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Chalk was our version of white boards!

kay2224482 — 2025-02-03 16:53:54 UTC

My grandmother was in elementary school in the 1950s. Rather than using innovative white boards with erasable markers, her education consisted of chalk and chalk boards. Teachers would write material on the board and the students would take notes prior to the content being erased. She vividly recalls doing much math on the chalk boards and would be disciplined for not participating. This was a common norm amongst American schools.

Communication wasn’t so easy.

kay2224482 — 2025-02-03 16:57:23 UTC

Forms of communication were limited while my Grandmother was growing up. The only type of communication they had access to were called rotary phones. There wasn’t text message yet or email so asking teachers for clarification on assignments was nearly impossible. Students had to pay close attention to assignments and course material because asking for clarification after school hours was not as easy as inboxing a teacher on the Canvas app!

What the heck is a Film Strip??

kay2224482 — 2025-02-03 17:01:42 UTC

Rather than play movies or videos from apps or dvds, during the 1980s, my mom grew up using film strips. Film strips are series of film that are shown at one time that were often accompanied by narration or audio soundtrack. Say a teacher wanted to give a lesson on the Civil War, they would use these films to give students a better, more visual understanding of material.

TVs are innovated projectors.

kay2224482 — 2025-02-03 17:04:12 UTC

Evolving from periods of only using chalk, during the 1980s teachers used overhead projectors to teach. They would write material on the clear part and it would be projected clearly for students to copy at the front of the classroom. There was no google slides so teachers used hand written notes to display to the class. This was a significantly more efficient way of taking notes and comprehending course information.

Entitled to personalized laptop.

kay2224482 — 2025-02-03 17:07:45 UTC

The last interview I did was with a current high school sophomore who discussed the normalization of personalized laptops among all grades following the tragedy of the pandemic. Virtual learning has become more popular and almost every student across all states and districts have access to devices and internet. Schools have become more willing to give out personal laptops students are able to use during their duration of school to help them manage online curriculum.

Now projectors are touchable.

kay2224482 — 2025-02-03 17:11:48 UTC

Projectors are accessible for students of all ages and grade levels and have evolved to become interactive. Students can use a multitude of functions to increase engagement while using classroom provided materials. My sister recalls that every single classroom since she was in kindergarten had some sort of digital projector students could use to take notes or watch videos or readings. This is a great resouce for all students as it can be used in so many ways.