AVC to Irving

I left the Bloomington Area Vocational Center (AVC)  to become a building principal. Being a building principal had been my goal from the beginning.I had received tremendous mentor-ship from Robert and could see that the evolution of computer technology was going to be essential at the elementary level. What was sorely lacking was funding for any computers.

Christmas that year included a family gift of a Commodore 64. It connected to a small TV. This is my son, Scott, tickled that we finally had a computer.

The principal’s office was just beginning to implement microcomputers into record keeping. The school district mainframe was a Digital Computer (VAX) unit. The plan was to install microcomputers from DEC (Digital Computers) in the office of each school secretary. These computers ran on MS-DOS of which I was familiar, and were connected to the district owned Digital VAX mainframe by a phone connection. The secretary was required to throw a switch on the phone line  to get connected This process had just begun when I arrived. There was no plan to give principals computers.

I was able to salvage an old TRS-80 computer to keep in my office so I could use some of the skills I had developed in word processing. Unfortunately I found no time to do anything. My typing skills were so minimal, that it was faster and easier to write out letters and evaluations and give them to my secretary, Delia, to type into the form provided by the data processing department.

The data processing department also set up a type of internal email so that messages could be sent to each school. I had no idea how to use this and didn’t have a computer that could receive it.

After a year, and a change in superintendents, I acquired a MS-DOS machine on loan from the Director of Curriculum and Instruction. She said I had to share it with Don, my buddy at Sheridan School. I delayed as much as possible in giving it to him, as I knew he lacked even my minimal computer skills. Finally in the spring of the year, he came over to claim his time on the machine. I was not in the office when he arrived, but did catch him at the back door. I remember asking him “What are you going to do with that, use it as a paper weight?”

One feature of the borrowed machine was something called “Windows”. It came with a mouse, mouse pad, and nice graphics like the Macintosh. You might recall I had found a Mac to basically be a toy. The new Windows software(Windows 1) was actually a shell that functioned over top the DOS commands. Windows was incredibly slow. The MS-DOS machines  lacked the faster processor found in Macs. I quickly found a way out of the “shell” to get to my much faster DOS commands.

I was now ready to pursue implementation of more computers for my school. The Learning Center was gradually acquiring Apple computers through the Curriculum Office, but this was a slow multiyear process and machines were evolving rapidly making old versions obsolete. This was a constant problems with Apple, as nothing new was compatible with software designed for older machines. I thought MS-DOS machines were a superior buy for those on very limited budgets, as new machines were able to run older software.

Then I discovered IBM's Teaching and Leaning with Computers (TLC). Through Carol Struck’s leadership in Olympia, this program developed at the University of Illinois, was being used to structure part of the daily learning activities on networked computers. Each classroom had 3 or 4  computers which could be used as a rotating leaning center within the classroom. Olympia had implemented it at grade three.

Writing for grant funds from various sources, I was able to begin purchasing and implementing this system in my three third grade classrooms.Each classroom eventually had 4 IBM PC II terminals. They were based on the PCII, but did not actually run the software directly.The system had a server which held all of the software and sat near the third grade classrooms. It could run all the data on student use, and had some additional features that I could use as an administrator. I leaned about being a system administrator, controlling access, monitoring use and enrolling and advancing students.

By this time, the district data processing department was expanding the email connection to principals. That required computers for administration, so we finally got one in each office. Fortunately they were MS-DOS machines and not the Apples being implemented in the learning centers.

The new machines were capable of running lots of software that I was not familiar with using. Delia and I decided to take Adult Education classes together in Lotus 123, as database and spreadsheet program that could also do graphs. I thought this was a good experience for both of us.

For all that was happening, there was something very new on the horizon. Joan Brown, the Learning Center teacher at Irving, was a leader in the implementation of the computers into learning activities. She was sent for additional training at the University of Illinois. She returned and did a presentation on email on something called “The Internet”. She explained how addresses were developed. She told us that email could be sent from one computer to another and these computers did not need to be connected on the district network. She said we could send an email to any computer “in the world” as long as we had a phone line and a modem. 

Earlier, in 1983, the movie “War Games” had hit the theaters and we learned about a new thing called “hacking”. This was a fiction that was to become a reality in the 1990's. In 1991, we acquired a new machine for home use. It had an Intel  286 processor and this was to begin the era of the internet at home. 

The 286  came with a software program called “Prodigy”. With this program you could get news reports as they were happening. After one started the computer, you had to load the Prodigy software and connect a phone line to the modem. The familiar computer screech was heard as the modem attempted to  connect with another computer. It was slow but amazing!  Later we acquired AOL and would connect to ISU to gain access to the internet. We did not realize what was to become of all of us as the world was about to get connected and vandalized in brand new ways.