Swansea University uses 1980s computers to inspire next generation
The Cynefin Digidol project is bringing 1980s computers into communities, including refugees, to build digital skills, confidence and a greater understanding of technology.
A Swansea University project is putting working computers from the 1980s into the hands of school students, families, refugees, jobseekers and older adults.
Cynefin Digidol aims to use Wales’ computing heritage to help people feel more confident with modern technology.
The project draws on Swansea University’s History of Computing Collection, with many of the machines having been made or used in South Wales.
Project lead Dr Megan Venn-Wycherley said the older computers offered a different way of understanding technology.
“When you’ve got a phone, it’s essentially a black box,” she said.
“But these computers, you can take off the lids, you can change them, you can edit them, program them and give them instructions.”
She said visitors to the collection, “whether they were nine or 99”, had a strong reaction to the machines.
The project is being taken directly into different communities, including schools, families, refugees, jobseekers and older adults.
Dr Venn-Wycherley said the project was about more than simply learning digital skills.
“It’s giving people the skills and confidence to start questioning modern technology,” she said.
She also hopes the project will bring generations together by sharing memories of computers and games.
“Everybody had a story to tell,” she said.
She said Wales had a “remarkable computing history” that was often overlooked, including the development of the Dragon 32 and an early video game industry in South Wales.
She hopes the project will show young people that “computing does happen here” and encourage them to see technology as something they can shape, rather than simply use.