History of Computing Timeline
You will be creating a timeline of some major events in the history of computing and computers. The science of computing has actually been around long before the computer as we know it was invented. Here you will find a description of your assignment. I’ve included below the events and/or people you will be researching.
Old Directions: You will use https://www.timetoast.com/ to make the timeline. Each event on your timeline should include a description that is a minimum of three (3) interesting sentences about the topic and inventor, written by you. (It’s a minimum of 3 sentences, but really the reader should be able to understand something about the event/invention by reading your description.) Each event should also include at least one picture. Each event should include a link to where you found your information.
New Directions: You will use https://www.symbaloo.com/ to make the timeline. Place the symbaloo tiles in historical order. Each event on your timeline should include link to where you found your information. Each tile should also have an appropriate thumbnail picture associated with the topic and a brief clear label (such as “Abacus” or “Mac OS X”).
Events that must be in your timeline:
Abacus, Napier’s Bones (John Napier), Slide Rule (William Oughtred), Pascaline (Blaise Paxcal), Stepped Reckoner (Gottfried Leibniz), Jacquard Loom (Joseph-Marie Jacquard), Arithmometer (Thomas de Colmar), Difference and Analytical Engines (Charles Babbage), Augusta Ada Byron, Scheutzian Calculation Engine (Per Georg Scheutz,) Tabulating Machine (Herman Hollerith), Havard Mark 1 (Howard Aiken), Z1 (Konrad Zuse), ENIAC (Eckert & Mauchly), UNIVAC 1(Eckert & Mauchly,) EDVAC (John von Neumann), The transistor (Shockley, et al), COBOL (Grace Hopper), FORTRAN (John Backus, et al), Computer Chip (Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce), The mouse (Douglas Engelbart), The floppy disk (Alan Shugart), Ethernet (Robert Metcalfe), Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Apple II (Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak), IBM Acorn, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, Chromebook, Molecular Informatics (DARPA)
This plan seemed to fit well with the visual aspect of social bookmarking. The big advantage for this modified plan is that it streamlines the assignment and the class could spend less time creating the timeline and possibly more time discussing the topics. However, the disadvantage is that I would really need to make a point about discussing each topic with students, as students may not spend as much time reading through the material. Because they no longer have to write their own brief summary of each topic, since symbaloo can’t handle that much text.