Educational Computing - is a diversified area of study which is concerned with the design,

implementation and assessment of computer-based technologies to enhance education and

training.

History of Educational Computing

Tally Sticks  

 A tally stick was an ancient memory aid device used to record and document numbers, quantities, or even
messages.
 It is first appear as animal bones carved with notches during the Upper Palaeolithic; a notable example is
the Ishango Bone.

Abacus
• The abacus was invented in Babylonia in 2400 B.C.
• The abacus in the form we are most familiar with was first used in China in around
500 B.C.
• It used to perform basic arithmetic operations.
Napier’s Bones

• Invented by John Napier in 1614.

• Allowed the operator to multiply, divide and calculate square and cube roots by

moving the rods around and placing them in specially constructed boards.

Slide Rule

Invented by William Oughtred in 1622.

• Is based on Napier's ideas about logarithms.

• Used primarily for – multiplication – division – roots – logarithms – Trigonometry

• Not normally used for addition or subtraction.

 It is still in use on 1960's by the NASA engineers of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs
which landed men on the moon.
Leonardo da Vinci drawing showing gears arranged for computing

 Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) made drawings of gear-driven calculating machines but

apparently never built any.

Schickard’s Calculating Clock

 First gear-driven calculating machine to be actually built

 It is invented by German professor Wilhelm Schickard in 1623.
 This device got little publicity because Schickard died soon afterward in the bubonic plague.

Pascaline
• In 1642 Blaise Pascal, at age 19, invented the Pascaline as an aid for his father who was a tax
collector.

• It has its limitation to addition and subtraction.

• It is too expensive.

Stepped Reckoner

• Invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1672.

• The machine that can add, subtract, multiply and divide automatically.

 Instead of gears, it employed fluted drums having ten flutes arranged around their
circumference in a stair-step fashion.

Jacquard Loom
• The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in

1801.

• It is an automatic loom that “programmed” using punched cards

 The punch cards used in the Jacquard loom laid the foundation for modern computer
programming.

Jacquard's Loom showing the threads and the punched cards

Arithmometer
• A mechanical calculator invented by Thomas de Colmar in 1820,

• The first reliable, useful and commercially successful calculating machine.

• The machine could perform the four basic mathematic functions.

• The first mass-produced calculating machine.

Difference Engine

 In 1822, the English mathematician Charles Babbage proposed a steam driven calculating
machine in the size of a room, which he called the Difference Engine.
 This machine would be able to compute tables of numbers, such as logarithm tables and
polynomial functions.
Analytic Engine

Babbage was not deterred, and by then was on to his next brainstorm, which he called the Analytic
Engine. This device, large as a house and powered by 6 steam engines, would be more general purpose
in nature because it would be programmable, thanks to the punched card technology of Jacquard.
 First Computer Programmer
• In 1840, Augusta Ada Byron suggests to Babbage that he use the binary system.
• She wrote the programs for the Analytical Engine.

Tabulating Machine/ Hollerith’s desk

 Invented by Herman Hollerith (1890)
 It is consisted of a card reader that sensed the holes in the cards
 It is a gear driven mechanism which could count (using Pascal's mechanism which we still see in
car’s speedometers)
Harvard Mark I

 built as a partnership between Harvard and IBM in 1944.

 Also known as IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC).
 Invented by Howard H. Aiken in 1943

• The first electro-mechanical computer made in the US

Z1

 The first programmable computer.

• Created by Konrad Zuse in Germany from 1936 to 1938.

• To program the Z1 required that the user insert punch tape into a punch tape reader

and all output was also generated through punch tape.

Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)

• It was the first electronic digital computing device.

• Invented by Professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry at Iowa

State University between 1939 and 1942.

c
ENIAC/Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

• First electronic general-purpose computer.

 Forefather of today's all-electronic digital computers

• Developed by John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania between 1943
and 1945.

 Completed in 1946

.
EDVAC /Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

 ENIAC inventors John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert proposed the EDVAC's construction in
August 1944

• The First Stored Program Computer

• Designed by Von Neumann in 1952.

• It has a memory to hold both a stored program as well as data.

ILLIAC/ Illinois Automatic Computer

 It was the name given to a series of supercomputers built at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
 First massively parallel computer built between 1951 and 1974.

UNIVAC I / Universal Automatic Computer (1951)

 First computer to employ magnetic tape
 A reel-to-reel tape drive
 Designed principally by john Eckert and john Mauchly, is the first commercially
successful computer.
THE FIVE GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER (1943-1990)

ELECTRONIC COMPUTER SYSTEM - First generation (1943-1956)

 VACUUM TUBE COMPUTER- It is a computer that uses vacuum tubes for logic circuitry. These
machines use electronic switches, electromechanical relays. It used punch cards to input and
externally store data and this kind of technology used in war effort.

ELECTRO NUMERICAL INTEGRATOR

ELECTRO NUMERICAL INTEGRATOR AND COMPUTER (ENIAC)

 First programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, built

during World War II by the United States.
 Developed by John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania.
 ELECTRONIC COMPUTER SYSTEM - Second generation (1957-1964)
MAIN FRAME COMPUTER

 Used primarily by large organization for critical application, bulk data processing, such
as census, industry and consumer statistics.
 They are larger and have more processing power than some other classes of
computers.

Third generation (1960's) MINI COMPUTERS

 It is a class of smaller computers that was develop in the mid 1960's and sold much less than
main frame.
 Fourth generation (1970's)
MICRO COMPUTERS
 Is a small relatively inexpensive computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit
(CPU) as a microprocessor.
 Designed for individual or Personal Computers that is smaller than main frame or a mini
computer.
 It processes over a 1 billion operation per second. Adopted by public school system during
1980's.

DURING 1990

 More technological advancement

 Tim Berners- Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high energy physics laboratory in general,
develops hypertext markup language (HTML), giving rise to the world wide web.
 Through that kind of evolution, it brings an advancement to Education sector, wherein
the students can learn in various ways through the help of educational technology.