Turning Points in Computer Education - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 160

content added, on each side of the Pacific, as a result of memory being stimulated by
the other narrative. After some dialogue a set of themes was determined that captured
the commonality between the narratives.
3 High School
There is almost a decade in age difference between the two authors. This age differ-
ence had its most profound effect during the authors' high school years. Those years,
during the 60s and 70s, coincided with an increased availability of computers. Thus,
the narratives commence with their high school experiences to show the extent to
which the change during that time period affected the average high school student.
The Australian attended high school in the 1960s before high school computing
courses became available. Technology affected his life greatly. The launch of Sputnik
in 1958 created an atmosphere of panic in the USA and Australia that was reflected in
immense changes in the emphasis put on the sciences. American educators became
convinced that the Soviets had been able to launch a satellite before the USA because
of a superior education system. Intense efforts were devoted to improving the educa-
tion system, particularly in the sciences, and they spread throughout the Western
world. The Australian education system in 1964 saw the introduction of a new ex-
periment-based physics course known as PSSC (Physical Science Study Committee)
Physics. This meant that high school students in Australia were introduced to the idea
that students could learn by exploring and understanding rather than by repetition. In
this environment the Australian, an above average student, was swept into an interest
in and love of the physical sciences. The Australian student had to drop subjects seen
as not important to a university science course such as Latin, geography, and history.
As an above average student he was directed away from commerce courses involving
typing, bookkeeping, and office practices into the “important” subjects of English,
pure and applied mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Contemporary history shows
that computers were being distributed through the public service and some businesses
at this time, but there was no mention of them in high schools.
The American attended high school in a small town in the mid-1970s. The local
high school offered data processing courses taught by the vocational/technical educa-
tion department. Vo/Tech, as it was called, also offered classes in automobile repair
and other “blue collar” areas. Students who aspired to attend college were advised by
school counsellors to steer clear of Vo/Tech classes in order to take “more rigorous”
courses. Therefore the American had no computing-related courses in high school.
Fortunately his older sister-in-law got a job in data processing at the local junior col-
lege, and sometimes brought home a portable remote terminal and a primitive modem
to demonstrate simple games or how the computer could generate drawings of the
cartoon characters like Snoopy through the placement of alphanumeric characters.
The American student was intrigued.
It can be said of both students that computers had not really affected their high
school lives and formal study. It can also be said that the environment of their teenage
years would predispose them to an interest in computers when they became more
available.