This week we talked about hardware - the virtual beginning point, or at least base for much of what we'll discuss for the rest of the semester - mostly because without hardware, we can't do half the things we do unless we have hardware first. Hardware is the stuff we can physically touch and feel, compared to software, which is the stuff that runs on hardware. We covered how the difference between hardware and software can be understood by using a book as a metaphor. The book, it's physical pages, cover and binding, even the ink would be 'hardware'. The software portion would be the story itself, the meanings behind the words, "Once upon a time, there once was..."
Having this understanding between the two different types of 'ware', can help you establish what types of needs you have for your classroom and/or troubleshoot problems you might be having with technology.
Most of us have some type of experience with technology - and in this day and age of cell phones, iPods and computers, most of us have several experiences with hardware, and having an appreciation of how hardware has changed over the years can help us understand how hardware has changed and how it will continue to change.
