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2 An Historical Approach
Some writings in the history of computing have sought to record, in an uncensored
narrative, the stories of the pioneers of computing (before we lose them). On the
other hand there is also an opportunity for articles to analyse the history presented in
these narratives and seek to learn from the trends that are uncovered. George Santa-
yana is often quoted as saying “If we do not learn from the mistakes of history, we
are doomed to repeat them.” His philosophy text [2] actually said “Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, but in either case it is the analysis
and historical record that allow us to avoid condemnation, or the repetition of mis-
takes.
Historical record is a complex field and in the analysis of complex fields a number
of techniques have been developed to avoid the perils of reductionism. Often in ap-
plying scientific method to complex situations we can remove meaning at the same
time that we remove complexity. In this paper we will take a particular piece of the
history of computing and apply an ecological method to draw out the meaning con-
tained in the history.
The science of Ecology has developed many different ways of investigating nature.
Ecology is concerned with interrelationships between different living things, and be-
tween living things and their environment [3]. In addition to dealing with the natural
environment however, the principles of Ecology have been used in many other areas to
deal with the complexity of those areas [4-13]. These techniques have also been used
in education and curriculum development to produce worthwhile results [3, 14-19]
2.1 Anomalies in the Historical Case
In this paper we use as the unit of analysis, the history of the development of comput-
ing studies curricula in high schools in Victoria. In Victoria the senior secondary
school curriculum is controlled by a central body that has had a number of names
during the history we are recording, but is currently called the Victorian Curriculum
and Assessment Authority. This authority attempts to respond to the needs of the
community to produce new HSC subjects as the need arises. These subjects are re-
viewed on a regular basis and changes are made in response to industry, community
and university suggestions. University entrance in Australia is highly competitive and
determined almost completely by the results obtained by the student in their final year
of high school. There are state-wide and nationally moderated assessments of all final
high school subjects to determine a score (called the ENTER score) used by most
universities for entrance requirements. This means that the authority must make
changes to the curriculum carefully in logical response to real needs.
Despite this central control, the intense pressure to make sure that all subjects
offered meet the needs of society and students, and attempts to make only rational
decisions in terms of this curriculum, the history of the development of computing
curriculum is filled with anomalous outcomes. These include:
•
One subject introduced in order to make computing accessible and popular has
been abandoned due to low enrolments.
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