Douglas Engelbart 

Internet Pioneer Inventor of the Mouse

ICT Innovators 

1925–2013

Douglas Engelbart was an engineer and inventor that helped develop many parts 
of modern computing. After joining the Stanford Research Institute, he developed input devices to reduce 
user error, including the development of the mouse, joystick and trackball. 

In 1968, Engelbart gave what is now referred to as ‘The Mother of All Demos’ at an engineering conference. 
It was here that he demonstrated a complete computer hardware and software system that included many 
fundamental modern computing elements including hypertext; graphics; the mouse; windowed displays; 
video conferencing; and collaborative, shared documents. This was the first demonstration of all of these 
computing elements in one system. It was the first Graphical User Interface (GUI), and although it was 
commercially unsuccessful it would go on to be influential to the development of both Apple Macintosh and 
Microsoft Windows computers throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

People have got to become more effective at handling 
complex problems – at their daily struggle with 
complex and urgent issues. The survival of man seems 
dependent upon it. Any reasonable possibility seen by 
society for increasing that effectiveness should warrant 
serious investigation.

Douglas Engelbart 

Engelbart worked on a 
variety of input devices: the 
computer mouse, joysticks, 
light pens, and track balls

He also created the multiple-window 
display and hypermedia (the linking 
of texts, images, video, and sound 
files within a single document)

Engelbart won the 
1997 A.M. Turing Award, 
the highest honour in 
computer science

His work made it possible 
for ordinary people 
to use computers



Activity – Your Dream Peripheral

What is a Peripheral

A peripheral is a device that you connect to a computer to improve its function.

Peripherals in the future

Imagine you could connect a device to a computer in the future that could do anything you ever dreamed of. 

What might this peripheral do? 

Design your Dream Peripheral

• What does it do?
• What does it look like?
• How does it work?
• How do users interact?


Draw, label and explain a diagram of your dream peripheral to display in your classroom.

Did you know

The first ever mouse created and patented by Douglas Engelbart, November 
17, 1970. 

‘By 1968 I was beginning to feel that we could show a lot of dramatic things. 
I had this adventurous sense of ’Well, let’s try it then,’ which fairly often ended 
in disaster.’


Allow you to smell in a 
video game?

Tell if someone is lying?

See through walls?

Images: The Mouse [Image] (n.d.). Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/SRI_Computer_Mouse.jpg Vectors from www.freepik.com 



Activity – Your Dream App

What is an App

An application is a piece of software that is designed to meet a users specific needs or requirements.

Apps of the Future

If you could have an app that could do anything you can imagine what would it do?

What might this peripheral do? 

Design Your Dream App

• What does it do?
• What needs does it meet?
• Who will use it?
• What does it look like?


Draw, label and explain a diagram of your dream app to display in your classroom.

Did You Know

The first ever smart phone was called Simon, created by 
IBM in 1994.

This phone only had ten built in apps.