"More Than Just Magic Typewriters"

"More Than Just Magic Typewriters"
"More Than Just Magic Typewriters"
By Loren Hardenbergh

A brief history of computer technology at Sidwell Friends School.

On September 8, more than a thousand students and over 200 faculty and staff used their Sidwell Friends–issued devices to connect on the first day of School. Meetings for Worship, assemblies, classes, faculty meetings, and student clubs were all held via Zoom video conferencing. At virtual Back-to-School Night, teachers shared QR codes that allowed parents to use their smartphones and other personal devices to download apps and monitor their children’s work.

In these extraordinary times, it’s easy to forget that starting the academic year online in this way would have been impossible at any other moment in School history. Let’s take this opportunity to look back on how we got to this point.

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1921

The Sidwell Friends Eye Street office has two typewriters and a “duplicator.”

1951

There are two typewriters in the Middle School.

The administration building boasts 10 typewriters, one keystone projector, one electronic mimeograph machine, one hand mimeograph, and one ditto machine.

1962

Hank Dater teaches a Saturday computer class in the basement of the old Upper School building where about 20 students learn to write a program to play checkers with the IBM 7090 mainframe computer. The highlight of the course is visiting the Bureau of Standards to see the IBM 7090 in person and try out their programs.

An editorial in Horizon requests a School computer terminal: “There is no aspect of our lives which has not been touched by the computer, and there is no reason why the School cannot introduce this fact of life to the students.” (Horizon, 1972)

1974

The first computer terminal arrives on campus. It has paper-tape memory (similar to punch cards) so that students can reuse programs.

1976

A computer aids in scheduling: “With the advent of computer scheduling, it appears that the individual student has once again been thrown into the jaws of technology, an unwilling sacrifice to that impersonal deity, the computer.” (Horizon, 1976)

1979

The Upper School purchases Apple II Plus “microcomputers” that are “about the size of electric typewriters and can be carried easily from classroom to classroom.” (Horizon, 1979)

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1980

The Middle School obtains computers (Radio Shack TRS-80) and one disk drive.

1981

The School retires the Phillips ledger-card system and computerizes the alumni mailing list.

1982

The Lower School acquires four Texas Instruments computers (TI-99/4A).

1983

Six computers—Texas Instruments TI-99A with 64K memory—arrive at the Middle School, and students learn LOGO: “The computers are not equipped with any disk drives or cassette players to store the student’s programs.” (Horizon, 1983)

1988

Horizon describes the School’s computers as “a hacker’s dream, this megakilobyte, intercooled console, with tactile feedback keyboard, was recently acquired from the DC school system, and now resides in the computer room.” (Horizon, 1988)

1989

Computer classes replace the 5th and 6th grade shop program.

1990

Students produce Horizon totally in-house using the desktop- publishing software PageMaker.

The freshman curriculum includes word processing, spreadsheets, and databases.

Faculty teach typing on computers rather than typewriters: “More than just magic typewriters, computers are now something on which our students learn, reason, and invent.” (Horizon, 1990)

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1991

The Upper School computerizes its library card catalog and acquires CD-ROM reference works.

1993

The Middle School retires its DOS- only computers in favor of 386- and 486-chip Windows computers with CD-ROM drives.

The Upper School joins the internet: “Electronic mail (also known as e-mail) ... enables people to send and receive mail to and from other users around the world. ... There are numerous ‘sites’ on the Internet from which anyone can download files.” (Horizon, 1993)

1995

Faculty departments receive computers so they do not have visit the computer room to access “CD-ROM technology and Internet information servers.” (Horizon, 1995)

1996

The School purchases six laptop computers on a test basis.

Sidwell Friends installs a School- wide inter-campus network. Faculty, staff, and students receive School email accounts.

The School warns students that, if chain letters are found in their sent mail, their accounts could be suspended.

1999

The School purchases 10 laptops for all three divisions to share: “[E]-mail is a regular part of
most students’ daily routines. I sometimes get the impression that students would rather read their e-mail than eat.” (Horizon, 1999)

2000

The School purchases 72 new PCs for its four computer labs.

Individual network drives, after experiencing frequent crashes, expand to 50MB per person.

2008

The Middle School pilots a one-to- one laptop program.

2011

The Lower School pilots a one-to- one iPad program in kindergarten.

All Middle School students receive School-issued laptops.

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2013

The Lower School fully deploys iPads in grades K–4.

2020

Sidwell Friends holds its first completely virtual preK–12 classes—as well as its first virtual Commencement, Meeting for Worship, Back-to-School Night, Reunion, and Homecoming.

The School issues tablets/laptops to all students in all divisions.

 

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