Editing MECC (section)

=== Origins ===
During the 1960s, Minnesota was a center of computer technology, what ''[[City Pages]]'' would describe 50 years later as a "Midwestern [[Silicon Valley]]". [[IBM]], [[Honeywell]], [[Control Data Corporation|Control Data]] and other companies had facilities in the state. In 1963, their presence inspired a group of teachers at the [[University of Minnesota]] [[University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development|College of Education]]'s [[laboratory school]] to introduce computers into classrooms via [[teleprinter]]s and [[time-sharing]]. The group began with long-distance calls to [[Dartmouth College]]'s [[General Electric]] computer to use [[John George Kemeny]] and [[Thomas E. Kurtz]]'s new [[Dartmouth BASIC]] language, then moved to [[Minneapolis]]-based [[Pillsbury Company]]'s own GE computer. In 1968, twenty [[Minneapolis–Saint Paul]] area school districts and the College of Education founded Total Information for Educational Systems (TIES) to provide time-sharing service on a [[HP 2000]], training, and software. The presence of computer-company employees on many [[school boards]] accelerated the expansion of TIES and helped make Minnesota a leader in computer-based education.<ref name="lafrenz19950413">{{cite web |url=http://purl.umn.edu/107423 |title=Oral history interview with Dale Eugene LaFrenz |publisher=[[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota, Minneapolis |date=1995-04-13 |author=LaFrenz, Dale Eugene}}</ref><ref name="lussenhop20110119">{{cite news|last=Lussenhop |first=Jessica |title=Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its path |url=http://www.citypages.com/content/printVersion/1740595/ |access-date=2011-01-20 |newspaper=City Pages |date=2011-01-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123012937/http://www.citypages.com/content/printVersion/1740595/ |archive-date=2011-01-23}}</ref>{{r|ota1982}}

The success of TIES, and that of similar projects run by [[Minneapolis Public Schools]] and [[Minnesota State University, Mankato]],{{r|lafrenz19950413}} led to the founding of MECC in 1973{{r|lussenhop20110119}} by the [[Minnesota Legislature|state legislature]]. As a [[Joint Powers Authority]], with the support of the University of Minnesota, the [[Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System]], and the Minnesota Department of Education,<ref name="mace19811207">{{cite news|last=Mace|first=Scott|title=Minnesota's MECC educates next generation of computer users|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gT0EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22mecc%22%20catalog%20apple&pg=PA9|access-date=2011-01-20|newspaper=InfoWorld|date=1981-12-07}}</ref> MECC's role was to study and coordinate computer use in schools for both [[management information system|administrative]] and educational purposes. Schools, including the universities, had to get MECC's approval for most computing expenses, and were also its customers for computer-related services. After study of educational needs, a single educational computer center in the Minneapolis area was recommended for use by schools throughout the state{{r|lafrenz19950413}} (the University of Minnesota's MERITSS computer provided time-sharing services to its campuses and to state universities).<ref name="ERICHaugo" />{{r|ota1982}} MECC hoped that every Minnesota school, regardless of size, would have a terminal connected to the computer center.<ref name="pioneer19740509">{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4FhlAAAAIBAJ&pg=2182%2C6008944 | title=Hendricks may have computer in future | work=Hendricks Pioneer | date=1974-05-09 | access-date=31 December 2014 | pages=1}}</ref>