My Technology Timeline by

Overhead Projectors

verby58771 — 2024-08-22 06:20:19 UTC

My mother Barbara was born in 1964, so when she was in school in the 1970s she experienced her teachers utilizing overheard projectors. This enabled the teacher to face the students and teach the lesson on transparent film (a sheet of plastic with marker) instead of a blackboard, which then projected with light onto a white screen. She appreciated this a lot more than a blackboard and chalk writing cause she could see the lesson more closely and clearly!

Audiocassettes

verby58771 — 2024-08-22 06:25:27 UTC

My mom told me audio casettes were used at her school in the 1970s. They were plastic cartridges that held real, non-digital data on film that could be wound up and played through a stereo. A teacher could also self-record her own lessons on tape, or record music from a record or radio station for her students and play it for the class. There were also remote learning courses that included workbooks and cassettes!

The Internet

verby58771 — 2024-08-22 06:37:22 UTC

My friend Kate, who was born in 1979, went to high school from 1993-1997. During that time, teens got access to the internet for the first time. It was dial-up, which was computers connected to each other through analog phone lines and it "didn't work very well". Back in 1994, there were only about 24,000 pages of information on the web. Today, there are billions. (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/a-search-for-the-zombie-websites-of-1995/523848/#)

"Using the internet enhanced my learning because it had access to information more quickly. We loved going to the computer lab to do research because we didn't get to use them very often. It was easier to use the information found on the internet since we usually had to use books to research," Kate said.

Videocassettes (VHS), played on a VCR, through an analog Television

verby58771 — 2024-08-22 06:49:04 UTC

Another article of tech Kate had in school was called a videocassette (also known as VHS), played on VCRs. All kids seemed to love watching movies in class! It broke up the monotony of the school day where most lessons were being taught through basic lectures. Teachers used VHS on special occasions and to reward students with good behavior as well. A video, with audio and visual recording on analog tape, could be played on a television through a receiver known as a VCR. A teacher could also record television for the student through a VCR onto a VHS, such as a news story or clip from a documentary featured on TV. She could also record her own lectures onto a VHS tape via a camcorder (standalone analog video recorder) to be used for substitute teaching or for students to borrow when absent. VHS tapes were groundbreaking for their day, as videos could now be owend and played on demand instead of relying on TV networks to broadcast or a cinema to feature a movie on a screen.

Electronic Tablets

verby58771 — 2024-08-22 07:00:55 UTC

Kyle, my brother in law, was born in 2003. He said he remembers typical technology of the other eras until he was in third grade when tablets were first introduced to his school. Students were not allowed to take them home but it was fun for use in the classroom. Back when I was in elementary school (mid 1990s-early 2000s), we played a game where our teachers asked us questions and we wrote our answers on a square handheld whiteboard and showed them up quietly to the teacher. However, in 2012, teachers could pass out tablets to each student and they could write their answer to the questions on their tablet instead. Early tablet apps were helpful for students to practice drill skills such as math- and also for preschoolers to learn their ABCs.

Chromebooks

verby58771 — 2024-08-22 07:50:50 UTC

Kyle shares that once he got into high school in 2018, students were assigned a Chromebook they could keep for the school year. A Chromebook is a specific type of laptop tailored for light internet use, document creation and sharing capabilities. Kyle noted he appreciated that Chromebooks could "open up opportunities for other people". He liked how he could "bring the internet home" and had direct communication with his teacher no matter his location. He also mentioned that although teachers had access to many parts of their learning, some students had bad intentions for using their chomebooks. Students at Kyle's school were accessing social media such as Instagram and Google Meet through their school emails, or bypassing blockwalls through VPNs (virtual proxy network) and that was an "overall toxic" atmosphere for him.