Computer Vocabulary, Computer Literacy and Computer History

An Annotated Bibliography of Web Sites

A homework assignment for my Bentley College course on Video-Conferencing, Steve Bergen, 4/22/98
posted on www.teachingcompany.com/Vocab.html

  1. Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota links to an amazing number of other sites on computer history. Copyright © 1997 by theRegents of the University of Minnesota.http: www.chac.org/chac/chhistpg.html
  2. Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers looks at the history of computers from 1926 to the present in a year-by-year (and frequently month-by-month) chronology. Copyright (C) 1994-98 Ken Polsson, e-mail: kpolsson@islandnet.comhttp://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist.htm
  3. Computer Vocabulary from a computer store that wants to inform you of all the vocabulary words that you will encounter as a consumer; very easy to read and very clear! Produced by the consulting firm NWF Consulting with web pages at http://www.nwfcc.com. Surprisingly useful web pages -- well done!http://www.biola.edu/admin/bookstore/Choosing.html
  4. Computers: History and Development is a well-written, detailed description of the events and developments that led to the creation of the microcomputer.
    5. http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/comp_hd.html
  5. Computer History Association of California. is an extremely useful anthology of computer types and anecdotes gathered by users. It is run by Webmaster@chac.org and is organized by types of computers and calculators, allowing users to submit their own info. Great overview of hardware types!http://www.chac.org/chac/chhistpg.htm
  6. Computer Literacy Vocabulary chapter one from 1995 Summercore Primer by Steve Bergen and Lynne Schalman; provides mini-paragraphs on over 33 computer literacy terms with many Boston Celtics references and metaphors http://www.teachingcompany.com/chap1p1.htm
  7. Historic Computer Images includes several rare pictures of ENIAC. This photo collection of high resolution scans made by Mike Muuss forhis Computer History archive. All of them were scanned at 400 dpi ona Canon CLC-500 color scanner/printer. You are welcome to have your HTML documents directly reference our images on our server, without needing to ask our permission. If you wish to make a copy of an image onto your own server, or if you wish to use an image in a CD-ROM or a print medium, here are the details. For all photos marked "Courtesy of Michael John Muuss", you are granted a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license and right to use that photo, without fee, provided that credit is given to the photographer with each use. All photos marked "U. S. Army Photo" are in the public domain, and may be used without fee, provided that each use is marked "U. S. Army Photo". All diagrams marked "U. S. Army Diagram" are in the public domain, and may be used without fee, provided that each useis marked "U. S. Army Diagram". All other photos are property of their respective owners and may not be reprinted without permission. Sorry. If you make use of these photos, a brief E-mail note to to that effect would be appreciated, for our publication/citation records.
    http://ftp.arl.mil/ftp/historic-computers/
  8. History of Computers is a text basis chronology of major events. Easy to read and very informative overview.Last Modified: 3 April, 1997, Dr. S. Andrew Hale from North Carolina State, Andy_hale@ncsu.edu, posted on Dept of Biological and Agricultural web pages.http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/courses/bae121/text/history_top.html
  9. Hobbes' Internet Timeline wonderful computer literacy web site by Robert H'obbes' ZakonInternet Evangelist, The MITRE Corporation. Hobbes' Internet Timeline Copyright (c)1993-8 by Robert H Zakon. Permission is granted for use of this document in whole or in part for non-commercial purposes as long as this Copyright notice and alink to this document is included.http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html
  10. How the Internet Works with excellent graphics and definitions of vocabulary, this is part of the WHATIS.COM site and provides an excellent overview; virtually everyone will learn something by spending some time at this site.http://whatis.com/tour.htm
  11. Hudson Middle School-- 77 N. Oviatt Street, Hudson, Ohio 44236 -- has a fine collection of web pages on the history of computers.http://www.hudson.edu/hms/comp/history.htm
  12. Humor to Improve Your computer vocabulary. Not particularly useful in content, but when you can get a laugh out of a few students, you can sometimes highlight the subject matter!http://www.annoyances.org/win95/humor26.html
  13. IBM runs an interesting part of its web site with a timeline of important computer tools through the ages; the timespan through history is wonderful, but the attention to detail is just a teaser. Copyright © 1996-98, whatis.com Inc. All rights reserved. whatis & whatis.com are trademarks of whatis.com Inc. http://www.ibm.com/ipc/boxes.html
  14. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing covers the breadth of computer history. Featuring scholarly articles by leading computer scientists and historians, as well as first-hand accounts by computer pioneers, the Annals is the primary publication for recording, analyzing, and debating the history of computing. This site and all contents (unless otherwise noted) are Copyright © 1998, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.http://www.computer.org/pubs/annals/annals.htm
  15. The Machine that Changed the World contains an outline of the popular PBS TV series. It concisely outlines the development of the computer. Very graphic intensive.http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/TMTCTW.html
  16. PBS Site includes very thorough history of technology PBS Online is proud to present the companion Web site for the PBS television special "Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires." Web site is very graphic intensive, so user beware!http://www.pbs.org/nerds/index.html
  17. PC Novice presents a short list of well-defined terms, e.g. cathode ray tube, daisy chain, FTP. The site is note extensive, but does explain clearly the limited number of terms. (c) Sandhills Publishing 1995,1996,1997http://www.pcnovice.com/pcnglos.html
  18. Quiz yourself! One computer teacher from North Hagerstown High School has posted a two column 15 question matching quiz on the web. Not extensive, but a good review for IBM users. North Hagerstown High School is the largest high school in Washington County, Maryland with a student population of about 1000 students.http://fred.net/nhhs/lessons/compvoc1.htm
  19. The Virtual Computer History Museum is an absolutely incredible resource for computer history.
    20. You can visit the events of history in chronological or alphabetical order. Wonderful interface with extensive other museums to visit as wellhttp://video.cs.vt.edu
  20. WHAT IS is a truly wonderful computer literacy web site, perhaps the BEST site that I have ever seen on these topics. WHATIS.COM can be thought os as an encylopedia on the Internet and computers. It containsover 1,400 individual encyclopedicdefinition/topics and a number ofquick-reference pages on very clever topics. Created by Lowell Thing http://whatis.com/