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Post #3

All four blog posts explore how technology is reshaping both hands-on industries and adult education. Online learning and digital innovations - such as D2L platforms, digital presses, and custom calculators - are becoming essential tools. They offer flexibility, personalization, and cost-saving benefits, yet also introduce challenges like loss of tactile learning, complexity of use, and technological barriers. Instructors in both printing and carpentry programs emphasize the need to balance tradition with innovation. Foundational, hands-on methods still hold value, even as industries push toward digital-first solutions. From hybrid course delivery to simplifying building code calculations, educators must stay resilient and digitally literate. By embracing change while preserving core skills, instructors better equip learners for evolving, tech-integrated careers.

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Adapting Trades Instruction in a Digital Age

As a carpentry instructor navigating today's digital landscape, I found Jessica Gemella's BCcampus article on *Digital Literacy and Resilience* deeply relevant. With trades education evolving rapidly, it's clear that professional development is key to bridging traditional hands-on training with modern digital tools. I use D2L (Desire2Learn) to deliver theory content, post assignments, and foster discussion - but integrating these tools effectively requires more than just technical know-how. It calls for a mindset of adaptability and confidence in facilitating online learning environments.

Gemella's emphasis on resilience and digital literacy highlights the importance of continuous learning - not just for students, but for instructors too. As the demand for skilled tradespeople increases, so does the expectation that we prepare learners not just for the tools of the trade, but for the tech-enabled world they will enter. Investing in our own growth ensures we stay relevant and deliver meaningful, engaging instruction that meets today's standards.

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PIDP 3100 Blog Post #1: The Evolving Landscape of Small Building Design in Canada

In the past, design and construction of simple buildings in Canada typically only required Architects (designers) and Carpenters (builders). This limited the requirements for professionals like structural, environmental, and geotechnical engineers. This kept the construction process more straight forward, predictable, and more importantly, cheaper. Using Part 9 of the building code allowed designers to specify the structural, architectural, and environmental separations for buildings under three-storeys in height and 600 square meters in area without the need for a professional engineer. This, by the way, covers most single-family homes and even many multi-family. In the most recent version of the National Building Code there have been a few changes that either now fully require an engineer or, have become so complicated, that it is passively pushing designers towards hiring an engineer by making the process too difficult. These two areas are: environmental separation and braced walls. Environmental separations must now be calculated by an Energy Advisor using proprietary software that is not available to the public, and the requirements for braced walls to resists wind and seismic have become so convoluted that most designers find it easier to hire an engineer, at the owners expense.

So what does this mean to me as an instructor? Well, I have to teach this stuff! As it stands now, carpenters in the Red Seal program are required to understand these parts of the code and how to interpret and design using the information provided therein. These subjects are not weighted very much in the over-all grade, yet require much more time to unpack with the students than they are necessarily "worth". When combined with the trend towards "just hire an engineer", this make the challenge even more daunting.

One of the ways I am trying to make Part 9 design more accessible is to develop calculators that use the convoluted and complicated formulas in the building code and breakdown the inputs into more straightforward definitions and dimensions that skilled carpenters and designers can use. On the teaching side, we can focus on how to get the information collected to use the calculator effectively, which is a more reasonable goal in the time allotted. And, on the industry side; contractors, designers, and homeowners can use the calculator to reduce engineering costs.

Here are some authoritative resources discussing the increasing professional requirements in small building (Part 9) construction in British Columbia:

This content is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication.

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PIDP 3100

I am a carpentry instructor on Vancouver Island. I am looking forward to broadening my teaching skills through the PIDP. I enjoy spending time outside with my two young kids and my wonderful wife camping, biking, boating.....anything really! Look back here for future blog posts.

-Bryan