Re:BBC Computer Literacy Project 1980 – 1989
by bobince on Thursday March 26, 2020 @05:15AM
(#22691762)
Another '76. There was nothing in the curriculum where I was.
There were computers dotted around the place run by enthusiastic maths, physics and design teachers, which occasionally made it into a lesson, but more commonly would be commandeered by the spoddy kids at break times, making programs to print rude words on the screen.
Our school brought in actual computing lessons a few years later, but they were "How To Do Word, You Peons" from day 1 (on the godawful slow PC-not-entirely-compatibles that somehow RM managed to trick schools into buying back then). I consider it a lucky escape I didn't have that to put me off the whole idea.
Re:BBC Computer Literacy Project 1980 – 1989
by altacc on Thursday March 26, 2020 @05:29AM
(#22691844)
I also experienced those "How to Do Word" lessons, although earlier my school had taught us BASIC programming on a BBC Acorn. So I found it very frustrating when they built a shiny new computer lab only to teach us how to click on UIs. There were a few of us who did the classic "sitting at the back and doing our own thing".
I don't remember there being a lot of programming content in the school curriculum per se, but BASIC programming generally was absolutely massive back then. On the 8-bit micros we had at the time, it wasn't even possible to load a game without typing a BASIC command, and it was only a small step from there to writing small programs to print rude words on the screen.
Both I and an entire generation of UK programmers learned to program from the Usborne computing books, some of which they've now made available free in PDF form: https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-codin...