Designed for Life - In conversation with Ewan McIntosh

We are delighted and privilidged to be able to talk with Ewan McIntosh in this Episode of Designed for Life, the podcast brought to you by the Design and Technology Association with the support of our friends and sponsors at The Edge Foundation and PTC Onshape. Ewan has built a reputation leading projects around the world for clients in education and industry, and is internationally reknown as  a pioneer of design thinking for learning in the classroom. Ewan is the passionate and energising tour de force behind NoTosh a company that he founded to help people to think differently and change the way that they function as individuals, as part of a team and as part of an organisation. He’s a highly-regarded keynote speaker and host at events around the world, marrying intense prep work and a natural capacity to listen and shine a light on the best stories participants have to share.As a French and German high school teacher in Scotland, Ewan wanted to find new ways to help students engage with learning – he felt strongly that technology was both critical to achieving this and remained underused in the classroom, so his classes were among the first in Europe to podcast and blog as part of their daily learning. The classroom also resembled a French cafe complete with coffee and the smell of warm patisserie. A hula hoop placed at the front of the classroom was the only place you could stand if you wanted to speak English...the same rules applied to the headteacher as they did the students, as he wanted them "immersed in language". Ewan spent three years taking these ideas to schools around Scotland, as National Advisor on Learning and Technology Futures for the Scottish Government. Joining Channel 4 as their Digital Commissioner in 2008 was a step in a different direction. But it was while he was with Channel 4 that he became fascinated by the strategies and tactics that his creative colleagues used to create imaginative and truly engaging digital services for young people. Could he take this insight and make it work in an education setting? Yes, I reckoned he could... and that’s how NoTosh came about.This is a fascinating conversation with so many learning points for teachers, educators and leaders in any capacity. So grab yourself an hour of 'me time', find a chair, take a walk, take us to the gym and listen to Designed for Life; in conversation with Ewan McIntosh. This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-chargeWe are indebted to both The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support.