Apple II Bits

Fifteen miles north of downtown Chicago, Illinois, is an Apple museum you’ve never heard of. It’s not open to the public, but it is nonetheless being put to good use: students of Kenilworth’s Joseph Sears School are learning what computers of yesteryear were capable of and how they evolved into the machines we use today.

In the Wilmette Sun-Times article "Apple display both time travel and education for Sears students", library technology services director Elisabeth LeBris and former school computer coordinator Matt Brackett discuss how they "agreed to keep one of each Apple computer model used in the school (which has a long history of Apple use) even as each made way for successor machines". Students then use these artifacts to research how they compare to today’s machines as part of their expository writing classes. The students’ work is exhibited as a series of narrated slideshows summarizing the models’ capabilities and places in history.

Several of the students’ findings will bring a smile to an Apple II user’s face: "[The Apple II] could not reach the Internet, because the Internet was not invented until WAY after the Apple II’s time", for example. It’s true the World Wide Web, which is often confused for the Internet, wasn’t developed until a few years after the last model of Apple II was released in 1989, but the Internet was certainly something early Apple II users were connecting to — more so now, thanks to the Uthernet card. I’m also intrigued to know the calculations that led to statements such as this: "A modern 16-gigabyte smart phone has as much computing capability as 3.4 million Apple IIe computers." Despite being dwarfed by modern processors, one student admitted, "I was surprised at how much [the IIGS] could do, and how many parts there were." It’s another great example of how classic technology, from Ultima to the BBC Micro, can be used in a modern education environment.

I emailed RJ Bialk, technology facilitator at Kenilworth School District #38, to ask if the video slideshows could be made available in an embeddable, shareable format, such as YouTube. There’s been no response to that email of December 10, but I’m hopeful once the holidays are past and school is back in session, something might come of it. In the meantime, check out the article and videos for yourself and see what today’s students are learning.