ES 123e – Computer Fundamental and Programming

Lesson 1
History of Information Technology

Learning outcomes

 Learn about emerging advances in information technology.

 Create a timeline of the history of information technology.
 Understand how new technologies come around and how quickly they spring up.

Introduction
Information technology has been around for a long, long time. Basically as long as
people have been around, information technology has been around because there were always
ways of communicating through technology available at that point in time. There are 4 main
ages that divide up the history of information technology. Only the latest age (electronic) and
some of the electromechanical age really affects us today, but it is important to learn about how
we got to the point we are at with technology today.

Ages

Pre-mechanical Age
The pre-mechanical age is the earliest age of information technology. It can be defined
as the time between 3000B.C. and 1450A.D. We are talking about a long time ago. When
humans first started communicating they would try to use language or simple picture drawings
known as petroglyths which were usually carved in rock. Early alphabets were developed such
as the Phoenician alphabet.

Petroglyph
As alphabets became more popular and more people were writing information down,
pens and paper began to be developed. It started off as just marks in wet clay, but later paper
was created out of papyrus plant. The most popular kind of paper made was probably by the
Chinese who made paper from rags.
Now that people were writing a lot of information down they needed ways to keep it all
in permanent storage. This is where the first books and libraries are developed. You’ve
probably heard of Egyptian scrolls which were popular ways of writing down information to
save. Some groups of people were actually binding paper together into a book-like form.
Also during this period were the first numbering systems. Around 100A.D. was when
the first 1-9 system was created by people from India. However, it wasn’t until 875A.D. (775
years later) that the number 0 was invented. And yes now that numbers were created, people
wanted stuff to do with them so they created calculators. A calculator was the very first sign of
an information processor. The popular model of that time was the abacus.

Department of Information Technology, College of Science, University of Eastern Philippines

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 ES 123e – Computer Fundamental and Programming
Lesson 1
History of Information Technology

Mechanical Age
The mechanical age is when we first start to see connections between our current
technology and its ancestors. The mechanical age can be defined as the time between 1450 and
1840. A lot of new technologies are developed in this era as there is a large explosion in interest
with this area. Technologies like the slide rule (an analog computer used for multiplying and
dividing) were invented. Blaise Pascal invented the Pascaline which was a very popular
mechanical computer. Charles Babbage developed the difference engine which tabulated
polynomial equations using the method of finite differences.

Difference Engine
There were lots of different machines created during this era and while we have not yet
gotten to a machine that can do more than one type of calculation in one, like our modern-day
calculators, we are still learning about how all of our all-in-one machines started. Also, if you
look at the size of the machines invented in this time compared to the power behind them it
seems (to us) absolutely ridiculous to understand why anybody would want to use them, but to
the people living in that time ALL of these inventions were HUGE.

Electromechanical Age
Now we are finally getting close to some technologies that resemble our modern-day
technology. The electromechanical age can be defined as the time between 1840 and 1940.
These are the beginnings of telecommunication. The telegraph was created in the early 1800s.
Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835. The telephone (one of the most popular
forms of communication ever) was created by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The first radio
developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. All of these were extremely crucial emerging
technologies that led to big advances in the information technology field.
The first large-scale automatic digital computer in the United States was the Mark 1
created by Harvard University around 1940. This computer was 8ft high, 50ft long, 2ft wide,
and weighed 5 tons - HUGE. It was programmed using punch cards. How does your PC match
up to this hunk of metal? It was from huge machines like this that people began to look at
downsizing all the parts to first make them usable by businesses and eventually in your own
home.

Department of Information Technology, College of Science, University of Eastern Philippines

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 ES 123e – Computer Fundamental and Programming
Lesson 1
History of Information Technology

Harvard Mark 1

Electronic Age
The electronic age is what we currently live in. It can be defined as the time between
1940 and right now. The ENIAC was the first high-speed, digital computer capable of being
reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems. This computer was designed to be
used by the U.S. Army for artillery firing tables. This machine was even bigger than the Mark 1
taking up 680 square feet and weighing 30 tons - HUGE. It mainly used vacuum tubes to do its
calculations.
There are 4 main sections of digital computing. The first was the era of vacuum tubes
and punch cards like the ENIAC and Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used for internal
storage. The second generation replaced vacuum tubes with transistors, punch cards were
replaced with magnetic tape, and rotating magnetic drums were replaced by magnetic cores for
internal storage. Also during this time high-level programming languages were created such as
FORTRAN and COBOL. The third generation replaced transistors with integrated circuits,
magnetic tape was used throughout all computers, and magnetic core turned into metal oxide
semiconductors. An actual operating system showed up around this time along with the
advanced programming language BASIC. The fourth and latest generation brought in CPUs
(central processing units) which contained memory, logic, and control circuits all on a single
chip. The personal comptuer was developed (Apple II). The graphical user interface (GUI) was
developed.

Apple 2
When you are picking your articles you should look for any important technologies but
also try to find some that most people might not have heard of. The more variety of

Department of Information Technology, College of Science, University of Eastern Philippines

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 ES 123e – Computer Fundamental and Programming
Lesson 1
History of Information Technology

technologies and articles people have, the more the entire class will learn about emerging
technologies. Pay attention to any trends you see in these emerging technologies. Look at the
changes from a current technology to its predecessors and future plans for that technology.
Also take note of how these emerging technologies relate to the Internet.

Exercises

1. This project will be a running project throughout the entire year. Your job is to research
articles about new technologies coming out. Every three weeks or so you will bring in
an article that talks about a new technology (either just came out or about to come out).
As a class that today you will discuss each person’s article and the technology that goes
with it. The goal is to have a good understanding of how new technologies come around
and how quickly they spring up. If we were to discuss one technology that came out
today, by the time you actually read this it will be old news and some other technology
might even already be around to make it better or replace it.

2. Now that you have learned a lot about the history of information technology, create a
timeline that covers all of the key topics from 3000B.C. to the present. Make sure to
separate your timeline into the 4 different ages and include all of the technologies
covered in the lesson AS WELL as other key technologies you research online. Your
timeline can be in the form of a website, powerpoint, or anything you find to be
creative.

REFERENCES
https://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/index.html
https://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/history/history.html#worksheets
https://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/history/activities/timeline.html

Department of Information Technology, College of Science, University of Eastern Philippines

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