Teaching How To Build A Computer

In the early 1990's, I worked as an admissions counselor for interdisciplinary Ph.D. students in Artificial Intelligence, Education, and Cognitive Science. One of my first assignments was to take apart, and re-build a computer, so that I would have some point of commonality with the students. Taking the computer apart was easy.

The first thing I learned about building the computer was to work with large pieces of hardware first. It was much easier to deal with the idea of a functioning computer if it has some "housing," so first up was a large flat metal casing. Then, I knew I have to find and supply a source of computing power, and memory. At one point, I thought I had the basics together, but found that there were many different parts remaining to be placed.

I went off to get a clue from one of the IT people, and though they would not directly help me, they said I should know that "buses" are used to add functionality. Like, for example, if you want to use a mouse, you may need to provide a "bus" for that mouse. I decided that the smaller electronic pieces that had thus far found no use must be buses. I attached them where they seemed to be attachable.

Finally, I had used up most of the available parts, and the computer seemed to take shape. The test was to turn it on and see if it functioned. To my surprise, it did! Though I did not gain a truly deep understanding of the functionality of computers, I did become familiar and comfortable with the basic inner workings of computers.

For those students who arrived to our program with only a background in cognitive science or education, I was able to help them adjust their level of anxiety about computers in general.