Rocket or Rollercoaster – Blasting off to Planet Digital

The educational vehicle “STEAM” is rocking in the chilly climate of the higher education ocean. Traditional educational discipline boundaries are merging and the newage voyager requires a complex set of skills and attributes to ensure they are not only equipped for blast off, but have a secure landing and sustainable future on Planet Digital (a highly competitive commercial landscape, harsh and barren, populated with alien lifeforms with every increasing demand on the aspirational spacetrotter. Galactic Headquarters confirmed, that the average voyager changes roles between 5-7 times during their existence, and therefore, the education champions need to be preparing all neophytes for this exciting, innovative and dynamic climate. Space School Supreme is called on to ensure the voyagers are equipped with the skills and attributes required for this ever changing Galactic landscape.
Captain Power along with others acknowledged that the fourth industry revolution (4IR) is interdisciplinary in nature, crossing fields and transcending traditional academic disciplines at an ever increasing pace. Furthermore, it is recognised that innovative and sustainable approaches to addressing today’s, and tomorrow’s global challenges reach far beyond the boundaries of a single academic discipline or methodological approach and require new ways of working. At the core of this learning transformation sits Art and Design, bubbling away with liquid pigments. There is no doubt that the fourth industry revolution is digital technology driven and that there is a “commander drive” to build a STEM pipeline to feed this. Talent spotting in cyberspace is big business and every technological progressive planet in the galaxy is exploring how to meet demands in relation to this alleged skills gap. To keep pace in the ever-evolving cyber storm and to ensure our Space School of Excellence capitalises on the benefits, the art and design volcano must erupt, to provide a spectrum of skills firmly rooted in its associated disciplines (creativity, problem solving and critical thinking). It is these fundamental human characteristics framed in the contact of Art and Design, that will be critical in preparing our voyagers for Planet Digital and beyond.
Within the context of Planet Digital and the transformative 4th industry generation this session presents a case study from “Our School Supreme” (Creative Art and Engineering) at Staffordshire University. The project empowered academics from various disciplines across the school to open their doors to interdisciplinary learning for a week during the academic year (engaging over 250 students from over 20 different academic disciplines). Creativity was explored in its widest context, providing opportunities for discipline hopping and sharing technical, digital, design and innovative art practices to benefit our voyagers. Preparing the adventurers with a tool belt of skills and attributes to sustain them in their future as they spacetrot between disciplines to provide novel, innovative and new roles what we can’t yet envisage. This is an alternative model for pedagogic development and leadership. It providing a blueprint for integrating interdisciplinary through creative arts in the broadest sense; supporting the University’s core values and resulting in entrepreneurial, civic, inclusive, connected and well-placed voyagers…