ICT student textbook/The human story behind the computer

The human story behind the computer
In this activity, you will learn about different computing technologies developed and also about a person named Alan Turing who developed a theory of how computers can be built

Check your readiness

1. You must be familiar with different ICT terms
2. You must be able to work with different applications - text editor, text processor, mind mapping tool, independently
3. You must be able to access, open, create and save files in your folder

What prior skills are assumed

1. Comfortable interacting with the ICT environment
2. An understanding of what computing is and the different things ICT can do
3. A working understanding of ICT hardware and software
4. Familiarity with text and image processing applications on the computer

What resources do you need

1. Computer with projector
2. Access to the internet
3. Pictures and slide show
4. Handout for Firefox

What digital skills will you learn

1. Understanding of how programming and computing developed
2. Understanding of how computers have impacted the society and how society determines technology

Description of activity with detailed steps

Teacher led activity

1. Your teacher will read with you the following section of the textbook and discuss how different technologies for measurement led to the idea of computing
2. Your teacher will read the following section What can ICT do and discuss with you ICT impacts different people.
3. Your teacher will discuss with you the story of Alan Turing and the story of Enigma, the World War machine

How the computer looked during the World War II

Alan Turing in College

Your teacher will play this Slide show of The story of Enigma. She will discuss with you how this machine was developed during the second world war to decode the German messages. Alan Turing was called the code breaker. Though Britain and its allies broke the German code, they could not openly declare this because they did not want Germany to know. This meant that the team doing the computing had to take decisions on when to allow an attack to happen without defence (so that Germany would think that its code was not broken). Can you imagine taking such decisions?

Student activities

1. Discuss with your friends and in small groups identify any one technology that you are aware of (ICT related technology)
2. With illustrations and text, develop a story of how the technology began, what need of society it addressed, how it is available now, how the technology has changed the way we do things and what is the future of the technology
3. Are you aware of any technology that has disappeared?
4. Look around your neighbourhood and identify an occupation / craft. Write a short note about how technology can impact the person and the occupation. Develop a picture story to describe your imagination of what technology can do to the occupation. Your teacher may also ask you to type this in a text document.
5. Profile some person in your school, family, community who has been associated with some technology and has been using it.

Portfolio

1. Your picture story discussing the human being - technology connection
2. Your text document with your description. The text document should have a full and meaningful name, such as 'Impact of ICT on farming, <your name>, year-month.odt'.
3. Your text document on the biography of a person associated with any given technology in your neighborhood.