Editors

Paul Gardiner is an independent Education Consultant specialising in electronics, CAD/CAM and systems and control. He has over 35 years’ experience working in education. He is a keen advocate of the systems approach to synthesising solutions to control problems and understanding how electronic systems work. He has developed an extensive range of materials to support this approach in the classroom.

Originally from a background in Electrical engineering. Paul worked mainly in secondary schools in Coventry. Initially teaching science and physics.  During the 1980s he led the Microelectronics Technology Centre based at Coundon Court School where he assisted Coventry schools in implementing electronics and control systems into the rapidly evolving D&T curriculum.

From 1990 until retiring early from teaching in 2012, Paul was head of electronics at Finham Park School where he taught technology and electronics to ‘A’ level. In addition to his teaching role, he also managed the West Midlands Digital D&T Support Centre which provided one-to-one support for teachers from a wide geographical area. The centre also ran many well subscribed and popular courses for D&T teachers many of which Paul devised and delivered himself.

Paul is an innovator and has sought to push the boundaries of school electronics to ensure the subject remains exciting, relevant and rewarding to his students. Paul showed how schools could embrace the use of surface mount assembly in electronics project work; techniques that he has used with students as young as year 7. He was also the first to bring affordable programmable eTextiles to the classroom in the form of DaisyPIC. A system of thin PCBs that can be sewn into textile products using conductive thread. Many textile teachers with no previous knowledge of electronics or programming have been successfully introduced to control technology using DaisyPIC.

Much of Paul’s work is documented in articles he has written for Electronics Education (published by the IET) and Data Practice (published by the D&T Association). These articles are also published by the eJournal EctEducation.co.uk of which he is joint founding editor.