ICT

McMAIL - A BRIEF HISTORY

Observing the success of the Student Tech Team caused me to think back to my early days at McKinnon (and yes, the dinosaurs had already died out!)

When I arrived at McKinnon (as a Maths/Sci teacher) there was ONE room of computers – BBC Microcomputers – which were networked together to access software as none of them had a hard-drive. There were also 2 Apple 2E computers in the back storeroom that really weren’t used.

(Fun Fact: We didn’t have air-conditioning at McKinnon in those days and if it was a hot day, we had to prop open the master network computer and have a personal fan blowing onto the chips to stop it from overheating which would make all the computers unusable.)

It wasn’t till a few years later that McKinnon set up a room of PCs with Microsoft Windows in the room opposite a room of typewriters. These were NOT networked, and installing software required multiple floppy disks (31 from memory for Microsoft Office) to be installed on each computer separately.

It was not long after this that the school connected to the Internet. Don’t get too excited - this was still several years before the World Wide Web came to McKinnon. The Internet meant we could send files and emails. Not the emails you might imagine today, but basic text … no images or formatting and no emojis except for those done with keystrokes such as :-) or ;-).

There was no such thing as an IT Tech team. The ICT teachers (and I had joined the group by then) were basically the support team until we hired our first tech support person who spent much of their time repairing mice!

There were many staff and parents who wanted to be introduced to this new technology, but with limited resources we were ‘rescued’ by a group of students who wanted to become involved. Led by Tudor Holton and Mark Bryden (from memory, both in Years 10 or 11 at the time), a small group of student volunteers was established. These students gave up their time to introduce both staff and parents to the available technologies in one-on-one training sessions as well as running lunchtime groups with students to help them out.

This group chose the name McMail and although it was only needed for a few years, I think it was the forerunner of the current Student Tech Team which, with the support of our first-rate IT Tech team, not only provides a great service to our school, but also provides so many opportunities to interact and learn about the much more extensive technology opportunities available today.

If you have an interest in ICT and want to become involved in the Student Tech Team, make sure you go and see the IT Team and express your interest.

Ms Hatch

ICT Teacher