Pamela Morton (often credited as Pam Morton) is a British computing educator and academic administrator. She is recognized for her tenure at Thames Polytechnic (later the University of Greenwich) and her advocacy for women's participation in information technology and engineering. During the late 1970s and 1980s, she directed advanced computing curricula, served on national IT policy advisory bodies, and published research regarding gender-based access to technical education.[1][2][3]
Morton was raised in London.[1] She pursued a University of London internal degree on a part-time basis while employed full-time, eventually completing a combined program in mathematics, chemistry, and physics at a London polytechnic[disambiguation needed].[1]
In 1965, she transferred to the Ministry of Technology within the Controller's Planning Unit. Tasked with streamlining the retrieval of research and development expenditure data for Parliamentary questions, Morton led the design of a keyword thesaurus and database. The system used ICT's FIND 1, an early fourth-generation programming language, to aggregate data across approximately thirty research establishments.[1] The project was used as a test-bed for FIND 2, an early spreadsheet-like facility.[1]
Thames Polytechnic and computing education
Morton entered higher education in 1970, joining the computing department at Thames Polytechnic[1] where she worked as a lecturer.[1][4] By the late 1970s, she was the director of the institution's advanced computer studies course.[2]
In his 1981 book Women in Computing, Geoff Simons identified Morton as a significant contributor to British computing. Simons noted her view that women were well-suited for roles in systems analysis and design, and recorded her observation that female students frequently outperformed their male counterparts in her courses.[2] By 1985, she had been promoted to Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Technology.[3]
Pedagogical innovation
Morton was an early adopter of audio-visual techniques in the classroom. Along with colleague Douglas Hainline, she used the polytechnic's television studios to record student role-plays and presentations in systems investigation. This allowed students to review and critique their own communication styles and performance in a professional context.[3][1]
In 1990, she had won the Peugeot Talbot /Council for Industry and Higher Education Partnership Award for fostering entrepreneurial and professional skills in first year undergraduate students.[5]
Early Women in STEM Research and advocacy
Morton was pioneering in her academic work focused on the structural barriers to women entering technical fields. Her 1985 paper, "Women in Information Technology: Engineering Aspects of the British Experience," published in IEEE Transactions on Education, compared British and American educational frameworks.[3] She argued that the flexibility of the American higher education system—specifically later specialization and conversion courses—facilitated higher female participation than the more rigid English system.[3]
The paper also analyzed the impact of initiatives such as Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) and noted that at Thames Polytechnic, five out of six graduates receiving first-class honours in computer science were women, most of whom had no prior background in the subject.[3] Morton also authored The Microelectronic Revolution—Can the Education System be Made to Cope?, which examined the broader educational implications of rapid Microelectronics development.[3]
In 1988, The Times profiled Morton's success in increasing female enrollment. By structuring a three-year computing course to accommodate mature students with family responsibilities, she achieved a female participation rate of approximately 25%.[6]
Morton's research was a catalyst for the creation of the Women into Information Technology campaign[7] and active member. IT Skills Agency approached Morton with a view to organising a campaign to increase the number of women entering the IT industry.[7] The campaign received backing from the Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom) and "over 60 major IT employers as well as from the world of education and training" when it launched in 1990.[7]
British Computer Society (BCS): Served as the Education Liaison Officer for the London Branch Committee, bridging the gap between professional industry standards and academic curricula.[3]
Morton is regarded as part of the first generation of British computing educators to integrate curriculum design with gender equality and national policy. Her work at Thames Polytechnic and within PITCOM established a precedent for widening participation in the UK's information technology sector.[2][3][1]
1234Simons, Geoff (1981). Women in Computing. NCC Publications. p.31. ISBN978-0850122961. Pam Morton is a director of an advanced computer studies course at Thames Polytechnic, and believes that women make especially good systems analysts and designers.
12345678910Judith Shapiro, Douglas Hainline and Pamela Morton, “Women in Information Technology: Engineering Aspects of the British Experience”, IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. E‑28, No. 4, November 1985.
↑Tiley, Leslie (1980-12-06). "Women have the answer". The Times. p.31.
↑Tilley, Leslie (6 December 1988). "Women have the answer". The Times. p.31. Pamela Morton, computing lecturer at Thames Polytechnic, said she had been able to reverse the trend. Twenty-five per cent of students on her courses are women. She said she had tailored the courses to attract women.
↑Abbate, Janet (2012). Recoding gender: women's changing participation in computing. History of computing. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN978-0-262-01806-7.
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