ABSTRACT
It can be argued that to be ‘high-tech’ when working in design and technology (D&T) in schools, you have to be using ‘all singing and all dancing’ machines linked to computers doing computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-assisted manufacture (CAM) activities that emulate industry. The reality is that in schools it is more common to find most computers being used for such activities with plastic, wood and metal, although it must be said that textiles are slowly being tackled, albeit through embroidery, with computer-aided sewing machines such as POEM and BROTHER. However, if the same kind of financial and political emphasis placed on resistant materials was directed towards resources and equipment for food and textiles technology, then surely the same types of activities would occur in the classroom, resulting in high-quality products being produced by pupils, emulating food and textile industrial practices.
