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With the mass adoption of microcomputers in the 1980s many enthusiastic teachers and trainers found themselves responding to demand from children and adults to know more, ranging from informal courses to developing the formal curriculum

Alan Edis, Richard Millwood, David Riley, Colin Smith and Sam Deane of the Computers in the Curriculum Project at Chelsea College London

Photographs of people who have been involved in the development of educational computing in the UK

Many educators and trainers were inspired by the ability to create their own programs for computers, unleashing a new kind of creativity and problem solving which in some cases were life-changing

A 'chord' keyboard intended for one-handed typing by holding down combinations of fingers

This report is concerned with aspects of the work undertaken by the Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP), which was established by the Department of Education and Science (DES) in 1980. The Programme initially had a budget of £12 million spread over four years, but the Programme was later extended by two years and spent over £23 million in the course of its life. The report is based on the evidence obtained during the period 1983 to 1986. In this period HMI sought to identify the extent to which schools were able to respond to the opportunities and challenges of working with new information technology (IT), and to assess the influence of the MEP. In the course of the survey visits were made to over 350 educational institutions in England. This report also draws on information from over 200 others where computing work had been observed in the course of normal visiting. In addition a variety of MEP committees and in-service training sessions was attended and numerous MEP-funded materials were reviewed. The work of pupils with special needs and of the Special Education aspects of the MEP is commented on only briefly, in view of the more limited evidence available during the main part of the survey.

Richard Fothergill was the director of the UK Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP) from 1980 to 1986.