computerhistory

Today, we can not imagine our world without computers. Do you know that early computers did not look like the computers of today.

In fact some of the first computers were people! Human computers! The history of computers is fascinating and a perfect way to engage the students before and during a computing class.

See if they can research and find the answers to

What was the world's first video game?'

Who is world's first computer programmer?'

Who designed the first Apple computer?

Human computers

At one point, computer was a job. 'I want to be a computer when I grow up!'.

Most of these human computers were women and they played a critical role in World War I and World War II, deciphering secret codes, computing firing tables and more. Some good resources on this are

• The Human Computer and the Birth of the Information Age
• http://www.philsoc.org/2001Spring/2132transcript.html
• Human computers
• http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Human_Computers
• Women Computers in World War II
• http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Women_Computers_in_World_War_II

Some suggestions for topics that can be assigned/studied in a computer history class are:

1. Human computers
2. Abacus
3. Ada Lovelace
4. Babbage
5. Hollerith's Punched Card
6. ENIAC
7. Grace Hopper
8. Colossus
9. Woz
10. Pong
11. The Altair 8800
12. Fairchild Semiconductor
13. Douglas Engelbart
14. World Wide Web
15. IBM's Watson