Page 24 - YOUTH DIGEST
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Aside from playing games or watching Not only was it a great alternative to a
movies on a parent’s mobile device, the blackboard, but it was a simple and effective
classroom is now often the first place a way of allowing a teacher to quickly create
child meets technology, whether that be content that could be re-used by colleagues.
through the tools they use or the This was the order of business for almost 50
systems around them designed to years, with few technological breakthroughs
create interactive experiences. Today it’s finding their way to the classroom right away.
common for children to have access to The blackboard, both celebrated and loathed in
personal mobile devices or laptop equal measure, remained king until it was
computers for use in school, often gradually ousted by whiteboards in the early
supported by online learning tools 1990s, a technology that itself was some 30
integrated into the school’s network. It’s years old. The pace of change was glacially
a picture that as little as 15 years ago slow, and while some innovations would find
would have still seemed unfeasible, or their way into schools, the classroom would
even unattractive. From the beginning remain largely isolated from evolving
of the 20th century the uptake of technology until the turn of the current
technology in the classroom was century. The rise of the personal computer and
reserved for only the occasional the World Wide Web sparked one of the most
breakthrough, with long bouts of status dramatic technological breakthroughs in
quo in between. In fact, the overhead history. Although it would take a few years
projector, first invented in the 1930s but before PCs were cheap enough for mass
adopted more widely in schools and adoption, the “classroom computer” became
businesses in the 1950s, remained a common by the mid-1990s, particularly as the
popular way of displaying text on a wall internet started to mature. The personal
or board right up to the turn of the computer transformed the way learning was
century. delivered to children, and drastically increased
the pace of change.
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