computer revolution essay introduction

The computer revolution: how it's changed our world over 60 years

The BlueGene/L supercomputer can perform 280.6 trillion operations per second. Image:  REUTERS/KimberlyWhite

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Justin Zobel

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Fourth Industrial Revolution is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:, fourth industrial revolution.

It is a truism that computing continues to change our world. It shapes how objects are designed, what information we receive, how and where we work, and who we meet and do business with. And computing changes our understanding of the world around us and the universe beyond.

For example, while computers were initially used in weather forecasting as no more than an efficient way to assemble observations and do calculations, today our understanding of weather is almost entirely mediated by computational models.

Another example is biology. Where once research was done entirely in the lab (or in the wild) and then captured in a model, it often now begins in a predictive model, which then determines what might be explored in the real world.

The transformation that is due to computation is often described as digital disruption . But an aspect of this transformation that can easily be overlooked is that computing has been disrupting itself.

Evolution and revolution

Each wave of new computational technology has tended to lead to new kinds of systems, new ways of creating tools, new forms of data, and so on, which have often overturned their predecessors. What has seemed to be evolution is, in some ways, a series of revolutions.

But the development of computing technologies is more than a chain of innovation – a process that’s been a hallmark of the physical technologies that shape our world.

For example, there is a chain of inspiration from waterwheel, to steam engine, to internal combustion engine. Underlying this is a process of enablement. The industry of steam engine construction yielded the skills, materials and tools used in construction of the first internal combustion engines.

In computing, something richer is happening where new technologies emerge, not only by replacing predecessors, but also by enveloping them. Computing is creating platforms on which it reinvents itself, reaching up to the next platform.

Getting connected

Arguably, the most dramatic of these innovations is the web. During the 1970s and 1980s, there were independent advances in the availability of cheap, fast computing, of affordable disk storage and of networking.

Compute and storage were taken up in personal computers, which at that stage were standalone, used almost entirely for gaming and word processing. At the same time, networking technologies became pervasive in university computer science departments, where they enabled, for the first time, the collaborative development of software.

This was the emergence of a culture of open-source development, in which widely spread communities not only used common operating systems, programming languages and tools, but collaboratively contributed to them.

As networks spread, tools developed in one place could be rapidly promoted, shared and deployed elsewhere. This dramatically changed the notion of software ownership, of how software was designed and created, and of who controlled the environments we use.

The networks themselves became more uniform and interlinked, creating the global internet, a digital traffic infrastructure. Increases in computing power meant there was spare capacity for providing services remotely.

The falling cost of disk meant that system administrators could set aside storage to host repositories that could be accessed globally. The internet was thus used not just for email and chat forums (known then as news groups) but, increasingly, as an exchange mechanism for data and code.

This was in strong contrast to the systems used in business at that time, which were customised, isolated, and rigid.

With hindsight, the confluence of networking, compute and storage at the start of the 1990s, coupled with the open-source culture of sharing, seems almost miraculous. An environment ready for something remarkable, but without even a hint of what that thing might be.

The ‘superhighway’

It was to enhance this environment that then US Vice President Al Gore proposed in 1992 the “ information superhighway ”, before any major commercial or social uses of the internet had appeared.

Meanwhile, in 1990, researchers at CERN, including Tim Berners-Lee , created a system for storing documents and publishing them to the internet, which they called the world wide web .

As knowledge of this system spread on the internet (transmitted by the new model of open-source software systems), people began using it via increasingly sophisticated browsers. They also began to write documents specifically for online publication – that is, web pages.

As web pages became interactive and resources moved online, the web became a platform that has transformed society. But it also transformed computing.

With the emergence of the web came the decline of the importance of the standalone computer, dependent on local storage.

We all connect

The value of these systems is due to another confluence: the arrival on the web of vast numbers of users. For example, without behaviours to learn from, search engines would not work well, so human actions have become part of the system.

There are (contentious) narratives of ever-improving technology, but also an entirely unarguable narrative of computing itself being transformed by becoming so deeply embedded in our daily lives.

This is, in many ways, the essence of big data. Computing is being fed by human data streams: traffic data, airline trips, banking transactions, social media and so on.

The challenges of the discipline have been dramatically changed by this data, and also by the fact that the products of the data (such as traffic control and targeted marketing) have immediate impacts on people.

Software that runs robustly on a single computer is very different from that with a high degree of rapid interaction with the human world, giving rise to needs for new kinds of technologies and experts, in ways not evenly remotely anticipated by the researchers who created the technologies that led to this transformation.

Decisions that were once made by hand-coded algorithms are now made entirely by learning from data. Whole fields of study may become obsolete.

The discipline does indeed disrupt itself. And as the next wave of technology arrives (immersive environments? digital implants? aware homes?), it will happen again.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;} Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

.chakra .wef-1dtnjt5{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;} More on Fourth Industrial Revolution .chakra .wef-17xejub{-webkit-flex:1;-ms-flex:1;flex:1;justify-self:stretch;-webkit-align-self:stretch;-ms-flex-item-align:stretch;align-self:stretch;} .chakra .wef-nr1rr4{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;white-space:normal;vertical-align:middle;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:0.75rem;border-radius:0.25rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;line-height:1.2;-webkit-letter-spacing:1.25px;-moz-letter-spacing:1.25px;-ms-letter-spacing:1.25px;letter-spacing:1.25px;background:none;padding:0px;color:#B3B3B3;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;}@media screen and (min-width:37.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:0.875rem;}}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:1rem;}} See all

These vibrant new food dyes are 100% natural

How the role of telecoms is evolving in the Middle East

Bart Valkhof and Omar Adi

February 16, 2024

4 ways to future-proof against deepfakes in 2024 and beyond

Anna Maria Collard

February 12, 2024

This Swedish startup aims to build world's largest green steel plant

Adele Peters

February 8, 2024

Why industry 4.0 technology works best in bundles

Daniele Battaglia

February 6, 2024

Japan lands spacecraft on the moon, and other technology stories you need to read

Sebastian Buckup

January 31, 2024

The history of computing is both evolution and revolution

Head, Department of Computing & Information Systems, The University of Melbourne

Disclosure statement

Justin Zobel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Melbourne provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the first computer in an Australian university. The University of Melbourne took possession of the machine from CSIRO and on June 14, 1956, the recommissioned CSIRAC was formally switched on. Six decades on, our series Computing turns 60 looks at how things have changed.

It is a truism that computing continues to change our world. It shapes how objects are designed, what information we receive, how and where we work, and who we meet and do business with. And computing changes our understanding of the world around us and the universe beyond.

For example, while computers were initially used in weather forecasting as no more than an efficient way to assemble observations and do calculations, today our understanding of weather is almost entirely mediated by computational models.

Another example is biology. Where once research was done entirely in the lab (or in the wild) and then captured in a model, it often now begins in a predictive model, which then determines what might be explored in the real world.

The transformation that is due to computation is often described as digital disruption . But an aspect of this transformation that can easily be overlooked is that computing has been disrupting itself.

Evolution and revolution

Each wave of new computational technology has tended to lead to new kinds of systems, new ways of creating tools, new forms of data, and so on, which have often overturned their predecessors. What has seemed to be evolution is, in some ways, a series of revolutions.

But the development of computing technologies is more than a chain of innovation – a process that’s been a hallmark of the physical technologies that shape our world.

For example, there is a chain of inspiration from waterwheel, to steam engine, to internal combustion engine. Underlying this is a process of enablement. The industry of steam engine construction yielded the skills, materials and tools used in construction of the first internal combustion engines.

In computing, something richer is happening where new technologies emerge, not only by replacing predecessors, but also by enveloping them. Computing is creating platforms on which it reinvents itself, reaching up to the next platform.

Getting connected

Arguably, the most dramatic of these innovations is the web. During the 1970s and 1980s, there were independent advances in the availability of cheap, fast computing, of affordable disk storage and of networking.

Compute and storage were taken up in personal computers, which at that stage were standalone, used almost entirely for gaming and word processing. At the same time, networking technologies became pervasive in university computer science departments, where they enabled, for the first time, the collaborative development of software.

This was the emergence of a culture of open-source development, in which widely spread communities not only used common operating systems, programming languages and tools, but collaboratively contributed to them.

As networks spread, tools developed in one place could be rapidly promoted, shared and deployed elsewhere. This dramatically changed the notion of software ownership, of how software was designed and created, and of who controlled the environments we use.

The networks themselves became more uniform and interlinked, creating the global internet, a digital traffic infrastructure. Increases in computing power meant there was spare capacity for providing services remotely.

The falling cost of disk meant that system administrators could set aside storage to host repositories that could be accessed globally. The internet was thus used not just for email and chat forums (known then as news groups) but, increasingly, as an exchange mechanism for data and code.

This was in strong contrast to the systems used in business at that time, which were customised, isolated, and rigid.

With hindsight, the confluence of networking, compute and storage at the start of the 1990s, coupled with the open-source culture of sharing, seems almost miraculous. An environment ready for something remarkable, but without even a hint of what that thing might be.

The ‘superhighway’

It was to enhance this environment that then US Vice President Al Gore proposed in 1992 the “ information superhighway ”, before any major commercial or social uses of the internet had appeared.

Meanwhile, in 1990, researchers at CERN, including Tim Berners-Lee , created a system for storing documents and publishing them to the internet, which they called the world wide web .

As knowledge of this system spread on the internet (transmitted by the new model of open-source software systems), people began using it via increasingly sophisticated browsers. They also began to write documents specifically for online publication – that is, web pages.

As web pages became interactive and resources moved online, the web became a platform that has transformed society. But it also transformed computing.

With the emergence of the web came the decline of the importance of the standalone computer, dependent on local storage.

We all connect

The value of these systems is due to another confluence: the arrival on the web of vast numbers of users. For example, without behaviours to learn from, search engines would not work well, so human actions have become part of the system.

There are (contentious) narratives of ever-improving technology, but also an entirely unarguable narrative of computing itself being transformed by becoming so deeply embedded in our daily lives.

This is, in many ways, the essence of big data. Computing is being fed by human data streams: traffic data, airline trips, banking transactions, social media and so on.

The challenges of the discipline have been dramatically changed by this data, and also by the fact that the products of the data (such as traffic control and targeted marketing) have immediate impacts on people.

Software that runs robustly on a single computer is very different from that with a high degree of rapid interaction with the human world, giving rise to needs for new kinds of technologies and experts, in ways not evenly remotely anticipated by the researchers who created the technologies that led to this transformation.

Decisions that were once made by hand-coded algorithms are now made entirely by learning from data. Whole fields of study may become obsolete.

The discipline does indeed disrupt itself. And as the next wave of technology arrives (immersive environments? digital implants? aware homes?), it will happen again.

• Computer science
• Computing turns 60

Events Officer

Lecturer (Hindi-Urdu)

Director, Defence and Security

Opportunities with the new CIEHF

School of Social Sciences – Public Policy and International Relations opportunities

Computer revolution

Also known as a digital revolution , a computer revolution is a point in time at which computers make a significant change to human civilization. There's been roughly four computer revolutions over the last century, each of which are described below.

Computer revolutions

Each computer revolution can be defined by the specific technology it introduced. Below is a breakdown of each major revolution and the decade it took place.

• The advent of the integrated circuit in the 1960s led to the modern PC, helping businesses and communications companies around the globe.
• In the 1980s, the personal computer came into being. It allowed home users to increase their education, productivity, and entertainment.
• In the 1990s, the third revolution started when the Internet was introduced. This allowed almost every computer in the world to communicate with one another.
• Modern mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets , were invented in the 2000s, adapting the functionality of computers to a smaller, portable form factor .

Related information

• How many generations of computers are there?
• When was the first computer invented?
• Who invented the Internet?
• Computer history index .

Generation , Mobile device , State-of-the-art , Technology

History and the Computer Revolutions A Survey of Current Practices

Dennis A. Trinkle

Executive Director American Association for History and Computing DePauw University

Amidst the widespread hyperbole about a global Computer Revolution, forceful claims for and against the union of computer technology and history are being made. These claims often overlook the significant roles computer technology has played in history study and research over the last four decades, creating a sense that historians are merely naive neophytes of the digital world. They also often rest on little real understanding of how computer technology is currently being used in the practices of history. To help answer these questions and foster a more informed and productive discussion about the practices of history in the electronic age, the American Association for History and Computing (AAHC) conducted a survey of computer usage among American college and university history professors during the summer and fall of 1998. The survey was distributed through H-Net and other historical discussion lists and was mailed to the chairs of the approximately 660 departments listed in the American Historical Association's Directory of History Departments and Organizations in the United States and Canada. 485 history instructors from 101 American colleges and universities responded. Replies were evenly distributed across rank and degree of technical proficiency. This essay surveys the results of the survey and provides the tabulated data.

Sven Birkerts begins his recent book The Gutenberg Elegies with a belletristic cri de coeur:

Over the past few decades, in the blink of the eye of history, our culture has begun to go through what promises to be a total metamorphosis. The influx of electronic communications and information processing technologies, abetted by the steady improvement of the microprocessor, has rapidly brought a condition of critical mass. The slower world that many of us grew up with dwindles in the rearview mirror. The stable hierarchies of the printed page—one of the defining norms of that world—are being superceded by the rush of impulses through freshly minted circuits.   [1]

As a literary critic, Birkerts laments the changing landscape of print culture. His concerns are not connected solely to literature, however. They are intensely interdisciplinary. Faculty in history departments are pondering the same transitions posed in The Gutenberg Elegies . The problem with Birkerts' jeremiad and many coffee break conversations is that they are impressionistically prophetic. History faculty include their Pollyannas with their Jeremiahs, of course, but much of the discussion remains anecdotal. While the end of the world is decried and the dawn of a new age is proclaimed, few attempts have been made to chart what changes are actually occurring.

In order to help foster a more informed and productive discussion about the practices of history in the electronic age, the American Association for History and Computing (AAHC) conducted a survey of computer usage among American college and university history professors during the summer and fall of 1998.   [2] The survey was distributed through H-Net and other historical discussion lists and was mailed to the chairs of the approximately 660 departments listed in the American Historical Association Directory of History Departments and Organizations in the United States and Canada. 485 history instructors from 101 American colleges and universities responded. Replies were evenly distributed across rank and degree of technical proficiency. (See data below )

As the full results of the survey reveal, computer technology has gained an established place in the practices of history. Every history instructor who returned the survey is using electronic mail for scholarly communication, and ninety-three percent of the respondents report using computers for research. Problems of access for faculty also appear to be lessening. Every respondent indicated that they can now use the Internet from work. Ninety-eight percent of full-time faculty reported having a computer in their office, with ninety-one percent of those instructors stating that their office computer is connected to the Internet. It must be noted, however, that access for students remains problematic, and community college faculty, adjuncts, and part-time instructors still lag far behind.

The survey also reveals the danger in using unitary metaphors like "the electronic revolution" to describe the process of change occurring in American colleges and universities. Respondents' remarks show that there is great individual and institutional variation in how technology is being applied to the practices of history. The detailed comments following each of the survey questions clearly demonstrate that neither the dangers nor the promise of computer technology can be adequately addressed through broad comments about general trends affecting the profession. To invert Georges Lefebvre's famous injunction about the French Revolution—the computer revolution is not a block.

There are, of course, some shared experiences that are reflected across the entire range of surveys. Experimentation with technology in the history classroom, albeit in widely divergent forms, is a central theme. Eighty percent of those surveyed reported using technology in teaching, and forty-six percent state that they are now requiring their students to use email for course purposes. Forty-four percent also have begun requiring students to use the Internet for research exercises, papers, and seminars, though twenty-three percent of this later group expressed concerns about the reliability of information on the Internet.

To address the problem of quality many faculty report trying a variety of pro-active experiments. Fifty-four percent of the respondents have begun devoting class sessions to technical instruction and workshops. Many are offering students specific instruction on how to find and evaluate materials on the Internet. Respondents are also turning to printed scholarly guides to Internet resources, such as The History Highway , and to on-line guides, such as The Argus Clearinghouse, the OCLC Internet Cataloging Project, and the Encyclopedia Britannica's E-Blast to direct students to reliable materials.   [3]

Instructors are also creating their own web sites to help guide students to dependable on-line materials and provide other useful resources. Forty-seven percent of the respondents stated that they have developed their own course sites. This measure masks great variety, however. For most of the faculty in this group, the creation of a web site means primarily making a copy of their syllabus and schedule available on the web and directing students to several web sites relevant to the course. A smaller group of faculty (who report greater technical support at their university or some training in computer technology) is producing more complex web resources for their students. The materials mentioned traverse a wide technical range from annotated course readings to interactive tutorials and sophisticated historical databases.

A significant number of faculty are also requiring students to create as well as use on-line multimedia materials. Twenty-seven percent have begun asking students to produce individual web sites for their courses, and twenty-one percent require or encourage students to develop group web projects. Many courses are now meeting at least occasionally in computer labs to work with or on multimedia materials. These projects are most frequently mentioned as part of upper-level history courses, but a number of faculty are encouraging students to create multimedia projects even at the introductory level.

Anecdotal comments indicate that there are still many history instructors across all ranks and institutional types who are uncomfortable with the use of multimedia projects in teaching history. The rationale most often given is that requiring multimedia projects necessitates greater student preparation. The other side of this complaint is the second most repeated explanation: "teaching technical skills at the expense of historical content and methodology is a calculus of dubious value." Similarly, a number of respondents question the benefits of adopting technology relative to the high costs in purely economic terms. One representative respondent poses the question: Which leads more directly to good history teaching—"a new computer lab or a new full-time history professor?"

Importantly, a number of those already actively using multimedia projects and materials in their courses also question the benefits to learning outcomes. These complaints come primarily from faculty at community colleges and state universities, especially from those at schools moving aggressively to develop distance learning programs. These instructors echo concerns about students being poorly prepared to use computers in the classroom. They raise fundamental questions about the success of distance learning for early undergraduates in history. More than twenty instructors anecdotally claimed that participation and enthusiasm dropped in direct correlation to the amount of hours spent on-line in a course. One professor who has conducted a quantitative comparative study of his distance and traditional versions of an otherwise identical course, reported that use of the Internet and multimedia projects negatively affected student interest, communication with the instructor, and performance.

Reflecting these anxieties, seventy-three percent of faculty worry that their present use of technology is inadequate or poorly conceived. They express concerns about outdated technology, insufficient training, lack of release time, student resistance, negative impact upon tenure and promotion decisions, and unforeseen or negative effects upon the quality of their teaching. A number of faculty also reiterate deep concerns, already being widely heard, about how technology is being implemented and used on their campuses. Thirty-five percent of the respondents claimed that they were required by their institutions to use the Internet for their courses. Some of the mandatory uses indicated included offering state-required "technology across the curriculum" courses, putting syllabi on the Internet, making course enrollment and grade records available on-line, and even using technology provided by a specific corporation as mandated by a partnership agreement. Eleven percent of the respondents specifically noted as their central concern the lack of faculty involvement in planning and policy making. More generally, sixty-five percent claimed to be dissatisfied with their institutions' technology policies, initiatives, and plans for the future. The most common complaint is that "the administration is imposing technology without consulting faculty" and with "little regard for its impact upon teaching or learning." Others worry that the human dimensions of the profession are being devalued and disregarded. They argue that the union of technology and history will exacerbate the job crisis, further commercialize and dehumanize the profession, and increase the use of adjuncts, part-time instructors, and graduate students. Collectively, these complaints illustrate many of the central issues which the profession must continue to address if technology is to be sensibly and productively incorporated into the practices of history.

Overall, however, the spirit of the surveys is not pessimistic. As the fuller figures and selected comments indicate, there is an alert recognition throughout the profession that the Internet and World Wide Web are changing, or hold the potential to change, every dimension of history—from the structures of historical knowledge to the paradigms of pedagogy. The criticisms which resonate in the responses demonstrate a pervasive desire by faculty to actively direct the courses these changes will follow. The current state of history reflected in the surveys can, perhaps, be best described as cautiously optimistic experimentation.

As appropriate for such a period of uncertain transition, there is no consensus about where the discipline is headed. The experiments do suggest the development of new modes of historical interpretation, explanation, and instruction, but the story will likely be one of increased options. Just as television has not replaced radio, and modern scientific thought has not supplanted metaphysics, well-established practices of history will not disappear, rather they will most likely find novel and productive supplements through evolving computer technologies. The American Association for History and Computing, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and other professional bodies must not stand idly by and allow market forces or ironic detachment to determine future disciplinary practices. Historians must take advantage of the Internet's power to foster community so that we may collectively shape the forms history will take in the next millennium.

1. Sven Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in the Electronic Age (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1994) p. 3.

2. Portions of this summary appeared previously in Dennis A. Trinkle, "Computers and the Practice of History: Where Are We? Where Are We Headed?," Perspectives 37:2 (February 1999): 31-4.

3. Dennis Trinkle et al., The History Highway (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1998). The Argus Clearinghouse: http://www.clearinghouse.net/index.html ; The OCLC Internet Cataloging Project: http://orc.rsch.oclc.org:6990 ; and the Encyclopedia Britannica's E-Blast: http://www.ebig.com .

Survey Results

A note on methodology:.

The survey was distributed through H-Net and other historical discussion lists and was mailed via the United States Post Office to the chairs of the approximately 660 departments listed in the American Historical Association Directory of History Departments and Organizations in the United States and Canada . 485 history instructors from 101 American colleges and universities responded. Replies were representatively distributed across rank and degree of technical proficiency. In addition, to a simple yes or no answer, respondents were asked to provide extended explanations relating to each question. Representative remarks illustrating themes that appeared repeatedly in the surveys are listed below.

Institutions Represented:

• Allegheny College
• Allegheny University of Health Science
• Amarillo College
• American University
• Appalachian State University
• Assumption College
• Ball State University
• Bates College
• Bowling Green State University
• Brock University
• California State University, Los Angeles
• California State University, Fullerton
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Case Western Reserve University
• Christian Brothers University
• Cleveland State University
• College Misericordia
• Concordia University
• DePauw University
• Elon College
• Emory University, Carroll College
• Essex Community College
• Florida International University
• George Mason University
• George Washington University
• Georgia Southern University
• Georgia Technical University
• Hagerstown Community College
• Harvard College
• Humboldt State University
• Indiana University
• Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis
• Kettering University
• Kingwood College
• LeTourneau University
• Levinsky College
• Lincoln University of Missouri
• Louisiana State University-Shreveport
• Marymount University
• Mercy College
• Messiah College
• Miami University
• Michigan State University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Montana State University-Billings
• Morehead State University
• New Mexico State University
• Northern Kentucky University
• Northwestern University
• Oakland University
• Oberlin College
• Ohio University
• Ohio State University
• Oklahoma State University
• Pacific University
• Rose Hulman University
• San Francisco State University
• Sarah Lawrence College
• Southwestern University
• Spelman College
• Stanford University
• Stephen F. Austin State University
• SUNY/Empire State College
• Tennessee Technological University
• Texas A&M University-Kingsville
• Texas Technical University
• Wake Forest University
• Whitman College
• Wichita State University
• Winthrop University
• Wittenburg University
• William Tyndale College
• Woodbury University
• Wright State University
• The Union Institute
• University of Alabama
• University of Alaska-Fairbanks
• University of Arizona
• University of California-Davis
• University of California-Los Angeles
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of California-Riverside
• University of Chicago
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Colorado-Denver
• University of Connecticut
• University of Dayton
• University of Illinois-Chicago
• University of Illinois-Urbana
• University of Iowa
• University of Kentucky
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• University of Minnesota-Duluth
• University of Oklahoma-Norman
• University of Richmond
• University of South Carolina-Sumter
• University of Tennessee
• University of Toledo
• University of Virginia
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Xavier University

• Required to send and receive e-mail
• There are state requirements for technology competency that must be met by students 
• Record keeping must be done using a database
• Required ATeaching and Learning with Technology@ program
• Instructors required to post syllabi on Internet and are encouraged to use computers in class
• Library catalog only accessible electronically
• Course enrollment data sent by computer
• Registration/scheduling information done via computer
• Grades recorded on-line
• On-line graduate thesis/dissertation program
• Access to student files through on-line database
• Word Processing
• Use of IBM technology strongly encouraged because of partnership
• Instructor of on-line course

• Access libraries and databases
• Use self-programmed prosopographical database (relational database)
• Use statistical programs
• Literature searches of secondary writings on various topics
• Access archives on-line
• Access historical reviews on-line
• Use FileMaker Pro 4.0, NUD*IST, (and other packages) to categorize and analyze data
• Access on-line library and archive catalogs 
• Word processing
• Discussion lists
• Download manuscripts
• Use note-taking and bibliographic software
• Locate sources on CD or web
• Read electronic newsletters
• Use hand-held scanner
• Access census data on the Net
• Publish e-journals
• Use spreadsheets
• Use SPSS to process data, run statistical tests
• Use GIS for mapping
• Run programs for content analysis
• Host web site to collect data on electric car drivers and owners

• E-Conferences
• Discussion groups
• Send papers to colleagues or conference organizers
• Exchange draft manuscripts with local and distant co-authors
• Edit on-line historical reviews
• Read electronic reviews
• Subscribe to H-Net lists
• Collaborative editing
• Referee articles
• Purchase books

• Used in informatics course
• Mailing list established for student communication, discussions
• Web site established with information on classes and links to sites relevant for classes
• Syllabi posted on web
• Not required because college serves older students, most of whom do not have computers!
• Students required to know how to use e-mail
• Assignments submitted via e-mail
• Web bulletin boards used
• Lotus cabinet used to post discussion questions and answers
• E-mail not required because it is not a free service to students, so not all students can afford it
• Course organized as on-line conference
• Course listserv available, weekly papers submitted via e-mail

• Use browser-based tools
• Web interface
• Simulations
• Students required to use word processors, e-mail software
• Netscape Communicator used to view and develop web pages
• Hypertext conferencing
• Use statistical and content analysis programs
• Use graphics manipulation software (Paintshop/Photoshop)
• Use PowerPoint and Presentations (presentation software)

• Use Front Page 98 and its features for on-line discussions
• Students required to post on bulletin boards
• Use Discussion groups 
• Use Netscape Collabra Software 
• Use of Lotus cabinet
• Do not use above technology because "students are not matureenough to handle the responsibility it entails"
• Use Lotus Notes

• Use of Medline and DXPlain
• Library Catalogs
• Introduction to Internet use
• Used in Methods of History Research class
• Students asked to find news articles, current events information for course
• Students required to use on-line course pages, visit web sites, and report findings on bulletin board
• Students required to write abstracts of seven Internet sources related to the class
• Students write reviews of web sites
• Internet used to locate sources
• Students create web page which includes original research
• Students post reading assignments and a research paper on the web
• Internet used for library searches and to locate and order books

• Students enrolled in informatics course do web project
• Multimedia projects abandoned due to lack of response from students
• Students encouraged to design web pages
• Not required because of lack of knowledge on part of instructor
• Students may choose to do PowerPoint presentation
• No.  These presentations would detract from the teaching of history
• Term papers done on multimedia web format
• Students review and write about web pages and present their findings
• Students do research project, share results
• Instructor prefers writing (the pen-and-paper kind)
• Instructor has enough trouble getting students to write at all
• Seminar project involves creation of web page

• Projects abandoned because students unresponsive
• Students encouraged to include links to web sites in their own required group postings
• Students create group web pages
• Students use PowerPoint, Hypercard studios
• Web page is done as class group project
• Students evaluate resources available on the web and create annotated web sites in groups

• Course pages with class information are available
• Course page includes course outline and tips on writing essays
• Web site with syllabi and links to other relevant web sites
• Web site would not be useful since most students do not have computers
• Hand-outs available on web
• Use Visual Classroom
• Use IntraNet
• Instructor lacks knowledge as to how to develop a web page
• Web page created to which students attach assignments
• Pages created by former students
• Electronic reserves and reading list available on web

• Weekly assignments require web site visits
• Distance education students hold virtual discussions on a virtual bulletin board
• Would like to do so but technological support not available
• Do not want to do this because of concern about plagiarism
• Offered as extra credit
• Presented as research opportunity

16. Please describe any additional ways in which you use computer technology in your teaching?

• Used to create syllabi, exams, handouts, overheads
• Use LCD panel with CLARIS IMPACT "slides" as outlines during lecture
• Use desktop interactive video
• Use e-mail to communicate with TA's, doctoral candidates
• Students submit assignments via e-mail
• Used for multimedia classroom presentations, PowerPoint presentations
• Use web board with chat capabilities
• Use access newspaper archives, distribute outprints
• Use re-create primary source documents
• Used for grading
• Used for writing and editing workshop files
• Used for paradigm drilling and grammar analysis in foreign language skills
• Used to create graphics
• Extra information posted on-line, used to augment lecture
• Demonstrates web sites in class

• Initial orientation to laptops provided
• Training in library and Internet use
• Research Methods class meets weekly in computer lab
• All history honors students provided with training in first year
• Database construction taught to history honor students in second year
• Graduate student available for assistance
• Training session for Lotus Notes cabinet
• Training in use of web for research
• HTML introduction
• Workshop on the creation of web pages
• Course on critical use of information available on the web
• Nota Bene/SPSS workshops
• Students taught how to use computers to register, use e-mail
• Lab director helps interested students learn high-level program 
• Expert students teach HTML and basic web page design

• Humanities Computing Center available for faculty
• University Computing Center available, although fee required
• Reference librarians provide instruction
• Technological support and training available: classes, helpline, software library, computer labs
• Help available, but tech specialists do not convey information well (inadequate teachers)
• Internet connections and training on software and hardware provided
• Computer literacy course required
• Given computers, then left to fend for oneself
• Computer center available, but help limited
• Support available, but no training
• Workshops available for faculty regarding use of programs and software (PageMill, Photoshop)
• Grant support available for multimedia classes
• Hotline available
• Training and support only for tenure-track faculty

• Improvement needed at departmental level
• Improve support, get faculty more willing to devote time and energy
• Hire technicians who are better teachers
• Update machines and software
• Establish regular and mandatory training on basic software
• Hire more technicians
• Establish more labs
• Establish more advanced courses
• Need more printers in department
• Need consultant and more sophisticated library catalogs
• Need more discussion among faculty and those learning
• Better and more equipment needed
• Need more web tools for less sophisticated users
• Need more money
• Need to convert to Windows format
• More time necessary to develop methods of teaching technology
• Need faster upgrades
• Need better access to Internet
• Need better maintenance, more consideration for MAC users
• Training needs to be more specific
• Take care not to let technology overshadow more traditional materials
• Technicians need to work with each discipline specifically
• More lines for modem access are needed
• Need on-line tutorials
• Need training on Internet as a research tool
• More support is necessary for older users
• Long-term grants necessary for the purchase of materials      such as laptops

• "Wired" departmental office
• Center for undergraduates in history: two terminals, full range of programs, local net only, library access, microprocessing
• Multimedia machines available
• No facilities: old-fashioned ideas predominate in department
• Separate computer lab for history department
• Professors given money to purchase computer
• Faculty offices connected to 10baseT Ethernet
• Laser discs available
• Proposal for teaching lab denied
• While available, lab not good because requests for upgrades denied
• Scanner available
• Faculty provided with laptops
• Laser printers available
• Smart classroom (linked to LAN/WAN intranet)
• Computer pool for students
• Student seats and podium in classrooms have network connections 
• Classes have web access
• Adobe Photoshop available

• More development requires institutional support, task not yet recognized universally as valuable
• Could use more history courseware
• Need more instruction on part of professor
• Need to research more to determine how to best use technology 
• Would like to use web more for providing resources tostudents
• Needs more technical advisors to help in use of new technology
• Exploring more ways to bring technology into classroom
• Wants to establish electronic discussion sections and course home page
• Worried that equipment will not function properly
• Discussions with students not always fruitful
• Wants students to have basic computer knowledge, but text more interesting than computer programs has been able to find
• Access to computers too limited, funding not available forexpansion
• Wants to work more with multimedia
• Needs laptop and computer projection unit
• Wants students to feel more comfortable with technology
• Needs more time to learn what is available
• Feels use of technology does not improve teaching
• Not satisfied with information gaps on web
• Interested in using computer to replace overheads
• Wants to incorporate slides and music into unified computer format, but has no time and does not feel comfortable with the technology
• Wants more systematic us of Internet for student discussion

• Needs more training
• Wishes more archives had finding aids on-line
• Would like more sharing of information among academics
• Wants more information to be available and would like toa ccess it faster
• Feels scholars and research institutions are not prominent enough on the web.
• Would like to create on-line archive
• Feels that keeping up with changing technology takes too much time
• Wants to keep programs geared to personal needs
• Feels daunted by idea of searching through "junk" on web
• Feels too many security barriers exist in government research
• Feels more archives need to be available on-line
• Needs more specialized information available on the web
• Need more subject-oriented software 
• Wants increased sophistication in statistical analyses
• Wants to put case study on-line

• Communication abundant, almost too much of it
• Unsatisfied because other team members do not use e-mail
• Unsatisfied because feels there exists lack of involvement in scholarly communication
• Wants to see use of video as part of listservs
• Happy with listservs and e-mail
• Feels schools should be LAN/WAN intranet integrated
• Unsatisfied because hardware for realtime conferencing is unavailable
• Pleased with networks and H-Net
• Feels that more researchers should use available technology, communication restricted at this point in time
• Unsatisfied because wants to create own web page but is unable to do so
• Funding does not exist to institute plans
• Not satisfied because there never seems to be enoughtechnological support and colleagues are not interested in obtaining more because learning curve is too great
• Satisfied because willingness exists to use technology forpurposes beyond administrative applications
• Satisfied because institution invested in hardware, personnel, and is incorporating distance learning, support and time are given to allow faculty to develop web-based instruction
• Unsatisfied because promised technology has notmaterialized
• Upgrades and establishment of campus network are planned
• Long-distance learning program expected to be expanded
• Planning to buy computers for faculty, expanding number ofavailable programs
• Satisfied because faculty continually supplied with updatedhardware
• Unsatisfied because institution is eliminating studentuniversity accounts, eradicating student access to the network
• Unsatisfied because given so much new technology so quicklythat does not have time to decide how to use it sensibly and effectively
• Unsatisfied because repair is uncertain
• Feels more emphasis needs to be placed on the use ofcomputers in the humanities. Sciences are receiving disproportionate funding
• Unsatisfied because so much money put into computingfacilities that library is suffering, "computer bureaucracy" is consuming financial resources

25. What would you like to be able to do with technology that you are presently unable to accomplish?

• Create a web site
• Teach more e-history
• Create and experiment with self-directed program, provided that financial and technological support are available
• Give students access to wider range of material
• Database programming
• Establish class bulletin board
• Use web and CD-ROM technology in classroom
• See more reliability and compatibility in software and hardware
• Connect students with other students taking same course at a different university
• Explore more ways to post primary documents on the web and create interactive maps
• Would like basic instruction course to be available for students 
• Develop programs for interactive exercises
• Free access to Lexis/Nexis
• Search more digitalized collections
• Get less expensive CD-ROMs
• Use videos on-line
• Improve projection equipment
• Incorporate multimedia in the classroom
• See specialized books become machine-readable
• Have more cooperation from colleagues
• Have French spell checker that includes thesaurus and gender checker
• Establish more computer labs
• Have faster access to historical data and files, more efficient communication
• Wants 3-D didactic creations
• Present streaming video into student rooms
• Exams on computers
• Have students turn in papers on-line
• Develop better graphics
• Full-text retrieval
• Use spatial analysis in historical files
• Be subjected to less e-mail
• Solve problems with Hebrew letters on Internet
• Have interactive web-based classes
• Make basic hardware available for those without large incomes
• Get all students on-line
• Better scanning programs to create course files and ease cost of course reading packets
• International collaboration in forming databases
• Learn more about non-linear statistical analysis
• Have access to more archives, search collections with      greater ease

26. What problems do you presently see or foresee with your use of technology?

• Insufficient funds
• Administrative obstacles
• Not all faculty/staff have access to hardware/software
• Keeping up with changing technology is difficult
• Problems with web-plagiarism 
• Lack of time to learn about new technology
• Lack of skill to use technology effectively
• Difficulty in connecting technology with effective teaching     and learning
• Not all students have computer access
• Equipment and training not always available
• Problems with intercompatibility and reliability
• Learning about new technology takes time away from scholarly pursuits, teaching, and administrative duties
• Present structure of merit pay and promotion criterial discourages devoting time to developing technology
• Technology tends to distance faculty from students
• Lack of familiarity of colleagues poses problem in team-oriented exercises
• Too much e-mail devalues any single message
• Technology often used inappropriately
• Lack of organization of web resources
• Doubt credibility of web resources
• When students are busy trying to learn software, they aredistracted from course content 
• Technology problematic when it becomes central interest andnot a tool
• Technology scares students
• Technology generates problems with commercialism and copyright issues
• Constant need to update
• Ownership disputes over future on-line courses
• Too much pornography and not enough dedication to solvingproblems
• Technology used like books and paper, new possibilities seldom explored
• Inequality among wealthy and not-so-wealthy studentsexacerbated by availability (or lack) of technology
• Computers being "pushed" for wrong reasons (politics, etc.)
• Crashes interrupt work
• Problems with guiding students in appropriate use of web

27. What problems do you presently see or foresee with your institution's use of technology?

• Lack of money
• Fear of long distance learning
• Fear of the degradation of the learning environment
• Difficulty in keeping up with rapid changes
• Difficult to find time to devote to new technology
• Difficulty finding skilled users of new technology
• Unrealistic promises when funds are short
• Present system discourages professors from devoting time to understanding technology
• Inadequate infrastructure to support classroom use oftechnology
• Cannot agree on what is important
• Over-reliance on technology detrimental to classroom teaching: technology can help but not replace personal interactions
• "Everything becomes less important"
• Technology scares women students away
• Technology used inappropriately
• Rush to cancel print resources means that quality of digitalized resources must improve
• Departments fighting for scarce lab resources
• Inequality in access to resources
• Lack of training resources
• Despite the "hype", students are not interested
• Programs need to be more user friendly
• Inadequate support for users
• Catering to students wealthy enough to afford the equipment puts poor students at disadvantage
• Difficulty finding software to match needs of user
• Need protection from hackers
• Bureaucracy a problem
• Resources diverted from other areas, such as the library
• Few people are willing to experiment with quantitative research in the humanities
• Planning not coming from faculty or students but rather driven by available technologies

The Causes and Effect of the Computer Revolution Cause and Effect Essay

The innovative technologies dominate in the modern world. More and more people become occupied by the computers and the Internet. It is obvious that the effect of the intrusion of the computers in the everyday life is great.

Comparing and contrasting the life of people before and after the spread of the computer technologies, it becomes obvious that more and more people become occupied by the computers and the opportunities they offer and cannot imagine their lives without them.

Computer revolution has a lot of specific advantages which have made life of simple people easier and the professional implementation more effective, however, the computer technologies have brought some particular disadvantages which effect the life of simple people.

Therefore, the main idea 9of this paper is to discuss the positive and negative causes and effect of the computer revolution in the modern world. The computer revolution has brought the Internet to the modern world. Many people cannot imagine their lives without the Internet, the mobile phones, Wi-Fi and other priorities. These and many other aspects are going to be discussed in this paper with the stress on the effect of the development of different things.

Starting the discussion with the positive effect of the issue, it should be stated that the implementation of the computer technologies in the modern world has lead to the fact that most of the processes became automatic. This has relieved many people from performing dangerous tasks. Most of the manufacturing processes are automated and the computer and other innovative technologies are used to monitor the processes and their correct implementation (Card and DiNardo 750).

Therefore, the use of computers at the manufacturing helped people get rid of the dangerous work and become more professionally useful in other spheres. This is one of the most positive effects as the manufacturing of many products became easier and less dangerous, however, there are still professions which include much hazard and the computer revolution has brought nothing particular for them.

The next positive effect of the computer revolution is the information availability. The appearance of the Internet has created the supportive environment for development of the particular content and spaces for people all over the world.

Now, to get to know something interesting or the latest news people should not go either to the library or wait for the night news. It is possible just to search for the appropriate information online. Moreover, the information delivery has become easier and people are able to find the news and data interesting for them online.

It has increased the speed of the information sharing and people are able to draw conclusions faster, use the knowledge they get more effective. Therefore, the world has become faster and this is one of the effects of the computer revolution. The information delivery along with the manufacturing processes which are able to be completed faster. This may create an impression that human life is also going faster and rush.

It has already been mentioned that the information access is one of the main effects of the computer revolution and the Internet development. However, this very aspect may be considered as the negative if to look at the situation from another point off view.

The easy and fast access to the information creates more possibilities for people, but also makes those consider more and more information which is of no use. People become so overburden with data that they are unable to distinguish important data from useless information. It creates many difficulties as human brain is unable to analyze the information people get every day. that is why many people are depressed, exhausted, and stresses every day.

This is the negative effect of the computer revolution and we are unable to judge the final effect of it as living in the condition of the constant brain activity, trying to know and remember as much as possible people forget about the effect on their health and unpredicted outcome in the future.

The notion of informational security has appeared with the computer revolution. Data has become even more important than the human life. This is a great contrast, as being too available, much data in conserved from the unauthorized access. The military, political and economical data along with medical and other spheres are too valued and many people are ready to pay any money to get what they need.

The hackers and other people who are able to get the data risk their lives to achieve their aims. Thus, the priorities have shifted and no one knows what results will be. The computer revolution helped the medicine to make a great step ahead. The use of innovative technologies helps scientists in the whole world develop and test new medicine that helps people become healthier. Therefore, it may be concluded that the development of the science as a whole is created with the help of the opportunities prepared by the computer revolution.

Social spaces, charts and other information sharing content along with online computer games has made many people refuse from reality and live in the unreal online world. This has become a real problem for many people as being able to communicate with others, to entertain and to play online, many teenagers forget about the beauties of life and stay in front of computers all day long. The harm from such time spending cannot be even imagined.

First of all, people harm their health as sitting the whole day restricts them in movement and makes their eyes strengthen. Thus, the overweight and blindness are the main possible health problems people may have. Additionally, getting used to talk with others online many young people do not have desire to talk to people in the real world. It affects the sociability the future structure of the society.

The reduction of the number of marriages and the lowering of the birthrate is one of the main outcomes of the spread of the computer technologies. The cyberspace has captured many people, it has become like a drug and people (especially youth) are unable to get rid of it.

In conclusion, it should be stated that the consideration of the causes and the effects of the computer revolution helps to say that there are both positive and negative effects. Depending on the sphere and the implementation of the computer technologies, the effect may be different.

Generally, the computer revolution has brought more positive effect to the whole mankind, still, some aspects make it possible to judge positively about the issue. The automation of the manufacturing, the scientific discoveries and the possibility to conduct better research different spheres are the great effects which are to be appreciated.

Works Cited

Card, David, and John E. DiNardo. “Skill-Biased Technological Change And Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems And Puzzles.” Journal of Labor Economics 20.4 (2002): 733-783.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, October 31). The Causes and Effect of the Computer Revolution. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effect-of-the-computer-revolution/

"The Causes and Effect of the Computer Revolution." IvyPanda , 31 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effect-of-the-computer-revolution/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'The Causes and Effect of the Computer Revolution'. 31 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "The Causes and Effect of the Computer Revolution." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effect-of-the-computer-revolution/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Causes and Effect of the Computer Revolution." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effect-of-the-computer-revolution/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Causes and Effect of the Computer Revolution." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effect-of-the-computer-revolution/.

• Faster-than-Light Travel in Science and Fiction
• Effects of Technology in Education
• The Internet Revolution and Digital Future Technology Essay
• The Movie ‘The Social Network’: Easier and Faster
• The Information Technology Revolution
• The Five Developments of the Computers
• Revolution's Positive Effects
• Parallels Between the Revolutions of 1848 and Arab Revolutions
• The American Revolution as a People's Revolution
• The Agricultural Revolutions: Timeline, Causes, Inventions
• Effects of Computer Programming and Technology on Human Behavior
• Over Dependence on Technology
• Is Modern Conveniences and Technology a Curse or a Blessing?
• Technology: Being Digital
• Is Technology Neutral?

Too Soon To Tell: Essays for the End of The Computer Revolution

Too Soon to Tell is an original and starkly human portrait of the computer era that will entice readers from all walks of life.

IEEE Account

• Change Username/Password
• Update Address

Purchase Details

• Payment Options
• Order History
• View Purchased Documents

Profile Information

• Communications Preferences
• Profession and Education
• Technical Interests
• US & Canada: +1 800 678 4333
• Worldwide: +1 732 981 0060
• Contact & Support
• About IEEE Xplore
• Accessibility
• Terms of Use
• Nondiscrimination Policy
• Privacy & Opting Out of Cookies

A not-for-profit organization, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. © Copyright 2024 IEEE - All rights reserved. Use of this web site signifies your agreement to the terms and conditions.

The Evolution Of Computer | Generations of Computer

The development of computers has been a wonderful journey that has covered several centuries and is defined by a number of inventions and advancements made by our greatest scientists. Because of these scientists, we are using now the latest technology in the computer system.

Now we have Laptops , Desktop computers , notebooks , etc. which we are using today to make our lives easier, and most importantly we can communicate with the world from anywhere around the world with these things.

So, In today’s blog, I want you to explore the journey of computers with me that has been made by our scientists.

Note: If you haven’t read our History of Computer blog then must read first then come over here

let’s look at the evolution of computers/generations of computers

COMPUTER GENERATIONS

Computer generations are essential to understanding computing technology’s evolution. It divides computer history into periods marked by substantial advancements in hardware, software, and computing capabilities. So the first period of computers started from the year 1940 in the first generation of computers. let us see…

Table of Contents

Generations of computer

The generation of classified into five generations:

• First Generation Computer (1940-1956)
• Second Generation Computer (1956-1963)
• Third Generation Computer(1964-1971)
• Fourth Generation Computer(1971-Present)
• Fifth Generation Computer(Present and Beyond)

1. FIRST GENERATION COMPUTER: Vacuum Tubes (1940-1956)

The first generation of computers is characterized by the use of “Vacuum tubes” It was developed in 1904 by the British engineer “John Ambrose Fleming” . A vacuum tube is an electronic device used to control the flow of electric current in a vacuum. It is used in CRT(Cathode Ray Tube) TV , Radio , etc.

The first general-purpose programmable electronic computer was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) which was completed in 1945 and introduced on Feb 14, 1946, to the public. It was built by two American engineers “J. Presper Eckert” and “John V Mauchly” at the University of Pennsylvania.

The ENIAC was 30-50 feet long, 30 tons weighted, contained 18000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 registers, and 10,000 capacitors, and it required 150000 watts of electricity, which makes it very expensive.

Later, Eckert and Mauchly developed the first commercially successful computer named UNIVAC(Univeral Automatic Computer) in 1952 .

Examples are ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), UNIVAC-1 (Univeral Automatic Computer-1)

• These computers were designed by using vacuum tubes.
• These generations’ computers were simple architecture.
• These computers calculate data in a millisecond.
• This computer is used for scientific purposes.

DISADVANTAGES

• The computer was very costly.
• Very large.
• It takes up a lot of space and electricity
• The speed of these computers was very slow
• It is used for commercial purposes.
• It is very expensive.
• These computers heat a lot.
• Cooling is needed to operate these types of computers because they heat up very quickly.

2. SECOND GENERATION COMPUTER: Transistors (1956-1963)

The second generation of computers is characterized by the use of “Transistors” and it was developed in 1947 by three American physicists “John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley” .

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals or open or close a circuit. It was invented in Bell labs, The transistors became the key ingredient of all digital circuits, including computers.

The invention of transistors replaced the bulky electric tubes from the first generation of computers.

Transistors perform the same functions as a Vacuum tube , except that electrons move through instead of through a vacuum. Transistors are made of semiconducting materials and they control the flow of electricity.

It is smaller than the first generation of computers, it is faster and less expensive compared to the first generation of computers. The second-generation computer has a high level of programming languages, including FORTRAN (1956), ALGOL (1958), and COBOL (1959).

Examples are PDP-8 (Programmed Data Processor-8), IBM1400 (International business machine 1400 series), IBM 7090 (International business machine 7090 series), CDC 3600 ( Control Data Corporation 3600 series)

ADVANTAGES:

• It is smaller in size as compared to the first-generation computer
• It used less electricity
• Not heated as much as the first-generation computer.
• It has better speed

DISADVANTAGES:

• It is also costly and not versatile
• still, it is expensive for commercial purposes
• Cooling is still needed
• Punch cards were used for input
• The computer is used for a particular purpose

3. THIRD GENERATION COMPUTER: Integrated Circuits (1964-1971)

The Third generation of computers is characterized by the use of “Integrated Circuits” It was developed in 1958 by two American engineers “Robert Noyce” & “Jack Kilby” . The integrated circuit is a set of electronic circuits on small flat pieces of semiconductor that is normally known as silicon. The transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips which are called semiconductors, which drastically increased the efficiency and speed of the computers.

These ICs (integrated circuits) are popularly known as chips. A single IC has many transistors, resistors, and capacitors built on a single slice of silicon.

This development made computers smaller in size, low cost, large memory, and processing. The speed of these computers is very high and it is efficient and reliable also.

These generations of computers have a higher level of languages such as Pascal PL/1, FORTON-II to V, COBOL, ALGOL-68, and BASIC(Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was developed during these periods.

Examples are NCR 395 (National Cash Register), IBM 360,370 series, B6500

• These computers are smaller in size as compared to previous generations
• It consumed less energy and was more reliable
• More Versatile
• It produced less heat as compared to previous generations
• These computers are used for commercial and as well as general-purpose
• These computers used a fan for head discharge to prevent damage
• This generation of computers has increased the storage capacity of computers
• Still, a cooling system is needed.
• It is still very costly
• Sophisticated Technology is required to manufacture Integrated Circuits
• It is not easy to maintain the IC chips.
• The performance of these computers is degraded if we execute large applications.

4. FOURTH GENERATION OF COMPUTER: Microprocessor (1971-Present)

The fourth generation of computers is characterized by the use of “Microprocessor”. It was invented in the 1970s and It was developed by four inventors named are “Marcian Hoff, Masatoshi Shima, Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor “. The first microprocessor named was the “Intel 4004” CPU, it was the first microprocessor that was invented.

A microprocessor contains all the circuits required to perform arithmetic, logic, and control functions on a single chip. Because of microprocessors, fourth-generation includes more data processing capacity than equivalent-sized third-generation computers. Due to the development of microprocessors, it is possible to place the CPU(central processing unit) on a single chip. These computers are also known as microcomputers. The personal computer is a fourth-generation computer. It is the period when the evolution of computer networks takes place.

Examples are APPLE II, Alter 8800

• These computers are smaller in size and much more reliable as compared to other generations of computers.
• The heating issue on these computers is almost negligible
• No A/C or Air conditioner is required in a fourth-generation computer.
• In these computers, all types of higher languages can be used in this generation
• It is also used for the general purpose
• less expensive
• These computers are cheaper and portable
• Fans are required to operate these kinds of computers
• It required the latest technology for the need to make microprocessors and complex software
• These computers were highly sophisticated
• It also required advanced technology to make the ICs(Integrated circuits)

5. FIFTH GENERATION OF COMPUTERS (Present and beyond)

These generations of computers were based on AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology. Artificial technology is the branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans and allowing the computer to make its own decisions currently, no computers exhibit full artificial intelligence (that is, can simulate human behavior).

In the fifth generation of computers, VLSI technology and ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) technology are used and the speed of these computers is extremely high. This generation introduced machines with hundreds of processors that could all be working on different parts of a single program. The development of a more powerful computer is still in progress. It has been predicted that such a computer will be able to communicate in natural spoken languages with its user.

In this generation, computers are also required to use a high level of languages like C language, c++, java, etc.

Examples are Desktop computers, laptops, notebooks, MacBooks, etc. These all are the computers which we are using.

• These computers are smaller in size and it is more compatible
• These computers are mighty cheaper
• It is obviously used for the general purpose
• Higher technology is used
• Development of true artificial intelligence
• Advancement in Parallel Processing and Superconductor Technology.
• It tends to be sophisticated and complex tools
• It pushes the limit of transistor density.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many computer generations are there.

Mainly five generations are there:

First Generation Computer (1940-1956) Second Generation Computer (1956-1963) Third Generation Computer(1964-1971) Fourth Generation Computer(1971-Present) Fifth Generation Computer(Present and Beyond)

Which things were invented in the first generation of computers?

Vacuum Tubes

What is the fifth generation of computers?

The Fifth Generation of computers is entirely based on Artificial Intelligence. Where it predicts that the computer will be able to communicate in natural spoken languages with its user.

What is the latest computer generation?

The latest generation of computers is Fifth which is totally based on Artificial Intelligence.

Who is the inventor of the Integrated Circuit?

“Robert Noyce” and “Jack Bily”

What is the full form of ENIAC ?

ENIAC Stands for “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer” .

Related posts:

• The History of Computer Systems and its Generations
• Basic Components of Computer Systems and its Functions
• What is a computer? How is it a useful device?
• 10 Limitations Of Computers System|And its Capabilities?
• Different Applications of Computer Systems in Various Fields | Top 12 Fields
• Explain Von Neumann Architecture?
• What are the input and Output Devices of Computer System with Examples
• What is Unicode and ASCII Code
• What is RAM and its Types?
• What is the difference between firmware and driver? | What are Firmware and Driver?

2 thoughts on “The Evolution Of Computer | Generations of Computer”

It is really useful thanks

Glad to see

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

• Engineering
• Write For Us
• Privacy Policy

Essay on Computer

Here we have shared the Essay on Computer in detail so you can use it in your exam or assignment of 150, 250, 400, 500, or 1000 words.

You can use this Essay on Computer in any assignment or project whether you are in school (class 10th or 12th), college, or preparing for answer writing in competitive exams. 

Topics covered in this article.

Essay on Computer in 150 words

Essay on computer in 200-300 words.

• Essay on Computer in 500 words

Computers have revolutionized our lives, becoming essential tools for communication, work, and access to information. They have simplified tasks, increased efficiency, and opened up new possibilities. The internet, accessible through computers, has connected people globally, changing the way we socialize and access entertainment. Industries such as healthcare and finance have been transformed by computers, improving accuracy and decision-making. However, challenges such as cybersecurity threats and privacy concerns exist. In conclusion, computers have profoundly impacted society, enhancing productivity and connectivity. Their role in education, business, and research is undeniable. While enjoying the benefits of computers, it is important to address the challenges they present and ensure responsible and secure use. Computers are a fundamental part of our lives, shaping the way we live, work, and interact with the world.

Computers have become an integral part of our modern world. They have revolutionized the way we live, work, and communicate. A computer is an electronic device that processes and stores data, performs tasks, and enables us to access information from around the world.

Computers have transformed various aspects of our lives. They have simplified tasks, increased efficiency, and opened up new possibilities for creativity and innovation. From personal computers to laptops, tablets, and smartphones, these devices have become essential tools in education, business, entertainment, and research.

The internet made accessible through computers, has connected people globally, enabling instant communication, sharing of information, and collaboration across borders. Online platforms and applications have changed the way we socialize, shop, and access entertainment.

Computers have also revolutionized industries such as healthcare, finance, and transportation, improving efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making. They play a vital role in scientific research, data analysis, and simulations.

However, the rapid advancement of technology has also brought challenges. Cybersecurity threats, privacy concerns, and the digital divide are important issues that need to be addressed.

In conclusion, computers have transformed the world, making tasks easier, connecting people globally, and enabling advancements in various fields. Their impact on society is profound, with both positive and negative consequences. As technology continues to evolve, it is crucial to embrace its benefits while also addressing the challenges it presents. Computers have undoubtedly become an indispensable part of our lives, shaping the way we live and interact with the world.

Essay on Computer in 500-1000 words

Title: The Computer Revolution – Transforming Lives, Empowering Innovation

Introduction :

The computer has undoubtedly become an integral part of our modern world, revolutionizing the way we live, work, and communicate. This essay explores the profound impact of computers on society, delving into their history, evolution, and the transformative role they play in various aspects of our lives. From personal computers to smartphones and cloud computing, the computer has become an indispensable tool in education, business, healthcare, entertainment, and research. However, as computers continue to advance, challenges such as cybersecurity threats and privacy concerns arise, necessitating responsible use and the development of ethical frameworks.

The Evolution of Computers

The computer, as we know it today, has a rich history that dates back several decades. From the early mechanical devices to modern digital computers, the evolution of computers has been driven by advancements in technology and the quest for increased computational power and efficiency. Pioneers such as Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, and Grace Hopper laid the foundation for modern computing, introducing concepts like programmability and binary code.

Computing in Education

Computers have transformed the landscape of education. They have become essential tools for students, educators, and researchers. Computers facilitate online learning, providing access to vast amounts of educational resources, interactive tutorials, and collaborative platforms. They enable personalized learning experiences, adaptive assessments, and distance education, making education accessible to a wider audience. Additionally, computers enhance productivity, allowing students to complete assignments, conduct research, and communicate with peers and teachers more efficiently.

Computers in Business

The business world has been revolutionized by computers. From small startups to multinational corporations, computers have become indispensable for efficient operations, data management, and communication. They enable streamlined processes, data analysis, and decision-making. Computers have transformed various industries, including finance, marketing, supply chain management, and customer service. With the advent of e-commerce, computers have opened up new avenues for online businesses and global trade. The digitalization of business processes has increased efficiency, reduced costs, and facilitated global collaborations.

Computers in Healthcare

Computers have significantly impacted the healthcare industry, improving patient care, diagnostics, and research. Electronic health records (EHRs) enable secure storage and efficient retrieval of patient information, reducing errors and improving healthcare delivery. Computer-aided diagnostics and medical imaging technologies have enhanced accuracy and speed in detecting diseases. Telemedicine and telehealth have extended healthcare access to remote areas, allowing patients to consult with healthcare professionals virtually. Additionally, computers play a vital role in medical research, enabling data analysis, simulations, and drug discovery.

The Role of Computers in Entertainment and Media

Computers have transformed the entertainment and media industry. From digital streaming platforms to online gaming, computers have revolutionized the way we consume and create content. They enable immersive virtual reality experiences, computer-generated imagery (CGI) in movies, and interactive storytelling. Social media platforms provide avenues for self-expression, communication, and content sharing. Computers have democratized content creation, allowing individuals to create and distribute their work on platforms like YouTube, blogs, and podcasts.

Challenges and Concerns

While computers offer immense benefits, they also present challenges and concerns. Cybersecurity threats, such as hacking and identity theft, pose risks to individuals and organizations. Privacy concerns arise as personal data becomes more accessible and vulnerable to misuse. Additionally, the digital divide creates disparities in access to technology, limiting opportunities for certain populations. It is crucial to address these challenges through robust cybersecurity measures, privacy regulations, and efforts to bridge the digital divide.

Conclusion :

The computer revolution has transformed our lives, empowering innovation, enhancing productivity, and connecting people across the globe. Computers have revolutionized education, business, healthcare, and entertainment, enabling advancements and opening up new possibilities. However, as technology continues to evolve, it is important to address challenges such as cybersecurity threats, privacy concerns, and the digital divide. Responsible use, ethical frameworks, and continuous efforts to enhance cybersecurity and privacy safeguards are necessary to harness the full potential of computers. With responsible usage and thoughtful integration into various sectors, computers will continue to shape our world, fostering progress, innovation, and connectivity.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples

How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

• Catch your reader’s attention.
• Give background on your topic.
• Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

• Braille was an extremely important invention.
• The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly  why the topic is important.

• The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
• The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

• Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

• Historical, geographical, or social context
• An outline of the debate you’re addressing
• A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
• Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A  good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

• Argumentative
• Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

• Choosing Essay Topic
• Write a College Essay
• Write a Diversity Essay
• College Essay Format & Structure
• Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

 (AI) Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
• Citation Generator

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/introduction/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, how to write a thesis statement | 4 steps & examples, academic paragraph structure | step-by-step guide & examples, how to conclude an essay | interactive example, unlimited academic ai-proofreading.

✔ Document error-free in 5minutes ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

• Website Inauguration Function.
• Vocational Placement Cell Inauguration
• Media Coverage.
• Certificate & Recommendations
• Privacy Policy
• Science Project Metric
• Social Studies 8 Class
• Computer Fundamentals
• Introduction to C++
• Programming Methodology
• Programming in C++
• Data structures
• Boolean Algebra
• Object Oriented Concepts
• Database Management Systems
• Open Source Software
• Operating System
• PHP Tutorials
• Earth Science
• Physical Science
• Sets & Functions
• Coordinate Geometry
• Mathematical Reasoning
• Statics and Probability
• Accountancy
• Business Studies
• Political Science
• English (Sr. Secondary)

Hindi (Sr. Secondary)

• Punjab (Sr. Secondary)
• Accountancy and Auditing
• Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technology
• Automobile Technology
• Electrical Technology
• Electronics Technology
• Hotel Management and Catering Technology
• IT Application
• Marketing and Salesmanship
• Office Secretaryship
• Stenography
• Hindi Essays
• English Essays

Letter Writing

• Shorthand Dictation

Essay on “Computers Revolution” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Computers Revolution

3 Best Essay on “Computer Revolution”

Essay No. 01

Civilizations have flourished in the past and gone on the establish themselves based on the foundation of singular inventions like the use of the iron or copper or bronze. The singular invention, which has become as omnipresent today, as did the iron and bronze tools in the past ages, is the computer. An invention of miraculous dimensions, computers have revolutionized our lifestyles, mostly for the better, and continue to do so. In less than fifty years they have influenced practically every field of activity. The Computer Age is our new reality.

No one could have imagined that the initial computing machines would so soon be developed into highly sophisticated present-day computers. And this stupendous revolution has been carried out by the computer without a shot being fired or a drop of blood being shed. Computers have taken up key roles in all fields of activity including agriculture, weather forecast, scientific research, designing, banks, and financial institutions, space research and technology, communication and media, medicine, aviation, railways, traffic control, language learning, literature, and entertainment.

A computer is an electronic device that can carry out calculations and process information. Vast amounts of data can be handled effectively and efficiently at a very fast rate.

A computer can virtually carry out any activity but it cannot think, at least for now! It thus requires a human operator and a set of detailed instructions called a program. The storage unit of a computer is called the memory which can be accessed via an input device–the keyboard. The output and the processed data can be received on a TV screen or in print via a printer. Computers can vary from very compact laptops to large mainframe systems and supercomputers.

Computers have become indispensable in all areas in which they have been introduced. Industries and business houses would virtually collapse if computers were to be suddenly withdrawn. Right from management, organization, and planning to the actual production, computers are being used at every stage. Robots, which are nothing but computer-controlled arms and hands, are increasingly in use in assembly lines of many factories. They can efficiently carry out monotonous and hazardous tasks. Personal robots have also been developed for a variety of uses including assisting handicapped people in becoming independent and self-sustained. Hazardous tasks like handling dangerous chemicals or metals at high temperatures can be performed with ease by robots under human supervision.

Automation in banks and railway stations has provided relief to the public and staff alike. Ticketing and reservation have become more efficient and convenient. Business transactions and the high volume of associated data are easily managed using computers.

In the field of medicine, especially in medical diagnosis, computers are being used to locate, and investigate accurately and precisely any abnormalities or diseases. Computers are also vital to diagnostic tests which help incorrect diagnosis and the choice of appropriate treatment.

Scientific research and space exploration have also evolved to their present extents with the aid of computers. Complicated problems are solved with amazing speed and accuracy. This has revolutionized the engineering and technological fields. Not only do computers solve complicated equations, but they can also simulate various conditions and predict accurately the behavior of things under such conditions. In this manner, computers have made possible inventions and discoveries which would otherwise have been unfeasible. Any space mission and satellite launch rely heavily on computers for precisely calculating and organizing the whole procedure including angles of entry, Velocities required, and trajectory. We have been able to gather vital information about distant galaxies and their components with the help of computers.

Computers in communication and media have effectively turned the whole world into a global village. Access between any two points on the earth is possible. Services like e-mail have made it possible for people to exchange data and information. Personal computers have practically taken over the tasks of writing and keeping household accounts. Networks can now be established enabling people to exchange news, data, and all sorts of information. Today the entire world is linked through satellites. Art and entertainment have also developed immensely by using computers. Animation films or movies like Jurassic Park would have been inconceivable in the absence of computers.

The use of computers has its negative aspects too, at the individual as well as the social level. Excessive use of computers can damage eyes and long hours of work on the keyboard can lead to joint ailments and spondylitis. At another level, computers are being used in developing dangerous and lethal weapons. Misuse of data by people who break into computer networks is also becoming a problem of large dimensions.

Evil or super-efficient, computers are increasingly making themselves felt as indispensable in homes, schools, and offices even in a developing country like India. The silent revolution has been efficiently carried out. Computers are here to stay. It is up to us to use them for the benefit and betterment of humankind.

The takeover of computers in the various fields of human activity is almost complete. And it has been accomplished quietly.

Essay No. 02

Computer Revolution

The world is on the threshold of a computer revolution. It is going to be the permanent tool of the modern age. Computers are being used in all the areas today; be it business, finance education, science. They are fast changing the way of work Computers are, no doubt, designed to play a very important role in future as there is no field of human activity in which the computers cannot help.

Computer technology has made stupendous progress in the last four; decades. It was only in 1944 that Professor Aikens and his” team had designed first ever computer in Harvard University, U. S. A. Since there we have come a long way. Today, the world is the threshold of a computer revolution. In fact, in the decades to come, they are going to play a very crucial role; as there is a field of activity in which computers cannot help. Every day new uses are being found for computers. They are already helping man in a fantastic range of holds-agriculture industry, scientific research, machine design, banks, aviation, space research, medical diagnosis, traffic control, and even in literature

Computers have some special features which make them extremely useful to mane-speed; accuracy and storage of information or memory. The computer is designed in such a way that they rarely 111ake errors. Modern computers are machines with a high degree of reliability We often hear of computers making funny and at times costly mistakes. The culprit, however, is not the machine but the human being who operates the machine Computed have some qualities which make them superior to man in some ways, for one thing, computers never get tired. Also, the same computer can do a wide variety of jobs. Besides, being an automatic machine it can do long jobs with little or no help from a human operator. No wonder computer is considered the greatest invention of man. For the first time, man has made a machine that adds power to his brain. When he manmade machines, he added to the power of his muscles, when he made vehicles, he was adding faster feet just as the industrial revolution brought great changes to the way people worked and lived and changed the human role from being a source of power for labor into being it controller of machines, in a similar manner today we are facing a second revolution, as machines tended by people are being increasingly replaced by computers. Before the industrial revolution, people worked mainly on land. The invention of machines meant most people started to work in factories In the future, computers are going to make it possible for a man to transact business and do the shopping without leaving his home Aided by computers, man has become capable of feats they had never dreamt of. 

The computer has become indispensable in industry and business. They are being extensively used in industry.“ They have been installed in business houses, offices, factories, hospitals, banks, petrol pumps, railway stations, etc., and taken the drudgery out of the life of the Clerical staff. Even in a country like India, computers are a fast-changing Indian way of life and work. The stuffy, overcrowded air and rail reservation officers in most cities are fast being replaced by air-conditioned ones that have neat rows of booking clerks seated behind terminals, punching out tickets rapidly. In commercial and business houses they are keeping track of tiles and vital statistics; reviewing the achievement of targets; chalking our sales strategies, etc. Computers have brought about automation in every field. In fact, they carry out activities and tasks which were formerly thought of essentially as human. This has increased productivity and reduced the requirement for manpower in industry and business. In fact, computers have wide applications in various industries like chemical processing industries, metal industries, packaging, etc. In the last few years advances have been made in the hold of assembly of complex components like in the Automobile industry.

The trend set off a controversy about the impact of automation on unemployment. Will the spread and extension of automation mean economic mm as unemployment rises and productive potential soars? Time alone will answer such questions. However, one thing is certain that in this age pr automation was ushered in by the second industrial revolution, nothing is going to remain the same for human life.

Modern medical diagnosis has become more accurate, precise, and fast with the help of computers. Some of the most advanced tools are being used in medical research, diagnosis, treatment, and investigation. Machines like CAT scan enable medical specialists to reproduce the body slice by slice and prepare films to ascertain the tract location of a disease, function of a particular organ in the body, detect any abnormalities, growths, etc. Doctors these days rely, heavily on these diagnostic tests before making a final diagnosis and choosing the course of treatment. These tests help in detecting diseases like ulcers, cancers in early stages and have proved real leasing to the modern man, who is susceptible to several diseases which were unknown to his forefathers, due to the stresses and strains of everyday life.

The exploration of space has been one of the most exciting developments of this century. Most spacecraft which-have been launched in space in the last 30 years, since the time-space age began, have transmitted a vast amount of knowledge back to earth. It now does not seem so distant a reality or a difficult dream to realize that one day we shall be able to establish human colonies on other planets with our present techniques and resources. It is only the development and application of computers which has brought man closer to realizing his dreams. Besides, satellites which are launched in space are of immense use in communication. They have made it possible to obtain television linkage between distant countries and enthrall” T.V. viewers all over the world by taking their favourite programs or events of world significance right into their living rooms.

Photographs from satellites have helped in the field of agriculture, geology,  meteorology. Weather satellites help to give advance warning of any such developments which may be dangerous to human life. India has purchased a supercomputer Cray XMP-14 from the U.S.A. It has been installed in the India Meteorological Department, New Delhi. It will help in preparing weather forecasts 3-10 days in advance. Besides, it is expected to be useful; in the areas of health, agriculture, and solid-state physics. Undoubtedly computers are doing a lot of useful work by controlling special machines? Given arms and hands, a computer can do more physical work. That is precisely what the robots are doing. Today robots are really computers with muscle though a layman tends to dismiss them as mere metal imitations of humans with steel claws or hands. Robots can work untiringly. In some of the advanced countries of the world, these robots are performing tasks which earlier it was considered only humans could do. Robots are being used in industry, entertainment, Space, medicine. It seems possible now that robots will be the servants of the future. Already there are a number of personal robots available. In countries like U.S.A. and Russia, they are proving of great» help to the handicapped, the aged, and the mentally retarded. A lot of research is being carried out in this field. People who are conducting the research are trying to make robots more intelligent so that they can think and act rationally like the human brain.

Today, there is practically no aspect of civilized life which is not at some stage under the control of computers. In the future one may expect that most homes Will have a computer terminal just as today they have a telephone However, one question that is frequently asked is will the computers always be such a blessing? Scholars and others are not so sure. The power of the computer can be misused. It is already being used in needless warfare. In  advanced countries, experts. are working Out ways of preventing misuse of computers, Therefore, to prevent computers from turning against and dominating its creator like Frankenstein’s monster, man must use his discretion” Computers will represent no danger to humanity if we do not allow them to make decisions on problems involving moral issues Moreover, there are activities of the human brain which seem beyond the realm of artificial intelligence of computers and robots.

However, whatever may be the advantages and disadvantages of computers,  we cannot put the clock back there is little doubt though that the world will sooner or later have to make up its mind to use computer technology only for the benefit and welfare of humanity.

Essay No. 03

The world’s technological horizon is dominated by the computer since the year 1970, and by now, it has entered into every sphere of human existence, and in the last two decades it has taken over the charge of all that was once man’s handiwork.

A computer is an electric device which helps in boosting our efficiency and helps us in being more creative by taking up the work of repetition itself. The computer helps us create programs, communicate, and also helps us to earn. Today, even in India it is beyond our imagination to conceive of any avenue where the computer has not made a dent., may it be in business, banking, publishing engineering, etc. This change over to computerization is welcomed by all and sundry but, it leaves one burning question in the minds of people. We are all apt to believe that, computerization is apt to throw men out of employment, no it is not so, this belief is just a misnomer. The reason for this is that a man who was once doing the job of a clerk would now be able to execute more productive assignments, thus contributing his best to his employer society, and the nation. The computer is expected to ensure the enhancement of knowledge levels, productivity, earnings, and living standards of society. If India wants to emulate the economic superpowers of the world it is necessary for India to completely computerize, and link the Indian economy and industry with International information in a super big way. This can be made possible only with the help of the computer and the Internet networks.

It was in October 1977 that the private sector Internet Service Provider ushered into India. And this was a great step forward, in the growth of the telecom and communication industry. This single step is expected to open new avenues of technology in this country, in the next century. The Internet is a complicated web of satellites and cable networks connecting millions of computers across the world. With this advent of the computer, information is shared in the form of data, pictures, and graphics. The application of the Internet would include surfing and access to data.

In India, there are about 93000 computers linked to the Internet so far. The ISPs have to give a bank guarantee equivalent to a license fee for one year. In India, the VSNL, i.e. the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. is the only provider of Internet Services. The Internet has come as a storm in the Indian business and industry. Indian manpower is about the best in the world, in almost any sphere of work. Now we have really arrived into a new world of a global village.

In the Indian context, computerization is absolutely necessary as telecommunication and satellite imagery are both computer-based. Life in urban India is dependent on the telephone, E-mail, fax, internet connectivity and cell phone and all these services warrant the usage of the computer, for their operation and maintenance. Even in rural areas, the computer can play an important role in crop development, software for seed research, crop diseases, rural industry, and rural education. The avenue of rural telecommunication has been revolutionized by the computer.

The computer could be of great value in education. This is because all information is stored and managed by computers, and so they become necessary in the modern times and are also accessible to all. India can hope to become a country of world standards, only when it computerizes its economy, business, scientific and all other operations. Only this technology can help India to benefit on all fronts. It is a certainty that the new century would belong entirely to the computer.

About evirtualguru_ajaygour

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Quick Links

Popular Tags

Visitors question & answer.

• Gangadhar Singh on Essay on “A Journey in a Crowded Train” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.
• Hemashree on Hindi Essay on “Charitra Bal”, “चरित्र बल” Complete Hindi Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 Students.
• S.J Roy on Letter to the editor of a daily newspaper, about the misuse and poor maintenance of a public park in your area.
• ashutosh jaju on Essay on “If there were No Sun” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.
• Unknown on Essay on “A Visit to A Hill Station” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Download Our Educational Android Apps

Latest Desk

• The Future of Democracy in India | Social Issue Essay, Article, Paragraph for Class 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.
• Democracy Recedes as a Global Ideal | Social Issue Essay, Article, Paragraph for Class 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.
• Centre-State Financial Relations | Social Issue Essay, Article, Paragraph for Class 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.
• Presidential System is More Suitable to India | Social Issue Essay, Article, Paragraph for Class 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.
• Sanskrit Diwas “संस्कृत दिवस” Hindi Nibandh, Essay for Class 9, 10 and 12 Students.
• Nagrik Suraksha Diwas – 6 December “नागरिक सुरक्षा दिवस – 6 दिसम्बर” Hindi Nibandh, Essay for Class 9, 10 and 12 Students.
• Jhanda Diwas – 25 November “झण्डा दिवस – 25 नवम्बर” Hindi Nibandh, Essay for Class 9, 10 and 12 Students.
• NCC Diwas – 28 November “एन.सी.सी. दिवस – 28 नवम्बर” Hindi Nibandh, Essay for Class 9, 10 and 12 Students.
• Example Letter regarding election victory.
• Example Letter regarding the award of a Ph.D.
• Example Letter regarding the birth of a child.
• Example Letter regarding going abroad.
• Letter regarding the publishing of a Novel.

Vocational Edu.

• English Shorthand Dictation “East and Dwellings” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines.
• English Shorthand Dictation “Haryana General Sales Tax Act” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines meaning.
• English Shorthand Dictation “Deal with Export of Goods” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines meaning.
• English Shorthand Dictation “Interpreting a State Law” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines meaning.

• Exploratory

Finished Papers

Customer Reviews