In the early 1980s the computer entered the British home in significant numbers for the first time as many thousands of people purchased their first personal 'microcomputer'. In this paper I explore the educational character of the home computer boom, a response to unease over the impact of new information technologies. Media, government, social movements and computer manufacturers constituted a systematic effort to enhance the public understanding of a new technology that was anticipated to change the world.
Keywords: acquisition of new technologies; history of science; innovation; public understanding of science; representations of science; science communication; studies of science and technology.