Education Officer’s Report

by Dick Gray

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 11

Are you an educator?
Do you use computers as a teaching aid?
Do you wish you had APL available to you?

Now read on . . . . . .

Most users of APL agree that the language has not yet been accepted in the U.K. to anything like the extent of its promise, and this failure to develop is often ascribed to the lack of APL systems in the educational resources of the country. It is our intention to do something about this.

Although not much is heard about APL in education, it is in fact used very selectively and effectively in quite a number of our universities, colleges and schools, most notably the University of Swansea, Imperial College – London, and the Polytechnic College of North Staffs.

We have recently held a meeting of educators, who use APL, to discuss ways and means of extending its use in the classroom. One particularly significant attendance was the welcome presence of Mr. Roy Thornton, Director of Computing at Portsmouth Grammar School, where the fortunate pupils are being introduced to APL at an early stage.

Several useful suggestions were made at the meeting and as a result the British APL Association is hoping to put together a form of ‘road-show’, the various elements of which could be modified to suit a particular audience.

The idea would be to visit and make a presentation of APL to those persons or bodies who are responsible for influencing the purchase and use of computers in schools, universities or business colleges. This demonstration would illustrate the many advantages of using APL as a teaching medium, and the fact that the cost of doing so is now no greater than that of any other teaching language. The presentation would be timed to run for about 1½ to 2 hours.

If any educator wishes to invite the ‘Road-Show’ to ‘perform’ to their local computer advisory body or other influential committee, or is interested in any way in furthering the use of APL in our educational system, please contact – Dick Gray at:

Dick Gray Associates,
[address omitted]
[telephone number omitted]