VIC-20s in schools?
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VIC-20s in schools?
I attended school in Ontario, Canada. As others can attest, the school boards there had a VERY close relationship with Commodore Canada. We had tons of PETs in our elementary school, and when I attended high school (starting in 1984) I remember a computer lab full of C64s (with one or two PETs). But I never remember seeing a single VIC-20 in a school.
Does anyone have stories about VIC-20s in their school?
Does anyone have stories about VIC-20s in their school?
Last edited by ral-clan on Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- eslapion
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I remember the St-Paul-de-Varennes private high school on the south shore of Montreal had a classroom full of VICs and one C64.
I visited the Mère-Marie-Rose elementary school in 1985 and they had a classroom full of 64s but they didn't seem to be able to make much use of them.
The biggest surprise about VIC-20s in school for me came in late 1985.
There was a high school for adults called Centre Ste-Croix. They were still teaching BASIC programming on VICs and I traded to the people there a VIC with an internal 24k expansion for another VIC and money.
Very recently, I met one of the people who worked there.
I visited the Mère-Marie-Rose elementary school in 1985 and they had a classroom full of 64s but they didn't seem to be able to make much use of them.
The biggest surprise about VIC-20s in school for me came in late 1985.
There was a high school for adults called Centre Ste-Croix. They were still teaching BASIC programming on VICs and I traded to the people there a VIC with an internal 24k expansion for another VIC and money.
Very recently, I met one of the people who worked there.
Last edited by eslapion on Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Be normal.
We had these:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=358
I think I also saw a couple of these in a back room:
http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?c=236
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=358
I think I also saw a couple of these in a back room:
http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?c=236
PRG Starter - a VICE helper / Vic Software (Boray Gammon, SD2IEC music player, Vic Disk Menu, Tribbles, Mega Omega, How Many 8K etc.)
Eslapion, why would you trade a VIC with internal 24K for another VIC plus money?
When the C64 was starting to get a little dated, the school board went with ICON computers:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/com ... st=1&c=971
But then that turned into a bit of a dead end (they did look cool though) and the school bought Commodore brand MS-DOS PCs (we never had any Amigas, but the PCs all had 1084 monitors - what a waste since the PCs were monochrome for the most part).
When the C64 was starting to get a little dated, the school board went with ICON computers:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/com ... st=1&c=971
But then that turned into a bit of a dead end (they did look cool though) and the school bought Commodore brand MS-DOS PCs (we never had any Amigas, but the PCs all had 1084 monitors - what a waste since the PCs were monochrome for the most part).
yep we had a Compis in our classroom too, which we played a mathematic game called "Matte-Pyramiden" (Math-Pyramid) or something like that.We had these:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=358
"Are you keeping up with Commodore? cuz Commodore is keeping up with you!"
- eslapion
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At the time, the guy responsible for the computer room at the school wanted to buy a 24k memory expansion but nobody was making or selling them anymore.ral-clan wrote:Eslapion, why would you trade a VIC with internal 24K for another VIC plus money?
I was unable to get a board that plugs in the expansion port for a reasonable price so the best solution was an internal expansion that could be disabled with a switch.
He didn't want to risk destroying one of his own VICs so I said I was so confident that I would install the 24k expander in one of my two own VICs and I would trade the expanded VIC for one of his plus the price of the expansion.
It worked perfectly well.
Be normal.
- orion70
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My school had VIC-20s ever since they began selling them in Italy (1982).
We have three degrees of education here, elementary (age 6-11), medium (12-14), and highschool (15-19). I was in the second period then, and the school was renewed. They built an IT room inside it, and put several desks for students, and a long table for teachers, with two or three (can't remember) VICs hooked to TV sets turned towards the students - no monitors, but even color TVs were quite rare and expensive back then...
Each VIC had a C2N cassette player (not the PET style). Wonder if they still have those VICs somewhere.
I remember well I was impressed that one could type words in and see them show up on the screen. That was the time when I decided to ask my parents a VIC; they eventually bought me one in December, 1982. It was the beginning of something (see also here and here).
We have three degrees of education here, elementary (age 6-11), medium (12-14), and highschool (15-19). I was in the second period then, and the school was renewed. They built an IT room inside it, and put several desks for students, and a long table for teachers, with two or three (can't remember) VICs hooked to TV sets turned towards the students - no monitors, but even color TVs were quite rare and expensive back then...
Each VIC had a C2N cassette player (not the PET style). Wonder if they still have those VICs somewhere.
I remember well I was impressed that one could type words in and see them show up on the screen. That was the time when I decided to ask my parents a VIC; they eventually bought me one in December, 1982. It was the beginning of something (see also here and here).
My school took the same path: PET -> C64 -> ICON. The art department did get one Amiga 1000, and the computer lab did have one Commodore 128. One of the teachers had a 128-D in his office, and there were some B128's in the reception office.
Alas, no VICs. I got my Vic because getting computer time on the PET was almost impossible, and whatever time I did spend with it was "Structured" that left me unable to explore (ie; educational programs). I reasoned that I could write programs on the VIC then run them on the PET.
Alas, no VICs. I got my Vic because getting computer time on the PET was almost impossible, and whatever time I did spend with it was "Structured" that left me unable to explore (ie; educational programs). I reasoned that I could write programs on the VIC then run them on the PET.
When I went to university (around 1995), I saw that the media students had a room full of Amigas. Bigger models like A4000 and A3000.
PRG Starter - a VICE helper / Vic Software (Boray Gammon, SD2IEC music player, Vic Disk Menu, Tribbles, Mega Omega, How Many 8K etc.)
I remember when I was kid other school had ABC computers, there was day when people can go to school and see how its like.. And when I was 12-14 school had IBM PC/XT computers and when I was 15-17 Amstrad PCs. Yes.. and I remember when we watched animated porn at computer class with IBM PC and videoprojector.. Good old dos.. Even teacher did sit there at class and watch and people did hurray, when I loaded more stuff.. I used run my own BBS and users did upload all kind of stuff.. Good times.. Good times..