Tomorrow's World: Nellie the School Computer 15 February 1969 - BBC

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A 1969 BBC Tomorrow's World segment about Nellie, a school computer used by pupils at Forest Grammar School to solve equations and play music. Students learn programming and maintenance, and act out binary arithmetic.

Shared as a charming historical look at children learning computing, including kids acting as register bits.

History of computing Education & learning #tomorrow'sworld #bbcarchive #1969 #computereducation

3 comments from Hacker News

@mahmud2010-07 · in “Tomorrow's World - Home Computer Terminal (1967)”

Wow, I have never seen this: human digital logic. ▶ this video Kids acting as bits in a machine register and performing binary arithmetic by raising their hands if set, or not raising when cleared. Really cute.

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@zeristor2026-03 · in “"This Is Not the Computer for You"”

Is this close enough? it’s from 1969, I wonder what became of them: “Tomorrow's World: Nellie the School Computer 15 February 1969 - BBC” ▶ this video

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@DanBC2017-06 · in “Jean Sammet, co-creator of COBOL, has died”

Or was it a product of the computers at the time? Here's a 1959 computer, donated to a school in 1965. This was filmed in 1969. One of the children wrote a language - minigol - so the younger children didn't have to use assembler. ▶ this video Just turning the machine on requires coordination between several people using intercom.

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