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History and development of computers
The role of computers in education
History and development of computers
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I have been using computers for as long as I can remember, whether it is for entertainment use or work use, computers are part of our everyday lives. They have an effect on almost everything you do. When you buy groceries at a supermarket, a computer is uesed with laser and barcode technology to scan the price of each item and present a total. Barcoding items (clothes, food and books ) requires a computer to generate the barcode labels and maintain the inventory. Most televison advertisiments and many films use graphics produced by a computer. In hospitals, bedide terminals connected to the hospital's main computer allow doctors to typw in orders for blood tests and to schedule operations. Banks use computers to lool after their customers' money. In libraries and bookshops, computers can help to find the book you want as quikly as possible. This has not always been the case though; computers did not always exist, and are continuously changing to this day. I think one group said it best,” Companies promote it for their employees. Parents demand it for their children. Those who have it believe they have a competitive edge. Those who don't have it seek it out. "It" is a computer. We are rapidly becoming a "computer society" Until recently computers were found only in environmentally controlled rooms behind locked doors. Only computer professionals dared enter these secured premises. In contrast today computers are found in millions of homes and just about every office. In fact there is a computer for one in every eight people in the world. Eventually all of us will have at least one computer and will use it every day for work and leisure.” -EYAL POLAD, YARON TWENA, DORON FREIBERG, and GILAT ELIZOV. Role of Computers in the Past “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” –Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977 First Generation Almost everything invented or created, has one specific person who has been credited with their invention or creation, but this is not so with the computer. Many people throughout history have added their part to the computer. This could include programs to help the computer run better or faster, some created different kinds of computers, but either way they contributed to the computer we know today. The first “computer” was developed in 1936 by Konrad Zuse and was named Z1.
The earliest memory of my using a computer comes from when I was around four years-old; my grandmother sat me in front of a clunky, large desktop running off of Windows 95. It was like it was love at first site, and now it feels as if I’ve always had this sort of love-affair with computers. Technology is something that changes every day. From computers to eReaders it’s as if each time we turn the corner, there is some new update waiting to be downloaded or installed. For some this is no issue, yet for others it’s a massive inconvenience. The latter is left wondering why the current generation is so dependent on technology, or why more and more people prefer to read from a Kindle or Nook rather than “old-fashioned” books. For people with these questions, I strongly advise reading “Lazy Eyes” by Michael Agger, as it not only provides information that’s useful and thought-provoking; it manages to be funny at the same time while Sherry Turkle’s “How Computers Change the Way We Think” is dull, dated, and doesn’t provide any sort of helpful information.
Computers have changed our lives in many, many different ways. We do a lot of things from computers and our portable devices such as get music, watch videos, pay bills, order dinner, keep connected with friends on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, take college classes online, and many other things that I could make a 5 page list of all the things it can help us do straight from home but that would bore you to death. Now that I have told you how computers have changed our lives and how they are used in daily life, let me tell you the importance of the people working in computers and IT. These people are very important because without them who would you go to for help with your computer, make sure your information is safe, get viruses off your computer and keep it safe for kids from being attacked? That’s right, you wouldn’t be able to do any of this.
today’s world, computers have become the way to do business, communicate with the world, or
There are many different beginnings to the origins of computers. Their origins could be dated back more than two thousand years ago, depending on what a person means when they ask where the first computer came from. Most primitive computers were created for the purpose of running simple programs at best. (Daves Old Computers) However, the first ‘digital’ computer was created for the purposes of binary arithmetic, otherwise known as simple math. It was also created for regenerative memory, parallel processing, and separation of memory and computing functions. Built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry during 1937-1942, it was dubbed the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC).
Many encyclopaedias and other reference works state that the first large-scale automatic digital computer was the Harvard Mark 1, which was developed by Howard H. Aiken (and team) in America between 1939 and 1944. However, in the aftermath of World War II it was discovered that a program controlled computer called the Z3 had been completed in Germany in 1941, which means that the Z3 pre-dated the Harvard Mark I. Prof. Hurst Zuse (http://www.epemag.com/zuse/)
...ere are gears used to select which numbers you want. Though Charles Babbage will always be credited with making the first “true” computer, and Bill Gates with popularizing it, Blaise Pascal will always have a place among the first true innovator of the computer. There is even a programming language called Pascal or Object Pascal which is an early computer program.
Computer engineering started about 5,000 years ago in China when they invented the abacus. The abacus is a manual calculator in which you move beads back and forth on rods to add or subtract. Other inventors of simple computers include Blaise Pascal who came up with the arithmetic machine for his father’s work. Also Charles Babbage produced the Analytical Engine, which combined math calculations from one problem and applied it to solve other complex problems. The Analytical Engine is similar to today’s computers.
“Computers play a key role in almost every sphere of life” (Berry, Terrie). Without them, everything would be different. People all around the world own or used a computer. Whether you are a professional in technology or just an average person, computers are still very important in your everyday life. “No other technology has accessed the world like computers and the use of the Internet have” (Maddox, Amanda). Without computers, consumers would not be able to do half the things as quickly as we can. Advances in computer design have increased its use for different industries, especially in the medical field.
aspect of our lives, we are faced with computers. They are in our classrooms, cars, and even used
In 1964 what started out as machines used for calculating complex problems turned into technology that can be more accessible to the public when Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). The computer was created to solve a serious number-crunching crisis. By 1880 the U.S. population had grown so large that it took more than seven years to calculate the U.S. Census. The government required a faster way to get the job done, which led to the creation of punch card computers which were as large as an entire room. (livescience) The computer has come a long way in the past 40 years. In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computers, but it wouldn't be until 1983 that Apple would release a computer with a GUI(graphical user interface). A GUI uses windows, icons, and text that can be manipulated by a person to communicate to the computer. Two years later Microsoft launched Windows, which is their response to Apple.
Computers are everywhere in the world today. Everywhere that you turn you are going to see some form of a computer. Computers are found in every work place and are used by many different people. It is very important these days that everyone learns the basics for using a computer because most jobs or professions will require some computer knowledge in order to be qualified for many positions.
The history of the computer dates back all the way to the prehistoric times. The first step towards the development of the computer, the abacus, was developed in Babylonia in 500 B.C. and functioned as a simple counting tool. It was not until thousands of years later that the first calculator was produced. In 1623, the first mechanical calculator was invented by Wilhelm Schikard, the “Calculating Clock,” as it was often referred to as, “performed it’s operations by wheels, which worked similar to a car’s odometer” (Evolution, 1). Still, there had not yet been anything invented that could even be characterized as a computer. Finally, in 1625 the slide rule was created becoming “the first analog computer of the modern ages” (Evolution, 1). One of the biggest breakthroughs came from by Blaise Pascal in 1642, who invented a mechanical calculator whose main function was adding and subtracting numbers. Years later, Gottfried Leibnez improved Pascal’s model by allowing it to also perform such operations as multiplying, dividing, taking the square root.
The biggest and easiest seen change that computers have had on today’s society can be seen in the workplace. Before computers became an office tool and were made available to the average employee, paperwork and sharing information in an office setting was done by many different individuals constantly filing and looking up figures. Now a computer can store large amounts of information that is readily available to virtually anyone with the click of a mouse button. One person can complete a job that in a time before computers would take many. Computers have made file cabinets and libraries almost obsolete. Businesses can share information nation or even world wide in a matter of seconds. For example, a word document file can be sent from an office in New York to an office in Los Angeles in under a minute, in the past this same information would have taken a week to be sent through the mail. Computers have changed the way that factories are run too. On an assembly line, before computers every job, no matter how easy or difficult, had to be done by an employee. Now, however, computers run machines and do most of these tasks.
As far as computers in the future, I feel that they are going to play a major role. They will be in everyday life, in everything we do. There will be many areas affected by the wide use of computers. Areas such as: home, work, schools, automobiles, electronics, and humans. Although these areas are already affected, they will be even more as we move into the future.
From classroom activities to space flight and everything in between, computers are a vital part of daily life. Everything we do and every aspect of our life is affected by modern technology like the computers. Computers let us dissect any sort of data. Computers makes us reflect, hence we develop. Because of computers and the Internet, we can talk with individuals from diverse nations, and even see them via webcam. Computers have their weaknesses like they have a negative effect on individuals' health. One of the risky parts of any machine is the screen. Computers make individuals dependent. Computers are hampering individuals' improvement in regular life. We don't read printed books any longer, since we can listen and read on the web. We invest more of a chance talking online than talking face to face. Overuse of machines has numerous negative impacts, for example, creating physical/behavioral sicknesses, harming family connections and diminishing scholarly study.