Hedy Hopper Lovelace
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teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
Hedy Hopper Lovelace
@teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
24 followers 56 following 20 posts
Teacher of Computing in England
she/her
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teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
My favourite page as a child was this one though.
The ad for the book said: “It even has a printer that does what all printers do. Make a lot of noise.”
You can still see the remnants of the ridges in the tab that used to make the noise. Fair to say I played with it excessively.
Picture of the page with the printer. It’s a dot matrix printer with a page sticking out. It reads: “Now that we’ve met, I’m ready to work — and play — with you. See you soon!” The tab moves the printer head and the word “Goodbye.” appears.
March 13, 2025 at 11:46 AM
teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
The keyboard lets you type the letter m by pulling a tab. This also reveals the letter‘s extended ASCII code.
Picture of the keyboard when you open the page. Picture of the keyboard when the tab is pulled.
March 13, 2025 at 11:46 AM
teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
It has a mainboard with a removable chip.
Close up picture of the cardboard mainboard. ROM, RAM, and CPU are clearly labelled. The removable chip sticks out in the lower right corner. It has a flap that is open and shows the inside of the chip.
March 13, 2025 at 11:46 AM
teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
One of my most valued possessions is this pop-up book about how computers work by Sharon Gallagher. First published in 1984, I got my copy in 1986.
Front cover of the book Inside the Personal Computer - An Illustrated Introduction in 3 Dimensions. It’s mostly blueish grey with a drawing of a desktop computer typical of the time. In the middle we can see the colourful inside of the keyboard, monitor, hard disk drive, and floppy drive. Backside of the book. It shows a picture of the first page with a pop-up model of the computer from the front cover. The floppy disk can be pushed in and the drive can be closed with a flap. Moving the flap will make a different text appear on the monitor. There is also a description of the contents: „This sensational new book teaches you everything you need to know in a fun-filled three dimensional tour through the personal computer. Open the book and a computer pops out of the page to guide you through the inner workings, from input to output. Watch what happens when you push down a key on the keyboard; go behind the screen and see how a word gets written on the monitor. On your trip inside the computer, you’ll visit disk drives, chips, and printers and learn about everything from bits to bytes to RAM and ROM. Three-dimensional models, illustrations, charts, and diagrams show you how the computer thinks, remembers, and communicates, all in terms that even the youngest computer user can understand. To get you on your way to computer literacy, clear, simply written definitions explain dozens of the most important and frequently used computer terms. By the end of your guided tour, you’ll literally know the computer inside out.“
March 13, 2025 at 11:46 AM
teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
I like using visualisations in teaching.
Still from a coyote/roadrunner cartoon. Roadrunner standing on a ledge blowing a raspberry to the coyote who’s just run over the ledge looking worriedly back at the roadrunner. Above the roadrunner is a textbox which says while [not edge] {run();} Above the coyote is another textbox which says do {run();} while (not edge);
February 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM
teacherofcomputing.bsky.social
Agreed. Although my time looks a bit different.
Photo of my watch on my wrist. The watch has black straps, a silver casing, and a 24 hours face.
February 13, 2025 at 5:46 PM