[SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?

Thu Sep 26 12:03:50 PDT 2013

> Build a historic analog computer?
> Solder a 1977 PC?
> Program the original ENIAC?
> Generate the 1955 RAND A Million Random Digits"?

Solder?  No, *wire wrap*.  Cheers -- Ian

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Jonathan Coopersmith <
j-coopersmith at neo.tamu.edu> wrote:

> Build a historic analog computer?
> Solder a 1977 PC?
> Program the original ENIAC?
> Generate the 1955 RAND A Million Random Digits"?
>
>  Jonathan Coopersmith
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Paul Ceruzzi <CeruzziP at si.edu>
> To: 'Andrew Meade McGee' <amm5ae at virginia.edu>, members at sigcis.org
> Sent: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:42:56 -0500 (CDT)
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your
> ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
>
> Not sure if many of you will agree with me, but I have long argued that
> the convergence of computing and communications, leading to today's
> inrternetworked world, all began in the fall of 1962, on a chartered train
> from Hot Springs, Virginia, just outside Lexington, to Washington, DC. On
> that train were J.C.R. Licklider and a host of other computer folks. The
> outcome of that train ride was Project MAC, CTSS, ARPANET, etc. etc.
> Because the passengers were essentially stuck with one another for hours,
> with no cell phones or laptops, they were forced to talk to one another,
> including about Licklider's notion of using the computer as a
> communications device.
>
> Maybe your students could re-enact the train ride and the conversations
> that took place on it. The most scenic parts of the trip are best covered
> today by bicycle, as the tracks were torn up and replaced with a rail-trail.
>
> Paul E. Ceruzzi
> Chair, Division of Space History
> National Air & Space Museum
> MRC 311; PO Box 37012
> Washington, DC 20013-7012
> 202-633-2414
> <http://www.nasm.si.edu/staffDetail.cfm?staffID=24>
>
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On
> Behalf Of Andrew Meade McGee
> Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:55 PM
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal
> Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
>
> Dear SIG-CIS friends,
> I hope you might help me with a happy conundrum. This year I am visiting
> faculty in the history department of Washington and Lee University, a small
> but affluent liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia. One of the
> school's quirks is a mandatory four-week April term in which students
> enroll in only one class and have 8-10 hours or more of weekly face-to-face
> classroom interaction with the professor (and 20+ hours of readings,
> assignments, labs), usually on a specialized topic. In recent years the
> school has embraced "high-concept" classes with catchy thematic topics,
> deep reading lists, and creative final assignments for this mini-mester -
> last year, for instance, the Classics Department offered a course on the
> Trojan War that featured students meticulously recreating Bronze Age
> military formations and engaging in costumed battle on the front quad.
> Other classes do digital humanities projects or create documentaries, etc.
>  I have been instructed by Dean and Department Chair to develop a
> "computer-related" history class for Spring 2014. I essentially have carte
> blanche create my ideal computer history/information history/information
> and society class from scratch, as long as I can cram it all into four
> weeks and devise some clever final project. Ideally I would attract history
> majors and liberal arts students as well as a few stray engineering and
> business students intrigued by the topic.
>  So I appeal to the SIG-CIS community for ideas - what would you teach if
> you could design your ideal class on computer or information history? How
> would you structure it? Any outlandish ideas you wish you had tried? Books
> or topics or assignments you feel are must have? I might have
> school-provided funds for a day trip or two, so I could take the kids
> within a few hour radius (I've thought of DC and the Smithsonian, or the
> supercomputers at Blacksburg or Oak Ridge).
> I've gone through the excellent syllabus repository on the SIG-CIS webpage
> and have plundered the university faculty page-posted syllabi of some of
> the list's more prominent members, but would appreciate any additional
> ideas. I'm not sure if I'm going to go with straight "computer history" or
> a broader "From Gutenberg to Google" type information history class. Given
> my cultural and political history strengths, other options include a
> "Computers and Society," "Digital America," or "Global Information Age"
> approach, or even something focused more conceptually on "Data" or
> "Systems." .
>  So, again, any comments would be greatly appreciated. If you could
> construct your ideal (but timeframe-compressed) computer/information
> history class, what would you include?
>  Thank you,
>  Andrew
> -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
> Andrew Meade McGee
> Corcoran Department of History
> University of Virginia
> PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall
> Charlottesville, VA 22904
>
> --
> Jonathan Coopersmith
> Associate Professor
> Department of History
> Texas A&M University
> College Station, TX  77843-4326
> 979.845.7151
> 979.862.4314 fax
> http://aggiegaijin.blogspot.com/
>
>
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-- 
Ian S. King, MSCS ('06, Washington)
Ph.D. Student
The Information School
University of Washington

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."  - Oscar Wilde
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