The WebQuest is designed for students in vocational schools and technical schools, particularly those studying in fields related to information technology and mechatronics. Its goal is to introduce students to the history and functions of personal computers.

Students will work in groups, with each group preparing a different presentation. The culmination of their work will be a presentation to the class and a discussion on the WebQuest topic.

Thanks to this WebQuest, students will:

• Learn about the history of personal computers

• Become familiar with different types of personal computers that were created and served as personal computers

• Share their experiences related to interesting facts about the construction and development of personal computers

Suggested time for completing the WebQuest:

Students will work on the project for 12 class hours

Evaluation criteria:

The evaluation will be based on the extent to which the topic has been fully covered. Students must prepare and direct their work to the appropriate knowledge, which will ensure a maximum grade (5). Exceeding this level will result in a grade of 6.

Evaluation:

The teacher will help students analyze the content together with them until it is fully understood. The teacher will assist with advice, guidance, and explanations, not ready-made solutions. This method will be a good way to introduce students to independent work and creative thinking.

Who invented the computer? When was the first computer created?

It is generally accepted that the title of the first computer belongs to the ENIAC machine, which was constructed between 1943 and 1945 by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering—J.P. Eckert and J.W. Mauchly. ENIAC worked at a "record" clock speed of 0.1 MHz, powered by more than 70 thousand resistors, 10 thousand capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6 thousand manual switches, and 5 million soldered connections. To make it work relatively efficiently, a whole team of people was needed. The production of ENIAC cost over 6 million dollars, and initially, the first computer was designed for producing ballistic tables.

ENIAC is a computer from before the era of PCs, but it can also be considered the oldest computer. It is important to note that it was a monstrous device: it occupied 167 square meters, consisted of 42 steel sheet cabinets, was over 2.4 meters tall, and measured 24 meters in length. Its total weight exceeded a staggering 27 tons. It was roughly as heavy as all the students in a typical British high school. It operated extremely loudly and constantly overheated. While it was impressive in size, its computing power today seems rather weak.

Modern personal computers exhibit the exact opposite feature: they are powerful and packed into increasingly smaller and more attractive constructions. Today's budget smartphones are on average 50 thousand times faster and over 43 thousand times lighter than the ENIAC. The first desktop computers available to the general public appeared on the market and reached our homes in the 1980s—almost 40 years after ENIAC. In the meantime, during the 1960s, the most powerful desktop in the world (literally taking up an entire desk) was the CDC 6600. In the 1980s, the Cray-2 became the gold standard of computing power. It was also in the 1980s, in 1982, when the Microsoft Windows 1.0 operating system debuted on PCs. It was the first Microsoft environment to use a graphical user interface (GUI) and functioned as an overlay on MS-DOS. That was when the era of desktops really began.

Back then, personal computers no longer took up entire rooms, as the first computers did, but comfortably fit on desks thanks to compact, metal or plastic desktop designs.

Commodore - The Most Popular Brand of the 1980s

One of the most popular computers of this period was the Commodore 64, which debuted in 1982 and cost $595. The small beige central unit was connected to a television. The computer already offered basic office software and could be used to play games like Castle Wolfenstein (many of our readers probably still remember this title). The processor's clock speed was 1 MHz. It had 64 KB of RAM and an external 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, the Commodore 1541 version, which could store up to 170 KB of data. However, the real revolution in the computer industry came with the first computers using 386 processors, such as the Compaq Deskpro from 1986—one of the oldest computers widely used in homes. It cost $6,499 at the time but was worth the price: it featured a 32-bit processor clocked at 16 MHz, enabling games like Wing Commander to be played in 640x480 resolution with 256 colors.

The era of desktop computers lasted well into the 1990s, as engineers competed to design increasingly powerful machines. One such design was the SGI IRIS Crimson, codenamed Diehard 2. It was one of the first 64-bit desktop computers to hit the market in 1993. With a 150 MHz clocked processor, 256 MB of RAM, and a massive 7.2 GB hard drive, Diehard 2 also featured a special chipset for 3D animation rendering.

This computer is considered one of the first PCs to appear in films, notably in Jurassic Park. However, this computer was quite inaccessible for the average user, as it cost over ten thousand dollars.

For many years, the computer was associated with a device sitting at home or at work, attached to a desk. Therefore, the advent of the first portable computers, or laptops, was a step toward mobile computers that could be used not only in one fixed location.

• Divide into 4 groups and familiarize yourselves with the task.

• Ensure each group has members with analytical skills, proficiency in using PowerPoint, and good information-searching abilities.

• Assign roles to each team member.

• Familiarize yourselves with the introduction to the topic, as presented below.

• Each group should begin searching for the necessary information to prepare the presentation.

• Remember, at this stage, you should not only collect materials but also familiarize yourselves with the topic.

• Each group should prepare their presentation.

• One lesson will be dedicated to the presentations you have prepared and a class discussion.

• Each group will have 2 lessons to prepare materials that will illustrate the knowledge contained in the presentation.

• Remember, both the aesthetic and the content of the presentation are important.

• Present your projects to the class.

• Be sure to explain why you made the decisions you did regarding the preparation of the presentation.

• We will discuss the results of your work.

• We will reflect on how the development of technology has impacted the creation of modern personal computers and today’s laptops and tablets.