When McDonogh School was founded, correspondence was handwritten using pen and ink. Principal William Allan’s handwritten letters were reproduced using a technique involving parchment copying paper. Before the turn of the century, a handful of students were using the School’s typewriter. They were required to practice three hours a week in the typewriting room — which had a little cupboard in which the paper and (typewriting) ribbons were kept. Their proficiency was tracked based on the number of pages they typed and how long it took. By 1907, the School had eight “typewriting machines for use of the graduates, so they will know how to typewrite when they leave school.”
Fast forward to the 1980s when students had the benefit of using a few clunky, secondhand Apple computers with 9-inch, black and white screens. Computer technology quickly took off, and in 2001, under the direction of then-Director of Technology Tim Fish, four McDonogh students and one alumnus, known as the “Wonder Boys,” built and launched the School’s first website. Read about the website design process in the Baltimore Sun, Student Web team interacts by design, and see the story about the team who made it happen. Today, students of all ages are confident and capable navigators of the ever-changing digital universe, and technology such as laptops is simply another tool in their backpack.
