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Early days in Fife with Microcomputers

by Kevin Thompson — published Jun 22, 2008 04:20 PM, last modified Apr 05, 2011 11:05 PM
Kevin Thompson develops the use of early microcomputers in school, evening class and university in the eighties
BBC Master

I remember being a pioneer of computing in schools in the early 80s...trying to do educational things with Sinclair Spectrums, BBC Microcomputers and of course cassette tape drives! - fun days. There was a huge demand for 'night school' lessons for adults around 1984/5 and I offered the first class of its type in Fife. From one advert we had 93 people turn up! This resulted in me running classes 4 nights a week all year! They came in with their computers, Spectrums, Dragons, Commodores, etc etc and TVs of course and I somehow turned my limited knowledge of BASIC into a lesson for all these dialects <nostalgic sighs>. I went on to head up the Computing Studies Department in a large Secondary school, pioneering O-Grade (as was) Standard Grade and Higher. I was also at that time (1989) doing an M.Ed at a local university. This resulted in the need for a dissertation, so I undertook an investigation into the courses and provision on offer across the whole county (Fife) at that time.

Kevin Thompson, May 2008

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