Microelectronics Education Programme: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:25, 31 July 2008

Revision as of 03:13, 9 November 2008

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The [[United Kingdom|UK]] Government's '''Microelectronics Education Programme''' ran from [[1980]] to [[1986]]. It was conceived and planned by a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government and set up under a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government during [[Margaret Thatcher|Mrs Thatcher]]'s era. Its aim was to explore how computers could be used in schools in the UK. This was a controversial time for Conservative school policies.[1]

The programme was administered by the Council for Educational Technology in [[London]], but the directorate operated, unusually, from a semi-detached house on the Coach Lane Campus of the then Newcastle Polytechnic (now [[Northumbria University]]).

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Educational materials were initially devised by teachers for teachers, financed by the [[Department of Education and Science (UK)|Department of Education and Science]] of England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It was common to see written on various books and leaflets that the aims of the programme were to 'promote, within the school curriculum, the study of [[microelectronics]] and its effects, and to encourage the use of the technology as an aid to teaching and learning'.

By [[1982]], the [[Department of Trade and Industry]] became involved and began to introduce computers in the secondary schools, later the primary schools. Teams of teachers, programmers and publishers worked hard to develop software to run on a variety of machines. The two most popular were [[Acorn Computers]] and [[RM plc|Research Machines]] computers. The [[Sinclair Research Ltd|Sinclair]] [[ZX Spectrum]] was used in a variety of situations, very often for control projects, such as teaching children how traffic lights worked.

14 Regional Information Centres were set up around the UK to demonstrate materials to local teachers. There was one information officer, one director and a number of training coordinators per region. The focus for the training was split into four 'domains': - the Computer as a Device (exploring and developing Computer Science as a subject); Communications and Information Systems (looking at the electronic office and developing a Business Studies theme); Electronics and Control Technology (developing devices and resources to support Science and Technology subjects); and Computer Based Learning (looking and developing how uses of technology could support teaching and learning right through and across the whole curriculum).