Elizabeth 'Liddy' Nevile is an Australian academic and pioneer in Australian educational computing.
Liddy graduated from Monash University with degrees in pure mathematics and law in 1973. Through the remainder of the 1970s she taught law at the David Syme Business School (Monash University), introducing some computer management systems and practices and new teaching and learning approaches informed by the constructivist learning theory. During this period she also married and had four children.
In 1981, Liddy was first exposed to educational computing in schools when her son was invited to participate in an extension program at Glamorgan primary school (part of Geelong Grammar School). The program made use of Logo (the world's first computer programming language designed for learning), an Apple computer, a Logo-controlled Robotic Turtle, and drew upon the constructionism approach to learning, an extension of the constructivist theory which she was familiar with. Liddy's interest was piqued, and she quickly became involved in extending the use of computers and Logo at Glamorgan at a time when the use of computers in Australian classrooms remained very limited. Liddy was appointed an Educational Technology Consultant at Glamorgan, immersing herself in classroom computing at the school where every child ranging in age from three to twelve years would eventually come to use computers twice per week. Based on this classroom experience, Liddy and freelance editor, Caroline Dowling, wrote a series of Learning with Logo student workbooks and accompanying teacher and parent manuals. These were published between 1983 and 1988.
Liddy's interest in educational computing quickly extended beyond Glamorgan, and she became part of an enthusiastic network of teachers and researchers leading developments in Australian educational computing. She joined the Computer Education Group of Victoria (CEGV) and began contributing to the group's journal COM-3 in 1982. In 1983, she helped CEGV create the Computer Access Scheme, an innovative community computing access and teacher training program based at the South Yarra Library. This scheme was the basis for founding CEGV Services, an arm of the organisation that was at the forefront of providing teacher professional development, school computing and community access services through the 1980s. Liddy coordinated CEGV Services from 1983 to 1984 and also served as President of CEGV from 1987 to 1988.
In addition to her rapidly expanding involvement in domestic educational computing, Liddy also actively sought to engage with a number of international scholars and practitioners at the forefront of the movement. In 1981, together with Carolyn Dowling, she made an extensive international tour of educational research bodies. She established relationships with a number of key figures, including Professor Seymour Papert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whose Constructionist learning theory and Logo programming software deeply influenced her approach to educational computing. Over the course of her career, Liddy helped to bring many of the world's leading educational computing experts to Australia, making a major contribution to local knowledge, policy, and practice.
In 1984, Liddy joined Australian computer hardware and software distributor Barson Computers. Barson were the Australian supplier for the BBC Microcomputer which had become the mainstay of educational computing in Britain. By the mid-1980s, the BBC Microcomputer would also be the only computer approved by every Australian State and Territory Education Department, and Barson secured a number of school supply contracts. To support the company's role in educational computing Liddy was employed as its first Director of Research. Between 1984 and 1986, Liddy explored and introduced a range of digital technologies (such as laser disks) and new approaches to computing into Australian schools.
In 1987, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) approached Liddy with an offer to lead its new Education and Technology research theme. This was one of five triennial themes ACER would research over the period 1987 to 1990. Liddy took up the role as Director of the theme but reshaped the investigative brief away from a techno-centric evaluation of how computers were currently being integrated into classrooms to an exploration of the type of educational environments and cultures in which the power of computers might best be harnessed to enhance learning and which might provide a glimpse into the possibilities of schooling in the future. This approach accorded with her previous work with educational technologies. It also drew upon the theoretical and applied work being conducted by a core group of scholars and practitioners associated with the Constructionist learning theory and Logo computer software, many of which were connected to the MIT Media Lab.
At ACER, Liddy initiated work under the Education and Technology theme by collaborating with the Museum of Victoria to create the Sunrise School. The school was originally referred to as the School of the Future in reference to a similar project that had recently been completed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues from the MIT Media Lab at the Hennigan School in Boston. In fact, Liddy recruited Papert along with others from MIT to be part of the Sunrise School's International Advisory Panel, bolstering the array of intellectual resources available to the project. Similarly, Liddy drew on her existing connections with technology suppliers, including Barson Computers, to assist with the provision of computers and equipment for the Sunrise School.
In 1988, the Sunrise School opened at the museum as a technological and culturally rich learning environment accessible to select groups of students and teachers, pre-service teachers and educational researchers. The core group of users were two classes of middle-years secondary school students from Princes Hill Secondary College. They spent up to two afternoons each week onsite through the 1988 and 1989 school years engaged in learning activities informed by constructionist educational theory. The activities emphasised student engagement in constructing personal knowledge through largely self-directed processes of creating digital and material items that made use of the school's computer and robotics technology within the context of the museum environment.
The Sunrise School's innovative approach quickly captured public attention, as well as the interest of those in the education sector. Having attended the school's official launch in June 1988, the Principal of Methodist Ladies College (MLC), David Loader, sought to engage Liddy through ACER to assist in rethinking the use of computers at MLC. Liddy's consultation with MLC led to the establishment of a Sunrise Centre there in 1989. In its first year, the MLC Sunrise Centre ran a successful pilot program with one Year 7 'Sunrise Class' making use of desktop computers and robotics technologies as they engaged in the type of independent constructionist learning activity that was emerging as central to what might be called 'Sunrise' practice. In 1990, MLC expanded the number of Sunrise Classes to six and introduced one-to-one personal computing with students in three of the classes having access to their own laptop computer at school and home. These laptop classes and MLC's commitment to becoming a laptop school were a world first! The impact of this Sunrise-led transformation was significant and wide-reaching. Teachers and administrators from across the world flocked to the school seeking insights to how they might transform their own schools and practices!
Liddy expanded ACER's Sunrise program further through her work with the Queensland Department of Education to establish a Queensland Sunrise Centre. The centre, based at Combabah State Primary School on the Gold Coast, began operation in 1990. At the school, sixty Year 6 students and their teachers entered the Sunrise program using a mix of desktop and laptop computers and other digital technologies as they explored the new approaches to learning and teaching associated with Sunrise practices.
In June 1990, Liddy coordinated a Sunrise Lego-Logo workshop as part of the World Conference of Computers in Education held in Sydney. Key participants in the two-day workshop included two of the developers of the Lego-Logo robotics system, Steve Ocko and Mitch Resnick from MIT, and a number of students and teachers from each of the three Sunrise locations operating at this time: the Sunrise School at the Museum, the MLC Sunrise Centre and Queensland Sunrise Centre.
In 1991, at the conclusion of the Education and Research Theme's 3-year term, Liddy left ACER to take up an academic position with RMIT University. ACER continued its educational technology research under a new triennial theme 'Cognition, Technology and the Classroom', producing some important findings from the ongoing work being conducted at the Queensland Sunrise Centre.
At RMIT, Liddy formed the Sunrise Research Laboratory. She continued her work in educational computing there through the 1990s, bringing together teachers, students, researchers and industry partners in a wide range of research and development projects. The projects increasingly engaged with the World Wide Web, which had emerged through this period. One such project resulted in the production of the OZeKIDS CD-ROM series that provided tutorials on web browsing and web development. Twenty-five thousand OZeKIDS discs were sold to schools and for private use. Another focus of her work with the Sunrise Research Laboratory was to improve use of digital technology by RMIT staff. This resulted in the introduction of the Sunrise Professional Development program. Liddy undertook research on this program as part of a Master of Education at RMIT which she completed in 1994.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Liddy became increasingly involved in the development of World Wide Web standards. She was instrumental in assembling a successful case for opening an Australian branch of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - the primary international standards organisation. Her research and advocacy work on standards has focussed on inclusion and accessibility. In 2009, she completed a PhD at RMIT University with a thesis titled: "Metadata for user-centred, inclusive access to digital resources: realising the theory of AccessForAll Accessibility".
Although 'officially retired' Liddy remains an active contributor to a number of World Wide Web standards organisations.
The Sunrise Collection at Melbourne Museum contains a range of items related to Liddy's work centering on the Sunrise School and Sunrise Centre programs.
Liddy graduated from Monash University with degrees in pure mathematics and law in 1973. Through the remainder of the 1970s she taught law at the David Syme Business School (Monash University), introducing some computer management systems and practices and new teaching and learning approaches informed by the constructivist learning theory. During this period she also married and had four children.
In 1981, Liddy was first exposed to educational computing in schools when her son was invited to participate in an extension program at Glamorgan primary school (part of Geelong Grammar School). The program made use of Logo (the world's first computer programming language designed for learning), an Apple computer, a Logo-controlled Robotic Turtle, and drew upon the constructionism approach to learning, an extension of the constructivist theory which she was familiar with. Liddy's interest was piqued, and she quickly became involved in extending the use of computers and Logo at Glamorgan at a time when the use of computers in Australian classrooms remained very limited. Liddy was appointed an Educational Technology Consultant at Glamorgan, immersing herself in classroom computing at the school where every child ranging in age from three to twelve years would eventually come to use computers twice per week. Based on this classroom experience, Liddy and freelance editor, Caroline Dowling, wrote a series of Learning with Logo student workbooks and accompanying teacher and parent manuals. These were published between 1983 and 1988.
Liddy's interest in educational computing quickly extended beyond Glamorgan, and she became part of an enthusiastic network of teachers and researchers leading developments in Australian educational computing. She joined the Computer Education Group of Victoria (CEGV) and began contributing to the group's journal COM-3 in 1982. In 1983, she helped CEGV create the Computer Access Scheme, an innovative community computing access and teacher training program based at the South Yarra Library. This scheme was the basis for founding CEGV Services, an arm of the organisation that was at the forefront of providing teacher professional development, school computing and community access services through the 1980s. Liddy coordinated CEGV Services from 1983 to 1984 and also served as President of CEGV from 1987 to 1988.
In addition to her rapidly expanding involvement in domestic educational computing, Liddy also actively sought to engage with a number of international scholars and practitioners at the forefront of the movement. In 1981, together with Carolyn Dowling, she made an extensive international tour of educational research bodies. She established relationships with a number of key figures, including Professor Seymour Papert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whose Constructionist learning theory and Logo programming software deeply influenced her approach to educational computing. Over the course of her career, Liddy helped to bring many of the world's leading educational computing experts to Australia, making a major contribution to local knowledge, policy, and practice.
In 1984, Liddy joined Australian computer hardware and software distributor Barson Computers. Barson were the Australian supplier for the BBC Microcomputer which had become the mainstay of educational computing in Britain. By the mid-1980s, the BBC Microcomputer would also be the only computer approved by every Australian State and Territory Education Department, and Barson secured a number of school supply contracts. To support the company's role in educational computing Liddy was employed as its first Director of Research. Between 1984 and 1986, Liddy explored and introduced a range of digital technologies (such as laser disks) and new approaches to computing into Australian schools.
In 1987, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) approached Liddy with an offer to lead its new Education and Technology research theme. This was one of five triennial themes ACER would research over the period 1987 to 1990. Liddy took up the role as Director of the theme but reshaped the investigative brief away from a techno-centric evaluation of how computers were currently being integrated into classrooms to an exploration of the type of educational environments and cultures in which the power of computers might best be harnessed to enhance learning and which might provide a glimpse into the possibilities of schooling in the future. This approach accorded with her previous work with educational technologies. It also drew upon the theoretical and applied work being conducted by a core group of scholars and practitioners associated with the Constructionist learning theory and Logo computer software, many of which were connected to the MIT Media Lab.
At ACER, Liddy initiated work under the Education and Technology theme by collaborating with the Museum of Victoria to create the Sunrise School. The school was originally referred to as the School of the Future in reference to a similar project that had recently been completed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues from the MIT Media Lab at the Hennigan School in Boston. In fact, Liddy recruited Papert along with others from MIT to be part of the Sunrise School's International Advisory Panel, bolstering the array of intellectual resources available to the project. Similarly, Liddy drew on her existing connections with technology suppliers, including Barson Computers, to assist with the provision of computers and equipment for the Sunrise School.
In 1988, the Sunrise School opened at the museum as a technological and culturally rich learning environment accessible to select groups of students and teachers, pre-service teachers and educational researchers. The core group of users were two classes of middle-years secondary school students from Princes Hill Secondary College. They spent up to two afternoons each week onsite through the 1988 and 1989 school years engaged in learning activities informed by constructionist educational theory. The activities emphasised student engagement in constructing personal knowledge through largely self-directed processes of creating digital and material items that made use of the school's computer and robotics technology within the context of the museum environment.
The Sunrise School's innovative approach quickly captured public attention, as well as the interest of those in the education sector. Having attended the school's official launch in June 1988, the Principal of Methodist Ladies College (MLC), David Loader, sought to engage Liddy through ACER to assist in rethinking the use of computers at MLC. Liddy's consultation with MLC led to the establishment of a Sunrise Centre there in 1989. In its first year, the MLC Sunrise Centre ran a successful pilot program with one Year 7 'Sunrise Class' making use of desktop computers and robotics technologies as they engaged in the type of independent constructionist learning activity that was emerging as central to what might be called 'Sunrise' practice. In 1990, MLC expanded the number of Sunrise Classes to six and introduced one-to-one personal computing with students in three of the classes having access to their own laptop computer at school and home. These laptop classes and MLC's commitment to becoming a laptop school were a world first! The impact of this Sunrise-led transformation was significant and wide-reaching. Teachers and administrators from across the world flocked to the school seeking insights to how they might transform their own schools and practices!
Liddy expanded ACER's Sunrise program further through her work with the Queensland Department of Education to establish a Queensland Sunrise Centre. The centre, based at Combabah State Primary School on the Gold Coast, began operation in 1990. At the school, sixty Year 6 students and their teachers entered the Sunrise program using a mix of desktop and laptop computers and other digital technologies as they explored the new approaches to learning and teaching associated with Sunrise practices.
In June 1990, Liddy coordinated a Sunrise Lego-Logo workshop as part of the World Conference of Computers in Education held in Sydney. Key participants in the two-day workshop included two of the developers of the Lego-Logo robotics system, Steve Ocko and Mitch Resnick from MIT, and a number of students and teachers from each of the three Sunrise locations operating at this time: the Sunrise School at the Museum, the MLC Sunrise Centre and Queensland Sunrise Centre.
In 1991, at the conclusion of the Education and Research Theme's 3-year term, Liddy left ACER to take up an academic position with RMIT University. ACER continued its educational technology research under a new triennial theme 'Cognition, Technology and the Classroom', producing some important findings from the ongoing work being conducted at the Queensland Sunrise Centre.
At RMIT, Liddy formed the Sunrise Research Laboratory. She continued her work in educational computing there through the 1990s, bringing together teachers, students, researchers and industry partners in a wide range of research and development projects. The projects increasingly engaged with the World Wide Web, which had emerged through this period. One such project resulted in the production of the OZeKIDS CD-ROM series that provided tutorials on web browsing and web development. Twenty-five thousand OZeKIDS discs were sold to schools and for private use. Another focus of her work with the Sunrise Research Laboratory was to improve use of digital technology by RMIT staff. This resulted in the introduction of the Sunrise Professional Development program. Liddy undertook research on this program as part of a Master of Education at RMIT which she completed in 1994.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Liddy became increasingly involved in the development of World Wide Web standards. She was instrumental in assembling a successful case for opening an Australian branch of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - the primary international standards organisation. Her research and advocacy work on standards has focussed on inclusion and accessibility. In 2009, she completed a PhD at RMIT University with a thesis titled: "Metadata for user-centred, inclusive access to digital resources: realising the theory of AccessForAll Accessibility".
Although 'officially retired' Liddy remains an active contributor to a number of World Wide Web standards organisations.
The Sunrise Collection at Melbourne Museum contains a range of items related to Liddy's work centering on the Sunrise School and Sunrise Centre programs.
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