History of computers timeline
Overview
The purpose of this lesson is to understand the speed advancement of modern computers in their short history
As a group, we will explore questions such as these:
- What is considered the first computer and by who’s definition?
- How has time changed the size and power of computers?
- What were the most important advancements and inventions that dictated the course of computer evolution?
- Given our current speed of computer evolution where might we be in 10 years?
- What science fiction will become science fact and how soon?
It is tempting in a computer course to plunge in and start right away creating and developing programs
However, since our goal is for you to learn to develop high-quality
Programs, we first must spend some time
developing an understanding of what a computer is and how it works. This
is important because if we don’t have a basic understanding of how computers work we cannot develop an intutive ability to see how things fit together in a program.
In addition to understanding computers you must spend some time planning a program before you begin to develop it. Just as there are pre-writing steps that ought to be done prior to writing an essay,
there are pre-coding steps to do before you create a program. Planning ahead
will reduce the number of mistakes you’ll make while constructing the program.
In the work world, this will save you time and money.
Learner Outcomes
At the completion of this exercise:
- you will have learned a brief history of computers.
- you will have learned the value of pre-planning in programming
Activities
- What is a computer? As a group, discuss
the questions presented in the Overview section above. - What do the experts say? Visit the websites listed
below in the Resources section. Each of these resources provides
someone else’s work on the history of computers.
Which
of these resources do you find most useful? Discuss this as a group. - Build a timeline Individually, visit at least four websites that provide information on the history of computers.(You may use the resources or you own search)
- write out a list of dates and events you find on these websites
- Highlight the most important developments in the time line and write a few sentences describing why they are important
- Create a prezi for your time line ( feel free to include pictures)
- Write in your journal about this process. Be sure to discuss how the planning and gathering of your resources helped you create you prezi.
Resources/Online Documents
All done?
Show your instructor your completed list of websites you’ve evaluated.