Week 35 Summary Essay

            The four inventions I learned about this week were the flash memory, the CD-Rom, the cellular (cell) phone, and the world wide web (www). The inventors’ names were Fujio Masuoka, Philips (the company), Martin Cooper, and finally, Tim Berners-Lee. I will tell you which one was my favorite after I tell you a bit about each invention.
         
            The first thing I learned about this week was flash memory. It was invented in 1981 by Fujio Masuoka, who was born in Japan in 1943. Flash memory is a memory storage device for computers and other electronics. However, it is mostly used in devices like digital cameras, USB flash drives, and video games. Before this invention, it was difficult to save and look at saved items on a camera. It was even more difficult to fix or change an item on a camera, because you could accidentally delete or ruin the video or picture. Now, with this invention, we can easily do this without a problem! The flash memory has made it easier to do what we want to do on old cameras, and it made other inventions possible.

            Secondly, I learned about the CD-Rom, which was developed in 1985 by a company called Philips. The CD-Rom is a device that people would use to listen to music. However, it wasn’t like the other devices of the time because it used a laser instead, which was not common. This invention led to the DVD to watch videos and other ways to listen to music, even in vehicles.

             The third invention this week was the cellular phone (cell phone for short). It was invented by Martin Cooper in 1973. The cellular phone is a small and portable radio telephone. It was the first telephone that people could hold in their hand and walk around with it. This invention led to MANY other things, and it completely transformed the world.

             The last lesson this week was about the world wide web. The world wide web (www) is the part of the Internet that contains websites and webpages. It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 in Switzerland. The world wide web is the way information is shared on the internet. This is also what the www means at the beginning of website addresses.

             My favorite of the four inventions I learned about this week is the world wide web. I think it is cool because it is used all the time without us noticing it. Whenever someone types www before a website address, they are using the world wide web, and getting information through the internet. This invention literally changed the world. I can’t wait to see wait inventions I will learn about in the last 5th Grade History course through RPC.

Bonus Question Think about Tim Berners-Lee. He saw an opportunity to bring the Internet together with GUIs and hypertext, but nobody else did. So instead, he took the initiative himself to program the software. Answer this: how different do you think the world would be today if he had just given up when no one thought his idea was worth pursuing?

            I think the world would be completely different. Before GUIs and hypertext, the only people who were efficient at using computers were the programmers and other people who were trained on them. Today, little children can use computers very easily just because of the graphical user interface that makes it so they can understand all the little icons. So yes, the world would be very different. I probably would not be able to do all of my schooling on a computer and through the internet.