Conclusions of the Oral History Project

Hello one more time!

We are here again to explain the conclusion for our Oral History Project.

According to all the previous entries, we want to summarize and relate how was our project, “Internet and Computing activity between 90’s and 2000’s”.  Based on that, if we could start again with the project, we would change many things as the organization for the project, the topics and the interview, but we would not change our global topic or our interviewee because we have learned about how the computers and the internet activity were in the past and how the people used it.

Also we could have seen how people of the same age that us in the 90´s used the computers and the problems that they had in Spain at that time.

According to the Social Science subject, we have practiced with a real oral story project and different resources that can be applied in a school or in our lives. Besides now, we know how write good paragraphs and speak better in public, something that will be important in our future.

In our personal experience this project has improved our way of work in group and we have learned to appreciate the computers and internet as in our personal life, in the society… Now we have more freedom and resources but we have less contact with others and with the physical environment, we propose to put aside for a few minutes our lives connected to Internet and enjoy it. No need to be connected to any place to be happier!

An analysis of our oral history project

COMPUTING AND INTERNET ACTIVITY BETWEEN THE 90’S AND THE 2000’S

We are going to analyze the results of Computing and Internet activity between the 90’s and the 2000’s. We have done an oral research with two narrators, Antonio Campos and Manuel Seara and we have asked them some interesting questions about the topic that we will develop later. we have chosen this topic because for us it’s very interesting and we wanted to show the evolution of computers and internet. Nowadays, most of us have a computer at home, we can sit down in front of it and we can start searching, playing games… but in the 90’s it wasn’t sure that you could do it in the case that you had a computer, because it wasn’t common.

First of all, it is important to know something about the background in order to a better understanding of the topic. According to J. Román Hernandez (2014), the MS-DOS operating systems were dominating the field of home computing, the diskette was the mean for sharing information. Referring to Internet, the beginning was in United States but Internet arrived to Spain thanks to the research and the science and it was mainly for an academic context. Furthermore, in 1990 the first Internet connection was made in Spain and at the end of this year there were more than 1000 Internet-connected machine (Macluskey, 2009).

Secondly, about the interview, we had two narrators, they were 51 years old. We had the consent to record the interview that we had. We were talking for forty minutes more or less about the first time that they could see a computer, when was the first time that they had a computer at home, if they used it for work, how was the arrival of internet, what was his first search, what benefits he had with the internet activity and how was the Internet connection.

Moreover, we have had many interesting results; they told us a lot of things. According to them, the first computer that they could see was many years ago, it was very big and it was black and white; one narrator had his first computer when he got married and his wife need it for work; the arrival of Internet was really strange for both, they felt really confused but they felt compelled to have it; their first searches were about the NASA, about cities, e-mail… Besides this, currently, they find a lot of benefits in having Internet, not only for them, but for his family as well.

Finally, we can see lots of differences between the computers that people had in the 90’s and the computers that we have nowadays. Computers were bigger with no colour, people used it for playing games. The arrival of Internet was really frustrating and slow… But what is true is that Internet has had a lot of benefits in our houses, for getting information instantly, to stay in touch with the family who are in other places, for work…

 

Presentation

Hello everybody!

Today, we want to share with you a summary of our project which is in a power point presentation that we show to our classmates some days before. We think that it is interesting because here you can see the information more visual and clear.

Here you have:

 

 

ADDED INFORMATION

In this part we want to show you different objects in relation with computers between the 90 ‘s and the 2000’s.

 

 Amistard computer

 Diskette

 

 Spectrum Computer

 

 Punched card

 

And finally, here you can see the evolution of the computers since the 90’s to nowadays:

 

CONCLUSIONS

On this new entry we are going to show you the conclusions of our project.

So finally, we have compare both interviews and we have obtained some conclusions.

About Computing conclusions we have:

• First computers were very big, very strong and they were black and white, there was no color.
• The use of the computer was mainly for playing and look for information easier in the dictionary.
• They used diskettes for sharing information instead of USB what we have today.

About Internet activity we have:

• The arrival of internet was really frustrating for both narrators and very slow so they were confused.
• Internet had many information that you could use at work, at university for studying.
• They have seen that internet has a lot of benefits for everything nowadays.

Interviews

Now we are going to to show the results of our interviews.

• When was the first time that you could see a computer?

• When was the first time that you could had a computer at home?

• How did you use the computer?

• Did you need the computer for working?

 

• How was the arrival of internet for you?

 

• What did you search on internet at the beginning?

• What has internet meant in your life?

• How was the internet connection?

METHODOLOGY

The methods used to identify and appraise published and unpublished reviews systematically, drawing on our experiences and good practice in the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews are described.
The oral history project is based on a methodology that is important to consider.

In reference to this, I have to attend to:

* Topic and narrators: Our topic has been interesting for us to see the evolution of computers, internet and it activity. The narrators have been chosen because they have two different points of view, such as the obligation to have a computer in the work and have leisure. They have provided us a lot of useful information about it. We have to say that we have changed one narrator in order to make it better.

We think that in this point we have one suggestion, if we had more time, it would have been interesting to have done the interview of someone who has studied about computers and their activity, to get better answers.

* Preparing for the interview: Before preparing the interview, we have discussed about the questions, and then we have established. This was a bit difficult because we do not get the questions so closed. According to the backgrounds, it has been chosen according to our subject and we have also developed through the choice of specific ideas from different sources about it.

* Interviewing and transcribing: our interviews were adequate in time. Our narrators allowed us to record audio clip and take pictures for our project.

We didn’t have problems with the interview because they were our parents, for this reason it was easy.

The problem that we had was we did not have much time to do it and that the questions were closed.

* Group of dynamics and publication: group members have worked in the project together. We have not had much time, so it was difficult for us.

It has also hampered us a lot to have to summarize all the information we have to present at the presentation.

* Other points: other things that we should improve in order to work more effectively and obtain more valid research results through things that we should improve in order to work more effectively and obtain more valid research results through will be the time we don’t have a lot of time to do this project.

Interview Questions

We have divided our questions in two blocks. We have done it because firstly, it is interesting to know things about the computer due to without it we couldn’t use internet. And then, with this, we can know other things about the Internet activity at that time.

Questions about computers:

1. When was the first time that you could see a computer?
2. What did you use for?
3. When was the first time that you had got a computer at home?
4. Did you need it for work?

 

Questions about Internet activity:

1. How was the arriving of the internet for you?
2. What was your first search?
3. What has internet meant in your house?
4. How was the internet connection?

WELCOME!

Hello, we are Nuria Seara and Sheila Campos and we are going to research about the computing and the internet activity between the 90’s and the 2000’s.

It is very interesting for us because nowadays it is easy to turn on our computer and start searching, working, watching videos, listening to music… but in the 90’s it wasn’t sure that you could have a computer at home.

Mainly we are going to interview two of our parents, Manuel Seara and Antonio Campos. We want to know how was their first computer, how they used for, how they lived the arrival of internet, what was their first search, if they needed for work… We know that they are going to be good interviewed because they have lived the process. They were in a good age because it was around thirty years old and they could adapt easily.

This research is going to be showed throw some interviews, audio clips and photos. These interviews will be at home in a closed environment.

We have some research questions as:

• What did they use the computer for?
• How did they live the arrival of internet?
• What were the benefits of it arrival?