Integrating technology in classrooms: from the microcomputer to ‘the cloud’ - Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide - page 6

youngsters leaving school at sixteen, to actually be able to operate a computer' (Scaife
and Wellington 1993: 15).
Research which has captured the experiences of practitioners highlights how the
micro-computer marked 'the first decisive moment in the use of computers in school.
The new machines offered immediacy and interactivity' (Hammond et al. 2009: 48).
All 15 prominent practitioners in the field of educational technology in this research
saw the introduction of the micro as a seminal moment in the history of computing
in schools.
In the beginning, in the 1980s, funding for the hardware came from the Depart-
ment of Trade and Industry (DTI), which provided £16 million to subsidize the
purchase of British computers in schools. British companies, Research Machines,
Acorn and Sinclair (the latter though to a lesser extent) competed with American and
Japanese manufacturers (such as IBM, Apple, Atari, Commodore) to equip UK schools
with computers (Scaife and Wellington 1993; Millwood 2009).
In addition to purchasing hardware, the Department of Education and Science
(DES) provided £23 million to launch the Microelectronics Education Programme
(MEP), which was an initiative to explore how computers could be used by teach-
ers in schools. MEP was implemented by the Council for Educational Technology,
under the directorship of Richard Fothergill at Newcastle Polytechnic, who led a team
of teachers in gathering information, creating materials and disseminating training
opportunities. As MEP literature stated, the vision was 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'. This ran from 1980 until 1986.
The central team of teachers in MEP worked alongside programmers and publish-
ers to develop software, and 14 Regional Information Centres were created to dem-
onstrate materials to local practitioners. This was a significant part of the MEP vision,
as very few education authorities had specialists in the early 1980s and Fothergill
understood how multidisciplinary teams working in regional networks were needed
to build knowledge, skills and expertise.
Supporting the early use of micros in schools through teachers' centres enabled a
powerful mix of facilitating curriculum software development and teacher education,
which generated conditions for creativity and emerging innovation. This was part of
Fothergill's vision:
Fothergill's real genius lay in knowing how to inspire people without
frightening them, and in his staunch belief that we do things better when
we do them together. His conviction about what was possible and his
healthy disrespect of bureaucracy and pomposity provided valuable les-
sons. Many were the battles he fought with civil servants of limited vision.
(Anderson and Page 2004: Obituary)
Many credit Fothergill with the vision of generating the first network of expertise in
the UK in the form of specialist teachers, ICT coordinators, advisors and consultants.
Indeed, it was Fothergill's untimely death that inspired the 'Voices Project' (Hammond
et al. 2009) to capture the experiences of the early pioneers who shaped the beginnings of