Technology in Society

Day 11

I find that students are so immersed in a culture where computers and electronic communication devices are taken for granted that it his hard for them to discuss issues like the effects of the growth of computer technology on society. So I always show my grade ten classes a documentary series that was made for PBS and the BBC titled The Machine That Changed the World. The last time I checked it has not been re-released on DVD, but it is available on the web at Waxy.org.  It covers the history of computing from the abacus to the Mac, and does it in a way that actually keeps the students interested! I show the first three episodes titled "Giant Brains", "Inventing the Future", and "The Paperback Computer".

I show my grade 11 students another series made by PBS called Triumph of the Nerds. This one is actually available on DVD! It features the author of the book Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date, narrating the story of how the personal computer grew from being the obsession of a few electronics hobbyists into a multi-billion dollar industry. 

There is a sequel to Triumph of the Nerds called Nerds 2.0.1 A Brief History of the Internet. It is not as good as the others, but it does have it's moments, such as when an early pioneer of the porn industry tells the interviewer that her mother is pleased that she has a job in computers. 

There are web sites associated with all of these videos, and I have included a few more links to sites dealing with the history of computers. 

History of Computing Links   The Machine That Changed the World The Triumph of the Nerds on PBS Nerds 2.0.1 A Brief History of the Internet Wikipedia: Bell Research Laboratories An Historical Timeline of Computer Graphics and Animation Charles Babbage Institute Computer Museum of America History of Computing Information IBM Speakers Bureau Slide Show at Computer Museum of America Konrad Zuse and his computers Silicon Valley Story Table of Contents Sol-20 Archive The Atanasoff Berry Computer UVA Computer Science Computer Museum OLD-COMPUTERS.COM ! COMPUTER PEOPLE

The Computer Technology Classroom.

Day 9

When I began teaching at Glenforest I was the Electrical Technology teacher. I am still teaching in the same room, but it has changed over the years to accommodate the changing course offerings. In 1995-96, the room became the Communication Technology lab, and I became the first Communication Technology teacher. We had eight 486 multimedia computers, three Panasonic SVHS cameras, and a Sony Mavica camera that stored the images on floppy disk!

 Today the classroom is used most of the time as a Computer Technology lab, but each section of Grade 9 students spends half the semester in this room, and sometimes Media Arts classes. 

Compared to some of the other classrooms that are being used for computer technology, the classroom I teach in is huge, about 50' long and 40' wide.There is a mezzanine where the students used to do residential wiring, but currently it is only used for storage.

There are now 28 PCs, all formerly purchased by the Board for student use. They are out of warranty, and no longer supported by the Board technician, but we are still allowed to connect them to the school network and use them as instructional computers. At the moment, there are even a couple of iMacs for the use of the Media Arts students.

I have attempted to make the room more lively and welcoming by decorating the walls with posters about computer hardware. Since I couldn't find a source for useful posters, I had the students make them. They get to keep a copy, and I keep a copy to post on the wall. There is a storage room in one corner under the mezzanine. 

I have dozens of old computers that students use for various purposes. I still have some machines that were procured from Computers for Schools, including some 15" Sony Trinitron monitors. Some are mainly used now as examples for inspection, others are usable for the purpose of installing the operating system and networking. I have accumulated several switches and a couple of residential routers that the students use for networking. 

Some of the original workbenches from the Electrical Technology classroom are still in use as soldering benches. We do need a better ventilation system for the soldering area: as you can see in the photo above, we rely on a pedestal fan to disperse the fumes. The shear from the former Machine Shop is still useful for cutting copper-clad boards. The room has a small drill press, but it would be great to have a small band saw as well. The oscilloscopes date to the 1980s, and it would be great to have some more modern equipment. There is a set of 8 multimeters that are put to good use for troubleshooting circuits, verifying component values, and testing transistors. 


Ideally, I would like to have purpose built work stations with hardwired power at each desk, a set of hand tools, soldering and desoldering station, and space for computers and monitors that each student could use. 


I use the PencilBox Logic trainer for building logic circuits. There were several in the classroom when I took it over, but I have replaced them with a set of 14 new ones.


There is plenty of storage space, but it is in need of better organization. I use the space above the storage cupboards for my personal computer museum. The doors are decorated with old computer magazine ads. 

PICAXE microcontrollers

 Day 13

The PICAXE microcontrollers are designed for use in education. They are based on the PIC series of microcontrollers manufactured by Microchip. The PIC chips are generally programmed in Assembly language using the free MPLAB software. This is a useful project to meet the requirements in the grade 12 curriculum but too much of a challenge for Grade 10 students. Programming PIC chips also requires a programming device.


PICAXE adds some proprietary bootstrap code to the PIC chips so that they can be programmed by connecting a cable to the serial port of a computer. (For computers that don't have a serial port, a USB to serial adapter is required.) This provides a low cost method of programming, as no programmer is required. The programming software is free, and it includes a simulator so that students can test their programs before downloading them to a chip. The programming languages include a version of BASIC, and flow charting software that can also generate BASIC code. 

The PICAXE web site is www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe

The PICAXE programming editor can be downloaded for free. At the moment the programming editor is available only for Windows PCs, but there is an alternative for MAC and Linux called AXEpad. It lacks some of the functions of the PICAXE programming editor, like the simulator. The PICAXE web site says that the Linux version of the editor is in development. 

When you download the programming editor it includes three manuals. The first has chip diagrams and a series of 10 tutorials that do a good job of introducing students to programming in BASIC for the PICAXE. The second has a complete listing of all the BASIC commands, and the third has several useful interfacing circuits.

PICAXE is a British company, but the best source in Canada is Solarbotics in Alberta. Orders are usually shipped the same day, and the prices are competitive.

Here is an example of a PICAXE circuit:

Robot motor controls using PICAXE 18M

Networking with Linux

Day 4

I have done a little experimenting with Linux in the past, but I haven't used it regularly. For a long time I had students install Windows 98 on the older computers in order to get experience with installing and operating system and setting up a network. The advantage is I do have licenses for it, and even some original installation disks, and it doesn't require activation, but it is getting rather old. 

I downloaded the iso files for Edubuntu and burned an installation DVD. I installed it on a Thinkpad T23 (so old it was manufactured by IBM - in Mexico), and the installation went without a hitch. By contrast, I recently installed Windows XP on another laptop. The installation disk was the original version of XP home edition, so it took hours to download all the updates. I couldn't even run Windows Update until I had downloaded and installed Service Pack 2 manually. (Service Pack 3 can't be installed unless Service Pack 2 is installed first.) Of course, you would encounter problems in installing an older distribution of Linux, as well.


Fortunately, although the computers I plan to install it on are seven or eight years old, they do have DVD drives. For older computers, it is possible to install Ubuntu from a CD, as the image is 693MB. The software applications can then be installed separately. While it is convenient to install everything. That is actually a more common way to proceed for most people, so perhaps that is the way to go. I will write more after I have tried installing from a CD.

Computer Hardware

Day 3

We have older computers that students can take apart, so I have the grade 10 students take pictures of the various components, including the inside of hard drives and CD/ROM drives. They then use the images to create a presentation or a poster to show the rest of the class what they have learned. 

I also have them create a two page handout that the other students can use to study from. This project also introduces them to some other skills, like photography, Photoshop and Illustrator software. If they are using PowerPoint, I insist that it be used primarily for photographs, charts, tables and diagrams. The text can be read from a script and printed for the class to read later. The classroom is now decorated with the educational posters that students have created themselves. 



I have created a series of web pages where I attempt to explain how the various parts of the computer work at a level appropriate for high school students. One of the problems, of course, is finding the time to keep the pages updated. I also use howstuffworks.com as a resource. How Stuff Works Computer Hardware Channel provides a great deal of information with pictures and videos, all written at a level that is relatively easy to understand. 


My web site also has a list of links to other sources of information on Computer Hardware.