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Typewriter
The creation of the typewriter helped to make the writing process signficantly more efficient for students. With the creation of the first Sholes & Glidden Typewriter students could now easily and quickly type up their homework as well as write formal letters. The typewriter took the traditional action of writing to a whole new level. ("A Brief History of Typewriters") -
Chalkboards
West Point Military Academy in New York was one of the first schools to use a large chalkboard in the classroom. Prior to this, students would use individual slates to write on. During this time, teachers had to tediously write down individual problems onto each student's board. These large chalkboards allowed for teachers to instruct large groups of students all at the same time. This allowed for more efficient teaching overall. (Wojenski, "Erasing the Past") -
School Buses
Prior to the creation of the modern day school bus, students were required to walk to school and these facilities would find themselves only providing schooling to those who lived close by. However, the creation of the school bus allowed for schooling to be extended over far distances and provded to be an exceedingly efficient and safe way to get children to and from school on time. ("History Of The School Bus") -
Filmstrips
Primary Source: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27657943?seq=2 Filmstrips were introduced into the classroom during the 20s in order to introduce children to a new, visual way of learning, to hold their attention for longer periods of time, and to reinforce previously taught lessons. Many people, including the inventor, Thomas Edison believed that this filmstrip was the start of books becoming "obslete" in the classroom. (Casey and Dunn, "The Filmstrip in the Classroom", 1960 , pp. 690-693) -
Radio
The creation of the radio allowed for education to be taken outside of the classroom as well as allow children to be exposed to various types of subjects. First, radio programs such as NBC designed special programs and worksheets that went along with their shows in order to help educate students outside of the classroom. Additionally, the radio exposed children to in class music and art lesson that they would not have been exposed to otherwise. (Das, "EDUCATIONAL BROADCAST THROUGH RADIO") -
Headphones
The creation of headphones allowed for students to learn lessons through repition. Schools began to develope listening stations where students could sit and listen to audio lessons as opposed to listening to a teacher lecture. This allowed for various lessons to be taught at the same time and mixed up the classroom. This new technology also helped students with the study of foreign languages as well. (Knowtechie, "The Evolution of the Headphone") -
Teaching Machine
Primary Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH3ob1IRFo The introduction of the teaching machine sparked the start of student independence in the classroom and generated high levels of enthusiasm amongst the children. This invention allowed children to work alone on completeling problems and gave instant feedback to its users on whether their answer provided was right or wrong. This pice of technology made the overall teaching process much more efficient.("BF Skinner: The 1950s: Programme") -
Educational Television
Primary Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__48P1Fbjm8 The development of edcuational television yielded a time of high lesson reinforcement. Programs offered by the Public Broadcasting Services, or PBS taught children vauable lessons such as counting, the alphabet, and manners. This paritcular technology helped to reinforce lessons and allow teachers to step aside from the front of the classroom for a change. ("Teaching Strategies for Using Educational Television in the Classroom") -
Scantrons
The creation of Scantrons yeiled yet another more effieicnt process into the classroom. Now teachers could quickly grade exams and give immidate feedback to their students. With this advancement in technology though, a great debate began to form. Those against the scantrons began to argue that this techonology took away student crativity and forced students to think too much on the side of memorizaiton. (Josefovitz, "The Story Behind the Scantrons") -
Computer-based Learning
Primary Source: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/25814/0000377.pdf The introduction of computers to the classroom allowed for students to work at their own pace and discover a whole new way of learning. Computers allowed for students to be taught more efficiently and various games such as "Oregan Trail" allowed for students break away from the traditional lectures they were used to hearing. (Kulik, "Effectiveness of computer-based education in elementary schools") -
Calculators
Primary Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKXDJaIlic4 Calculators brought efficiency into the classroom. Now students were able to quickly compute difficult math problems. The introduction of calculators allowed for teachers to teach more advanced math concepts, therefore allowing students to become more knowledgable with math concepts, allowing them to seek better jobs in the future and become more successful. ("Quick Takes: Calculators in the Classroom", 1998) -
Interactive Whiteboard
The development of Interactive Whiteboards allowed learning to be taken to a whole new level. Teachers could now pull up visuals from their personal computers and project them onto the screen to allow all students to see. This soon allowed teachers to play videos for their entire class, pull up online educaitonal games, and play PowerPoints for the whole class to see therefore making the teaching process much more efficient. ("Teacher’s Guide: How to Use a Smart Board in the Classroom") -
Dot-Com Bubble
With a climax in March of 2000, the Dot-Com Bubble was a time of rapid growth in the use of the national use of the World Wide Web. The peak of web users significantly increased during this time. This event resulted in a lot of schools integrating computers and internet access into their facilities in order to provide their students with access to online resources. (Peter, "The Dotcom Bubble") -
Tablets
The creation of the tablet has allowed students to express creativity, have access to the internet for furthur research, and work individually. Tablets have provided teachers and students with thousands of different ways to learn from interactive educational applications to the abiliuty to complete online homeworks and assignments. (Chandler , "Tablets proliferate in nation’s classrooms, taking a swipe at the status quo") -
Student Response Systems
Student response systems allow students to share their opinions and answers to questions anonymously so children feel as though they can share their ideas without having the rest of their classmates know if they are right or wrong. Additionally, this new technology to allows teachers to track their students progress in class and target specific areas in which students need a little extra help. (Miller, "Pick and Click: Interactive Assessment Goes to School")
