Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
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Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
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Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#2There's a lot of us mid-forties IT staff who owe our careers to the BBC Micro and accompanying TV programmes. It would come as a huge surprise to today's kids but my school had just one computer (a BBC Micro, of course) which was wheeled on a trolley from one classroom to the next. We'd all take turns, usually in groups of three or four, to run whatever educational game was related to the work we were doing (usually maths quizzes)
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#3The programmes in question are available online:
https://computer-literacy-project.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio....
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#4The computer literacy project was basically the last UK government attempt at doing industrial policy. It was a huge success, so they gave up on it and have abandoned industrial policy to market forces and financialisation.
We have gone from that to "eff business". https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2019-02-14b.1068....
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#5There's a lot of us mid-forties IT staff who owe our careers to the BBC Micro and accompanying TV programmes. It would come as a huge surprise to today's kids but my school had just one computer (a BBC Micro, of course) which was wheeled on a trolley from one classroom to the next. We'd all take turns, usually in groups of three or four, to run whatever educational game was related to the work we were doing (usually…
We're about the same age. My primary school also had a BBC Micro on a trolley. We didn't get to use it much, I guess because our teacher wasn't interested in it.
When I was ~10, my parents spent £129.99 (a lot of money for them at the time) to buy me an Acorn Electron (a cut down version of the BBC Micro).
One thing that was frustrating for me at the time is that I had no one to answer questions. For example, I was writing some 6502 assembly to do something simple (I don't remember what) and the book (either the user guide that came in the box, or the Acorn Electron Advanced User Guide) said I had to provide some value using two's complement. I had no idea what it was or how to find an answer. So I wrote a letter (yes, with a stamp, in the mail) to a Teletext page where these things were discussed, and a few days/weeks later they actually answered my question on one of the pages.
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#6There's a lot of us mid-forties IT staff who owe our careers to the BBC Micro and accompanying TV programmes. It would come as a huge surprise to today's kids but my school had just one computer (a BBC Micro, of course) which was wheeled on a trolley from one classroom to the next. We'd all take turns, usually in groups of three or four, to run whatever educational game was related to the work we were doing (usually…
Was it the L-Shaped Room, perhaps?
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#7Interesting comparison.
Learning computing back then did involve getting right down to bits and bytes and assembly language if you wanted to push yourself. It resulted in an underlying understanding of computing which may be missing this days.
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#8There's a lot of us mid-forties IT staff who owe our careers to the BBC Micro and accompanying TV programmes. It would come as a huge surprise to today's kids but my school had just one computer (a BBC Micro, of course) which was wheeled on a trolley from one classroom to the next. We'd all take turns, usually in groups of three or four, to run whatever educational game was related to the work we were doing (usually…
We're about the same age. My primary school also had a BBC Micro on a trolley. We didn't get to use it much, I guess because our teacher wasn't interested in it. When I was ~10, my parents spent £129.99 (a lot of money for them at the time) to buy me an Acorn Electron (a cut down version of the BBC Micro). One thing that was frustrating for me at the time is that I had no one to answer questions. For example, I was w…
The Acorn was my first programming computer at school - I didn't know it was from BBC Micro lineage! We were pretty lucky to have about 20 of them. I did NOT make enough use of this resource as a teenager, to my adult self's chagrin. This was largely because as a teenage girl, the last thing that was gonna happen was spending my lunch hours in the computer room where boys were playing adventure games. Lame. (Future me kicks teenage me).
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#9BBC Basic was a really good Basic. Its low level routines (for floating point, for example) were available at certain addresses so you could call them from assembly. And since you could mix assembly into Basic also, it gave you a nice path from simple programs to really making the most of the machine.
I find it astonishing how well thought out this machine was.
Re: Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro
#10There's a lot of us mid-forties IT staff who owe our careers to the BBC Micro and accompanying TV programmes. It would come as a huge surprise to today's kids but my school had just one computer (a BBC Micro, of course) which was wheeled on a trolley from one classroom to the next. We'd all take turns, usually in groups of three or four, to run whatever educational game was related to the work we were doing (usually…
We're about the same age. My primary school also had a BBC Micro on a trolley. We didn't get to use it much, I guess because our teacher wasn't interested in it. When I was ~10, my parents spent £129.99 (a lot of money for them at the time) to buy me an Acorn Electron (a cut down version of the BBC Micro). One thing that was frustrating for me at the time is that I had no one to answer questions. For example, I was w…
Writing a paper letter to Teletext and get an answer, love it. The internet and the web has som serious warts, but it is also amazing.