Turning Points in Computer Education - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 163

computing degrees were run by the very famous “Westy” Williams, another of the
pioneers of Australian computing. This meant that the courses undertaken involved
the very most recent computing products. The FORTRAN IV and COBOL languages
were featured in the course.
At the same time Monash University had developed a computer system for schools
called the MONECS system. This allowed high school students to create programs in
FORTRAN using punch cards, post them to Monash, and get a printout explaining the
coding errors within a few days. This was very frustrating for teachers and so the
local institute was approached for alternatives. A small hand-operated card punch
machine was purchased for a mere thousand dollars (about 6 months' salary for a
beginning teacher) that allowed cards to be reliably punched and fit into the local
Institute computer. This use of computers, to teach programming using punched
cards, was a fairly common practice in Australian high schools. It was not until 1981
that a computer-related subject, Computer Science, became an accredited University
entrance course [6]. By that time the Australian had been appointed as a curriculum
consultant and was involved in managing this course.
The American had a variety of computing-related summer jobs while attending
college. Two summers before graduation he worked as an Assistant Opera-
tor/Programmer at his former junior college, performing daily computer operations
like routine backups, and also evaluated and upgraded various in-house software
packages. Prior to his final year of college he worked as Systems Assistant at Conoco,
Inc. in his home town modifying and upgrading existing software packages and par-
ticipating in the analysis and design of new software. Upon graduation in the early
1980s he was hired full time at Conoco as a Programmer and within a year was pro-
moted to Programmer/Analyst. His first job was to participate in the conversion from
an IBM 1800 to a DEC PDP 11/34, including the design of replacement software. The
programming language used was FORTRAN 77. It was during that conversion that he
learned the importance of thorough documentation for maintainability and modifiabil-
ity. He was responsible for various development projects including production control
software, system interface packages, and report generation packages. As one of two
on-site programmer/analysts he performed half of all systems development activities
including software analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance.
Thus, the second turning point was the recognition that computers were available
more widely than in a University as a massive investment. They could be used to
teach in high school as well as to enhance business efficiency. Computers were still
seen from a programming perspective, but that perspective had shifted to program-
ming with a purpose, not just as a kind of mathematical puzzle.
6 Microcomputers
The next stage in life is not characterized by normal progression but by the intrusion
of a new technology. The first Intel-based microcomputer was released in November
1971 with the first Apple microcomputer arriving in 1976.
By 1975 the Australian teacher was a new father and had been selected as a cur-
riculum consultant in mathematics. This entailed teaching part-time and travelling to
other schools part-time to talk to teachers about the latest advances in mathematics