DT Online:About
From DT Online
Welcome to D&T Online
DT Online is a general reference source which aims to support Design and Technology education offering free access to a wide range of Design and Technology (D&T) materials, resources and software for pupils to use as they engage in design and technology activities as part of the UK National Curriculum. The service is under continuous development - comments and/or contributions from serving teachers are always welcome. You can contact us by emailing DT Online.
DT Online builds upon and continues to develop the Design Processor concept first introduced on the Acorn Computer platform in 1980.
Who are we?
Geoff Howard : Co-Founder and Lead Content Developer
Following a teaching career as a Head of D&T and work with examination boards at GCSE and ‘A’ Level, Geoff Howard served as Local Authority Senior Inspector/Adviser with responsibility for ICT and Design and Technology. Together with software development partners Dial Solutions, Geoff has been responsible for the creation and promotion of IT-based curriculum resources including Design Processor – the pre-cursor to DT Online.
He has held office as President of the National Association of Advisers and Inspectors in D&T (NAAIDT), for whom he organised a national conference on the theme "Making IT Work". He became an Honorary Member of NAAIDT and a recipient of the D&TA Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Design and Technology Education”. He has contributed to courses, conferences and publications nationally on the general theme of using ICT to enhance D&T and worked as an Independent Consultant for Design and Technology within the UK 'Building Schools for the Future' initiative
Phil Driscoll (Managing Director : Dial Solutions) : Co-Founder and Lead Software Developer
After working as a sound engineer with the BBC for several years, Phil Driscoll set up a company which developed the world's first interactive parametric CAD system. It's popularity in UK education brought him into contact with the NAAIDT, following which they developed Design Processor, which combined design tools, parts libraries, and information into a system which was the pre-world-wide-web parent of DT Online. In recognition of his work in D&T education, he was awarded the position of Honorary Vice President of NAAIDT.
His company specialises in developing web applications and deploying Free and Open Source software solutions. The programming team have mathematical, educational and engineering backgrounds, enabling them also to undertake contract programming for a number of industrial clients, including CNC post-processing software for Boxford Machine Tools. The group have been responsible for many successful educational software titles going back to the 1980s, including the best-selling My World software, in use in virtually all UK primary schools. The company has gained a reputation for producing innovative applications which feature a high degree of functionality while using only a minimum amount of code.