Some of the below questions are review of Lesson 1: "Early Computer History." Some will require further research to answer.
1. What did Joseph-Marie Jacquard invent?
2. Describe Charles Babbage's Analytical Machine?
3. Why is Ada Lovelace important? What computer language was named in her honor?
4. What is Herman Hollerith famous for?
5. List the characteristics of a Turing Machine.
6. How is the Harvard Architecture different from a von Neumann Architecture?
7. In George Stibitz's Model K computer, what does the "K" stand for?
8. A machine called "ABC" was developed at the University of Iowa. What does ABC stand for?
9. What does ENIAC stand for?
10. Who popularized the word "bug" in the context of computer programs? What kind of bug was noted in her journal?
Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Lesson 1: Early Computer History
Here's a quick overview of computer history. I taught this lesson in a single one hour session, but you can explore further in the links and probably expand this into an entire semester if you wanted.
1801 Joseph-Marie Jacquard exhibits his Jackquard Loom, which uses punched cards to control a sequence of operations to make different fabric patterns. Jacquard is credited as the inventor of the first programmable machine. His loom is not a computer, but this loom is an important predecessor in the development of programmable computers.
1837 Charles Babbage describes his proposal for a programmable Analytical Engine, which can be programmed with punch cards to solve mathematical equations. Mathematician Ada Lovelance worked with Babbage and is credited as the first computer programmer. In 1979, the computer language Ada was named in her honor. Babbage was never able to build a working Analytical Engine.
1890 Herman Hollerith develops tabulating machines that uses punch cards to complete the U.S. census in record time. Hollerith founds the "Tabulating Machine Company" which, after various mergers, eventually becomes IBM.
1936 British mathemetician Alan Turing describes the Turing Machine, an important step in the development of computer science theory. The Turing Machine is used to help computer scientists model processing behavior and algorithms.
1937 Bell Labs researcher George Stibitz creates a calculator he calls the "Model K" which used Boolean logic mechanical relays. (We'll cover Boolean logic later)
1939 University of Iowa researchers pioneer important computing concepts with the Atanasoff Berry Computer, including binary arithmetic and electronic switching.
1940s Computer hardware development explodes due to World War 2. Norden bomb sight and artillery fire control are some examples of mechanical computers used in warfare. The British built 10 Colossus computer -- large, building sized electronic digital computers -- to break German codes. They used thousands of vacuum tubes to perform calculations, and data was input using paper tape with holes punched into them, which controlled the movement of metal wheels with pins on them.
1943 ENIAC -- the first general purpose electronic computer.
1945 Mathemetician John von Neumann describes the von Neumann architecture. This describes your basic stored program computer with an arithmetic unit, control unit, a common memory to store data and programming, input and output, and external storage. Instructions and data are fetched via a common bus (or data transfer circuit). von Neumann's store program architecture was an advancement over earlier program controlled computers, which were programmed by hard wiring the instructions as part of the computer architecture.
1950s - first commercial computers developed.
1801 Joseph-Marie Jacquard exhibits his Jackquard Loom, which uses punched cards to control a sequence of operations to make different fabric patterns. Jacquard is credited as the inventor of the first programmable machine. His loom is not a computer, but this loom is an important predecessor in the development of programmable computers.
1837 Charles Babbage describes his proposal for a programmable Analytical Engine, which can be programmed with punch cards to solve mathematical equations. Mathematician Ada Lovelance worked with Babbage and is credited as the first computer programmer. In 1979, the computer language Ada was named in her honor. Babbage was never able to build a working Analytical Engine.
1890 Herman Hollerith develops tabulating machines that uses punch cards to complete the U.S. census in record time. Hollerith founds the "Tabulating Machine Company" which, after various mergers, eventually becomes IBM.
1936 British mathemetician Alan Turing describes the Turing Machine, an important step in the development of computer science theory. The Turing Machine is used to help computer scientists model processing behavior and algorithms.
1937 Bell Labs researcher George Stibitz creates a calculator he calls the "Model K" which used Boolean logic mechanical relays. (We'll cover Boolean logic later)
1939 University of Iowa researchers pioneer important computing concepts with the Atanasoff Berry Computer, including binary arithmetic and electronic switching.
1940s Computer hardware development explodes due to World War 2. Norden bomb sight and artillery fire control are some examples of mechanical computers used in warfare. The British built 10 Colossus computer -- large, building sized electronic digital computers -- to break German codes. They used thousands of vacuum tubes to perform calculations, and data was input using paper tape with holes punched into them, which controlled the movement of metal wheels with pins on them.
1943 ENIAC -- the first general purpose electronic computer.
1945 Mathemetician John von Neumann describes the von Neumann architecture. This describes your basic stored program computer with an arithmetic unit, control unit, a common memory to store data and programming, input and output, and external storage. Instructions and data are fetched via a common bus (or data transfer circuit). von Neumann's store program architecture was an advancement over earlier program controlled computers, which were programmed by hard wiring the instructions as part of the computer architecture.
1950s - first commercial computers developed.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Computer Skills Homeschool
Hi,
Introduction to Computers Home School curriculum
This high school introductory computer technology curriculum for the 21st Century will depend a great deal on Wikipedia and other online resources, and organized in a fashion that is hopefully useful for the homeschooling parent and student.
Here are the lessons I have so far and will post to this blog.
I'm a homeschooling dad and a technology professional. My son is now a high school junior through a home school charter school in California.
My son is taking a computer skills / technology class this semester. We looked at the various online curricula available and, to be honest, the programs we found seem to fall short and are outdated. They're all variations on introductions to Windows 95 (!) and Microsoft Office.
Anybody born since the 90s and exposed to technology knows how to use a computer mouse, login to a computer, and browse the web. Using productivity tools is also an important skill, but my son has been creating Word documents and Power Point presetations for years now. Your child and mine are a little bit beyond these basic "Introduction to Computers" classes.
So my son and I are creating our own curriculum suitable for technology aware students. We're putting a lot of work into it so I figure I might as well journal our efforts so others can benefit.
This class is not a deep dive into computer technology -- this isn't an Electrical Engineering degree -- but I will expose our students to the basics of computer hardware and software technology. We start with the history of computing, move on to basic hardware and software basics, and from there we'll explore computer networking, the Internet and the World Wide Web.
We'll dip our toes into simple HTML and Javascript programming, but the class project, so to speak, will be writing an Android application. If you don't have an Android phone, don't worry -- the Android Development Kit (available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), comes with an Android emulator built in. My son's already decided he'd like to write a tower defense game. Since we'll be writing an Android app, that means we also need to learn a little bit of the Java programming language and object oriented programming.
I'll also post exercises here that you can use or adapt as you see fit. The point of the exercises is to reinforce the concepts taught in the lesson. In the meantime, we'll also cover computer network security, privacy issues, social networking, using cloud applications and storage, and the ethics and responsibility that comes with having all of this power available at our fingertips.
I have no idea if we'll actually cover all of these topics in a single school year, but I think it beats using up a full school year learning how to properly indent bullet points.
I'll post at least twice a week with lessons, and possibly more often than that, so check back often or add this blog to your RSS reader. If you don't know what an RSS reader is, we'll talk about that here later :-)
If you have your own ideas and links to resources, I'm all ears. Please also feel free to ask questions. I'm a Silicon Valley software engineer working for a Fortune 100 computer hardware & software corporation and have been in this game for a couple of decades now. I see the binary digits that underlie the fancy user interfaces, just like Neo in The Matrix, and if I speak too much geek speak, please don't feel intimidated, but speak up and ask me to break it down for you.
Finally, if you feel like this is handy resource for other home schooling parents, please pass the link to this blog around to your friends via email, Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter and whatever other social networking applications you and your friends use. Thanks a million!
Introduction to Computers Home School curriculum
This high school introductory computer technology curriculum for the 21st Century will depend a great deal on Wikipedia and other online resources, and organized in a fashion that is hopefully useful for the homeschooling parent and student.
Here are the lessons I have so far and will post to this blog.
- Computing History
- Tubes, Transistors and Integrated Circuits
- Microprocessors
- Boolean Algebra and Circuits
- Binary Digits
- ASCII
- Unicode
- Computer Networking History
- The Internet
- The World Wide Web
- More TBD...
I'm a homeschooling dad and a technology professional. My son is now a high school junior through a home school charter school in California.
My son is taking a computer skills / technology class this semester. We looked at the various online curricula available and, to be honest, the programs we found seem to fall short and are outdated. They're all variations on introductions to Windows 95 (!) and Microsoft Office.
Anybody born since the 90s and exposed to technology knows how to use a computer mouse, login to a computer, and browse the web. Using productivity tools is also an important skill, but my son has been creating Word documents and Power Point presetations for years now. Your child and mine are a little bit beyond these basic "Introduction to Computers" classes.
So my son and I are creating our own curriculum suitable for technology aware students. We're putting a lot of work into it so I figure I might as well journal our efforts so others can benefit.
This class is not a deep dive into computer technology -- this isn't an Electrical Engineering degree -- but I will expose our students to the basics of computer hardware and software technology. We start with the history of computing, move on to basic hardware and software basics, and from there we'll explore computer networking, the Internet and the World Wide Web.
We'll dip our toes into simple HTML and Javascript programming, but the class project, so to speak, will be writing an Android application. If you don't have an Android phone, don't worry -- the Android Development Kit (available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), comes with an Android emulator built in. My son's already decided he'd like to write a tower defense game. Since we'll be writing an Android app, that means we also need to learn a little bit of the Java programming language and object oriented programming.
I'll also post exercises here that you can use or adapt as you see fit. The point of the exercises is to reinforce the concepts taught in the lesson. In the meantime, we'll also cover computer network security, privacy issues, social networking, using cloud applications and storage, and the ethics and responsibility that comes with having all of this power available at our fingertips.
I have no idea if we'll actually cover all of these topics in a single school year, but I think it beats using up a full school year learning how to properly indent bullet points.
I'll post at least twice a week with lessons, and possibly more often than that, so check back often or add this blog to your RSS reader. If you don't know what an RSS reader is, we'll talk about that here later :-)
If you have your own ideas and links to resources, I'm all ears. Please also feel free to ask questions. I'm a Silicon Valley software engineer working for a Fortune 100 computer hardware & software corporation and have been in this game for a couple of decades now. I see the binary digits that underlie the fancy user interfaces, just like Neo in The Matrix, and if I speak too much geek speak, please don't feel intimidated, but speak up and ask me to break it down for you.
Finally, if you feel like this is handy resource for other home schooling parents, please pass the link to this blog around to your friends via email, Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter and whatever other social networking applications you and your friends use. Thanks a million!
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