[SPG_Active_Members] History of Computing class at San Jose State University

[Ward Cunningham]

Ron -- I would encourage you to have students "restore" old computer programs. By this I mean presenting old but important programs on the web with sufficient affordance that they can be more easily appreciated as the achievements that they were.

A good approach is to identify software patterns of the era that are present in the program. Document these, and then call them out in a presentation of the original text. These callouts can be as simple as hyperlink or as complex as modern web design allows. (some jump to symbolic evaluation but that seems to miss the point of critical reading.)

I could offer several examples where I've experimented along these lines with my own old programs. 

Best regards. -- Ward


On Jul 6, 2011, at 10:33 PM, Ronald Mak wrote:

> SPG members,
>  
> Some of you may already know this, but this coming fall semester (from the end of August through mid December), I will be teaching the "History of Computing" class in the Department of Computer Science at San Jose State University. I don't believe such a class has ever been taught at SJSU, so I must make it a big success. I've attached the class flyer.
>  
> This is listed as an upper-division course; therefore, I don't want students to simply read about computing history and turn in book reports. I will form small project teams of two or three students each and expect them to do some real research and produce results that can benefit the CHM somehow or be published in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.
>  
> Here's what I need:
> Project ideas for my students: hardware, software, companies ... whatever is interesting and historic!
> Computing industry pioneers (my euphemism for "old timers"), either designers or users, who are willing to be project advisors, in person or by e-mail.
> Guest lecturers to come in and relive their experiences with my students.
> The best way to reach me about this course is via my school e-mail address: ron.mak at sjsu.edu
>  
> Thank you, everyone, in advance. Help me prove my colleagues wrong who tell me that computer science students don't care about history!
>  
> -- Ron
> Ronald Mak
> (408) 927-1905 (IBM office) 
> (408) 533-2726 (cell) 
>  
> Professor of Computer Science (adjunct)
> San José State University 
> ron.mak at sjsu.edu 
> http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak 
>  
> Lead, San Jose Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) 
> Research Staff Member, SPLASH 
> IBM Almaden Research Center 
> rlmak at us.ibm.com 
> http://www.almaden.ibm.com/asr/projects/splash/ 
> 
> 
> <CS185C-HistoryOfComputing.pdf>_______________________________________________
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