project description 1
” Teaching from a pile of junk”
The junk is a collection of computers and computer artifacts (primarily hardware and documentation) that the Department of Computer Science has accumulated. The collection includes an Altair 8800 microcomputer (the first Personal computer available as a kit), material salvaged from the Mark III computer built at the Harvard Computational Laboratory for NSWC, Dahlgren in the 1950s, various operation manuals, an IBM PC (first model), an Osborne portable microcomputer, films, audio, and video tapes that are primary sources related to computing history, and several other items.
The primary goal is to make these objects and information about them available to anyone who would like to use them in a teaching or research context, in which people may use existing information about these objects or add appropriate related information.
It also seems reasonable to be able to use the objects in a physical location with Internet access may be used to refer to the database about them. A possible approach is to put either a bar code or RFID chip on each item so that it may be scanned so that when the item is scanned or sensed, a URL is sent to a browser that retrieves links to the information from the database.
Finally, this collection of information needs to have a CMS front-end so that it may be deployed and added to appropriately.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
I’ve seen that picture before, if I recall . . .
I love the title for your project, and the idea of making the historic materials available to others who teach courses where they might be useful seems like a good step.
Because this is out of my area (what isn’t?) I find myself pondering this question — in what sorts of courses would it be useful to have easy access to these historic trinkets? What would they be used for? In other words, what kind of a teaching/course objective would be advanced more effectively by having access to this stuff? If one wants a richer appreciation of computing history (where were we then? what did the stuff look like in the old days and how did it work?), that’s one application. But I’m not sure that’s the sort of angle you are driving at.
I’ll be interested to learn more about how the bar code and scanning ideas will work.
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Sounds great…and thanks for the openning tour of what you have.
It sounds like, in some ways, this is becoming a collaborative effort to build a curriculum in the history of these objects–is that accurate?
October 11th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
This is all new to me, but I’m wondering why (when I’m writing this comment) I see the earlier comment I wrote above it with the statement that “John Morello says your comment is awaiting moderation.”
November 28th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
Something I was meaning to ask related to your project — some “old” items have value as collectible; others don’t. Are old computers valued as collectors items? Or are they, pretty much, well, junk? I have a few old home computers and have always wondered in my vintage 1986 Mac Plus is worth anything or is just a fancy dust collector.