[SIGCIS-Members] Interview for 6th grade history project re: "the first computer"

Ian S. King isking at uw.edu
Thu Feb 21 22:17:50 PST 2019


Hi Eric,

I think this is a wonderful teachable moment on more than one level.  At
least when my daughter was a 6th grader, I could have seen her digging into
this topic with gusto.

Instead of thinking of these qualifiers as "hedges", I think this is a
great opportunity to educate him and his classmates on all of the ways
humans have done computing.  There are two basic categories, analog and
digital - continuous vs. discrete domain and range.  For each category,
there are differing media: mechanical, electrical, electronic, even water!
(I'm trying to envision a liquid-based digital computer - maybe
biocomputing?)  Since he is researching "the first", this avoids the tar
pit of the first "personal" computer - now that would confound a 6th
grader, as well as most adults!

Sources are tough, though - there won't be one across all (but that's a fun
lesson in library method).  I'd certainly agree that Paul Ceruzzi's book is
very good for the early digital electronic computer, and the transition to
stored-program, than being something else I'd consider a key concept for a
non-expert.  One could go all the way back to the Antikythera device for
mechanical analog computing, but it might be better to focus on things like
Bush's Differential Analyzer for that.  ENIAC is obviously in there for
electronic digital, but how does one come down on the ABC?  And outside the
US, Zuse's machines were early to the gate.

So many fun dimensions!  One would need to bound this rich set
appropriately, but perhaps thinking of this as an opportunity to teach
deeper concepts about what it means to compute through an examination of
how we've been doing it for decades if not centuries.

Just one opinion -- Ian King

On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 9:13 PM Hintz, Eric <HintzE at si.edu> wrote:

> Hi SIGCIS-
>
>
>
> My buddy emailed and said (paraphrasing): “My son’s a 6th grader; he and
> his classmates are doing research projects.  They have to interview an
> expert on some topic.  His classmate wants to research ‘the first
> computer.’  Can my son’s classmate interview you?”  Being an all-purpose
> “expert,”  I said yes!
>
>
>
> As historians, we tend to reject absolutes, hedge, and use qualifying
> adjectives like the first “electronic” or “programmable” or “personal”
> computer.  But this is a 6th grader, so I don’t want to confuse him with
> too many carefully constructed hedges.  So I appeal to the wisdom of this
> crowd…
>
>
>
> Q: How would you approach this 6th grader’s legitimate interest in the
> first computer?  Which computer(s) should I/we focus on?  Best books or
> other resources (e.g. Ceruzzi’s *Concise History*) to help me and the
> sixth grader get the facts straight?
>
>
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Eric Hintz
>
>
>
> ======================
>
-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu>
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

Principal Investigator, "Reflections on Early Computing and Social Change",
UW IRB #42619

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org>
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org>

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20190221/707320b2/attachment.htm>


More information about the Members mailing list