all those 108,000 accidents they might be stopped and prevented if there was a driverless car.

But I think it's important that you question this technology and try to find the answers to some of those questions, which upon this slide.

So I'll pause the video now, you can have a little think before moving on.

So the next thing to move on to is, artificial intelligence.

And this links to the car at the start called Kitt that could think and try to act a bit like a human.

And also to the way that a lot of robots are being developed at the moment.

There was a film I watched a while ago about a production line where the were not very many people on the workforce, but they did have a lots of robots.

When the workers changed shift to start in the day they used to Hi-Five with the robots, they chat to the robots and say I'm just going to get in a cup of tea, the robot would wave them goodbye.

And there were little things programmed into these robots to let the workers feel that they were alongside humans when rarely there were not many people in the factory floor, it was mostly robots.

There is a test that has been developed by a British scientist in the fifties called Alan Tubing.

And he tried to develop a way to catch out robots and computers to see if they could act like humans.

And the test is still used today and by all accounts and some of the research for this lesson no computer or robot has actually passed the test yet, but they are close.

And the way it works, imagine that I'm sat that I'm now looking straight forward at you, but to my left, there would be a computer on its own, and to my right there would be a person sat at a computer and there would be screens between the two of us.

So I wouldn't be able to see whether I had a computer to my left or a person and a computer to the right.

And what they would both do is answer questions that I ask.

So I might say, what's the weather like today? And then the response that would come on the screen in front of me, one of the responses would be from a human, and one of them would be from the computer.

And I would try to work out which response was from a computer or which one was from a person.

And this would go on for a series of time where that I'll ask multiple questions and to date the human in the middle has always been able to spot which person has been typing the answers on the computer as opposed to the computer doing itself.

And I think the little things that we say such as, Oh! it's looking a bit miserable today.

Some of those could be copied by the computer but it's the little things the human additions, the sentences, and the way that you phrase words that I think would catch you out.

So artificial intelligence is well on the way but it's not quite there yet.

So have a little think, read through some of the things on this slide and maybe just pause to think, how would you feel about working alongside robots and computers? But do you think you could have a chat with one rather than a person? It's almost a little bit like what I feel I'm doing now.

So I'm hoping that you watch the videos and respond as if I was there with you, but maybe even I'm a little bit like your version of artificial intelligence because I'm not actually there with you delivering the lesson, but in a way I hope you feel I am.

The task now, so do you use any form of digital help or artificial intelligence? So this lesson, most of the tasks are to do with you researching things.

So have a think to see if you use any digital help at the moment or any artificial intelligence.

And then next thing I want you to just to find out is how is Google artificial intelligence? So if you Google, Google AI how do you think that's hoping to transform lives at the moment? So big companies like Google are spending millions and lots of time trying to develop artificial intelligence.

And I want you to find out what it is they're doing and what they hope to achieve.

The next term, this is something that I spend quite a lot of my time doing at school.

I absolutely love 3D printing.

Years ago, when I first started being a design technology teacher most people would refer to me as a teacher that's art resistant materials.

You may have heard that term where I would make things out of wood, metal, and plastic.

And most of those materials, their stock form was either planks or sheets.

Now, I don't make much out of wood at all, most of the things that I make at school with pupils is actually 3D printed.

And I spend a long time teaching pupils to design on Autodesk or the CAD software and they will design something which is in 3D.

And then we will develop the product from 3D plastic polymer models that have been built up in layers using 3D printers.

So I'm quite fortunate that we've got a lot of 3D prints at my school in order for pupils to gain access to them a lot.

And whatever they design on the computer they can always 3D print it out of a plastic polymer called PLA and it gets built up in layers a bit like a glue gun but its going backwards and forwards to build the layers up.

And that way you can get a physical object that you can pick up and hold, that used to be on a 3D image on a screen.

So 3D printing is come on such a long way since I started doing it, maybe about eight years ago.

And now there were more things being 3D printed than just plastic copies of the Eiffel tower.

So anything that you designed on a screen can now be 3D printed.

And the reason I say Eiffel tower is a lot of people, when they first get a 3D printer they go to a website called think givers and the 3D print themselves an Eiffel tower.

But now where people can get bionic arms you can 3D print lots of different materials.

So plastics, metals, and even ceramics.

So most materials can be 3D printed and having have a huge impact on school.

The reason that there's a, a picture of a spaceman is that not long ago, I watched something on the news about a 3D printer that was on the space station, up in space and they needed a particular tool to fix all of their parts.

And the file was emailed from earth to the international space station, and then they had a 3D printer actually on the space station to 3D prints of the particular, it was like a spanner that they made to fix one of their parts.

Then how amazing that someone is designing on earth and emailing a file to space to then have a 3D object made.

Absolutely fantastic.

And 3D printing now is so much more affordable than it used to be.

It will be great to think that nearly every school has got one and if not, then maybe have a chat to teachers and say how they've come on and they're not now expensive as they used to be.

So pause the video, I would like you to try and to find out a little bit more about 3D printing and see if you can get as excited about it as I am.

So the first thing, can you 3D print houses and how has he made that have been 3D printed? The second thing find out, how many medical uses you can find out where 3D printing has been used? Or what do you think is next for 3D printing? Do you think one day every household will have one? Or do you think it may be that certain shops have them and you could go and get certain parts 3D printed there.

So instead of going getting a key cut do you think you're going to get something 3D printed? So pause the video, have a think and write down your thoughts on your sheets of paper please.

Now this next slide is all about virtual reality.

Now I've got limited experience of virtual reality.

I've had to go with putting my phone into a headset with some goggles I think I've been on a roller coaster.

I've been in on a carbide where the car was going particularly fast and you sort of feel that you're moving moving about within the vehicle.

Good form but not pushed to its limits of what's possible.

At the moment, I've seen people designing things using virtual reality and having special gloves.

So you can look with the goggles and then move parts around just like you would with computerate design software but instead of using a computer and a mouse you stand up in a room and you interact with the 3D image through the goggles and the gloves.

I worked to look to have a go, maybe you've had to go already or maybe you've even played games where you hold a sensor in each hand and then worn goggles and interacted in a 3D virtual world.

So the virtual reality that means that you're entering the world which is not really there through the digital eyes of the goggles with the help of sensors as well.

So really fascinating, I think it could be grateful if you could imagine being at school, wearing virtual reality goggles and designing things in design and technology lessons.

I think that pupils would love it.

The next term called AR, so augmented reality.

You might have had to go with this but you can get an app on your phone that works as an augmented reality lens and it will let you see a digital image appear on the screen of your phone.

So there's one that I have on my phone and if you hold it at a 10 pound notes, then the character on the note will sit up and start talking to you.

You can get augmented reality displays where you could get a a tool, maybe like a soldier name and you could make a video of using this soldier name but then whenever people holds that phone ask soldier name, it will show the video that's been made and the code is embedded on the image.

And then that image is recognised through the app on your phone.

The picture of the building which you can see on the screen here.

That's not really there, it's just there as a digital image.

So if you've ever had to go with an app on your phone where you put funny little ears on your head or put a rabbit's nose on, that's augmented reality because it's not really there, but you can see it through the digital lens on the phone or certain glasses.

So augmented reality fascinating and something that's been developed.

And I know that you can learn to learn, to be a mechanic.

I saw a video once where someone was actually fixing an engine using augmented reality and virtual reality together rather than the car be in there and all the parts.

I think it could be a great way to practise being a doctor for instance where you might not actually have a real patient there but with these two different types of reality it would be as if they were there.

And you could practise in a safe environment.

Pause the video now, and you can guess is your next thing to find out.

So think for a moment how could you have benefited from virtual reality and augmented reality over the last year? So now you knew a little bit more about these two technologies.

Think how could you have benefited from these, could have made online lessons a little bit more fun? Could you have felt that you've been out of the house or a little bit more? So rather than me telling you more of my thoughts I'd like you to research yourself and write down some of those things on a sheets of paper.

Then let's think so spend five minutes with the research and then I'd like you to make a list.

On how could these be developed? Then the day-to-day activities.

So if you could do that and write down on a sheet of paper, what you think.

So we're coming towards the end of the lesson now and you will probably agree that new technology is amazing.

I would like you to pause the video to look at these photos and just spend a minute just having a think about how fascinating it is.

I think the biggest point that I've tried to make and come across with is that as well as our physical world, that we're all part of, there is a digital world that has been developed out there that humans can interact with.

So it was almost like there were two, two worlds a digital world, and then a physical real world.

And the two are becoming closer together so that we actually use a digital world amongst our everyday life.

After this slide there is a task and I've had to just refilm this bit again cause I got so excited.

I even told you all the questions and answers on the task during the filming of the slide.

So I'll go again to just tell you a little bit to leave you intrigued, to have a look yourself.

So I think it's important that you understand and have an awareness of two fascinating companies that are I think leading the way in technological developments.

So one of them is Tesla and you will have heard of the maybe the man Elon Musk associated with Tesla and then Sir, Richard Branson for Virgin.

There are two things that I'm interested in that these companies are spending an awful lot of time and money researching and developing.

One of them is related to space travel and the other is land travel.

So both companies, they're almost like having a battle who can get there first with technological developments in Land and space travel.

What I want you to think though, is, is it all good? Do you think that this idea of getting places as fast as possible is the way? Do you think that it will speed up our lives even more? Do you think that eventually people will want to break from digital devices and maybe just sit down have a cup of coffee and a chat with someone face-to-face or read a good book.

So what do you think, do you think it's all good? Do you think we should be pushing as fast as we can? Or do you think we might need to slow it down a bit? What you have a think , this is your own opinion.

Now onto the task.

So this task is the one that I was excited about and I went and told you the answers on the previous slide.

So I will hold back.

All you've got to do now is research the two companies so Tesla and Virgin and then spend five minutes trying to work out what the developments are with Tesla and Virgin related to travel on land and in space.

And it's not just as simple as cars, that's a clue.

So have a look, see what you think and write down the answers on a sheet of paper.

And now we're back to our keywords.

So I hope you've learned lots of this lesson, I hope you found out as much as you can with the different tasks, and you've made some good notes on the paper to refer back to.

So the first term was artificial intelligence and this was all about trying to get computers and machines to act and think a little bit more like a human.

The next term was 3D printing.

And that was all about how to do something called additive manufacture where layers are built up to build a 3D object.

And it's called additive manufacture because you're building up the layers to add material.

Whereas subtractive manufacture that would be if you got a piece of wood and you remove parts of the wood to make a shape.

So additive manufacture is when the material is added and subtracted manufacturer, maybe the more Common one at the moment that's when material is taken away.

And then the last term was virtual reality where we know that there is a digital world out there and we can step inside using special goggles and sensors.

So hope you found this as exciting as I have to make the lesson and I'll see you in the next one.