A short history of computers in education

The first use of computers by educational institutions coincided approximately with the introduction of second-generation computers at the end of the 1950s. About that time, large universities began using computers for administrative purposes such as accounting, payroll, and student record keeping. At the same time people began using computers for instructional research. One such research application was the PLATO project at the University of Illinois, which began in I960 with the goal of designing a large computer-based system for instruction. Soon after, IBM introduced Course-writer, a programming language designed for preparing instructional materials on IBM's large computers. Two other such projects were at Stanford University and the Pennsylvania State University.

From the mid-1960s through the first half of the 1970s third-genera­tion computers became available. More school systems and colleges began using computers for administrative func­tions. But the instructional use of computers was still largely the domain of universities.

In 1972 the T1CCIT (Time-shared Interactive Computer Con­trolled Instructional Television) started to develop. With T1CCIT, students study lessons presented on standard color televisions and interact through modified typewriter keyboards, all of which are con­trolled by a minicomputer. Lessons on T1CCIT always included a variety of information presentations, examples, practice problems, tests. The keyboard had, in addition to the ordinary alphanumeric keys, special keys labeled RULE, EX­AMPLE, PRACTICE, EASY, HARD, and ADVICE. By pressing these keys the student could change instructional activities, ask for easier or harder activities, or ask for advice as to what to do.

Introduction to the internet and www

Millions of people around the world use the Internet to search for and retrieve information on all sorts of top­ics in a wide variety of areas including the arts, business, government, humanities, news, politics, etc. People communicate through electronic mail (e-mail), discussion groups, chat channels and other means of communication. They share information and make commercial and business transactions. People use the Internet for recreational purposes. For example, they can play computer games, competing with partners from other countries and continents. All this activity is possible because tens of thousands of networks are con­nected to the Internet exchanging information.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a part of the Internet. But it's not a collection of networks. Rather, it is information that is connected or linked together like a web. You access this information through one interface or tool called a Web browser.

The people connect to the Internet and World Wide Web through the local providers. Each browser provides a graphi­cal interface. You move from place to place, from site to site on the Web by using a mouse to click on a portion of text, icon or region of a map. These items are called hyperlinks or links. Each link you select represents a document, an image, a video clip or an audio file some­where on the Internet. The user doesn't need to know where it is, the browser follows the link.

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE WEB

The World Wide Web dates back to March 1989. In that month, Tim Berners-Lee of Geneva's European Particle Physics Labora­tory (which is abbreviated as CERN, based on the laboratory's French name) circulated a proposal to develop a "hypertext system" for the purpose of enabling efficient and easy information-sharing among geographically separated teams of researchers in the High Energy Physics community.

The three important components of the proposed system were the following:

• A consistent user interface.

• The ability to incorporate a wide range of technologies and document types.

• Its "universal readership"; that is, anyone sitting anywhere on the network, on a wide variety of different computers, could read the same document as anyone else, and could do so easily.

More than a year later, in October 1990, the project was presented anew, and two months later the World Wide Web project began to take shape. Work began on the first line browser (called WWW), and by the end of 1990 this browser and a browser for the NeXTStep operating system were well on the way. The major principles of hypertext access and the reading of different docu­ment types had already been implemented.

Essentially, 1992 was a developmental year. The WWW browser was made available via FTP from CERN, and the Web team presented the Web to a variety of organizations and audiences, but it was the software-development efforts of that year that would make it a vitally important time. In January 1993, 50 Web servers were in, and at that time the Viola browser was made available for the X Window system. Viola was the early leader in Web browsing technology, offering the first glimpse of the graphical, mouse-based hypertext system originally conceived by the Web proposal.

THE INTERNET

The Internet is a computer-based global information system. The Internet is composed of many interconnected computer networks. Each network may link tens, hundreds, or even thousands of computers, enabling them to share information with one another and to share computational resources such as powerful supercomputers and databases of information.

The Internet has made it possible for people all over the world to effectively and inexpensively communicate with one another. An individual who has an Internet access can communicate directly with anyone else on the Internet, make information available to others, find information provided by others, or sell products with a minimum overhead cost.

The Internet has brought new opportunities to government, business, and education. Governments use the Internet for internal communication, distribution of information, and automated tax processing. In addition to offering goods and services online to customers, businesses use the Internet to interact with other businesses. Many individuals use the Internet for shopping, paying bills, and online banking. Educational institutions use the Internet for research and to deliver courses to students at remote sites.

The Internet’s success arises from its flexibility. It allows interconnection of any kind of a computer network. The Internet includes inexpensive networks that can only connect a few computers within a single room as well as expensive networks that can span a continent and connect thousands of computers.