Strategies to Update the Clothing and Textile Course Curriculum with Emerging Technologies

Abstract

<p>In this digital age, apparel discipline not only needs to disseminate conceptual knowledge but also impart practical skill-based knowledge about technology. The objective of this research was to examine strategies of integrating technology, content, and pedagogy knowledge in fashion discipline. Ten clothing textile academicians were interviewed and interviews subsequently analyzed to find five such strategies: (1) give confidence to students to problem solve and democratize the belief in creating, (2) incorporate balanced distribution of technological components throughout the course curriculum, (3) have faculties who are technophiles rather than technophobes, (4) use a flipped classroom model to adapt to the learning curves of the students, and (5) be more marketable and visible to attract multidisciplinary based projects. The strategies, which emerged in the research, could give ideas to the academicians to revamp the curriculum based on the changing needs of industry, and nature of their students and professors.</p>