Historical introduction

In the year 2000 I decided to start a newsletter for teachers of ICT in schools. Apart from a name change, formatting changes and alterations in content, it’s still going strong.

I realise that sounds exactly like the old joke: this axe has been in my family for generations, and in that time it’s had 21 new blades and 15 new handles. Or as epitomised in this Only Fools and Horses sketch:

But my rationale for starting it was to help other teachers of information technology, ICT, digital education and Computing, and that’s the core thing that has not changed.

It’s interesting, I think, that when I look through the archived issues of Computers in Classrooms, as it was then called, I realise that some of the articles could quite justifiably be published today. For example, in this first issue I wrote an article asking why anyone should use education technology in their lessons:

Starting from a low base

When I started the newsletter I had no budget and no subscribers. To solve the first problem I used a free newsletter sending service. It was funded by ads, and would only allow text, not graphics. To solve the second problem I asked a few work colleagues to subscribe, and then word of mouth started to kick in.

Anyway, I thought I might start reproducing the old issues on the ICT & Computing in Education website. You may find it interesting or amusing to see how much things have changed since then — and how much has remained the same.

I’ve kept the formatting, but I’ve removed the names of people who contributed their opinions or survey responses. Although I had their permission to quote at the time, that was twenty years ago. Also, many of the links and email addresses are no longer valid.

Before standing back to allow you to read the very first issue, just let me say that the newsletter is now called Digital Education, and is still open to new subscribers:

And now for that very first issue, that momentous periodical who launch changed history, that masterpiece of erudition that… Eh? Oh, ok, sorry. Here it is:

I hope you enjoyed that jaunt down Memory Lane. If you’d like to subscribe to Digital Education, here’s the information again: