What is your earliest educational technology memory? Share with us here! Feel free to add a photo, if you have access to one, that shows you with educational technology. Failing that, link to a website or YouTube video that shows the same educational technology.
Here you will see the creator of the blog with a piece of 'educational' technology. He used to fill the bird bath with it. He knew that filling the bath by using the technology would allow the birds to come closer. His first word was birdie. Now, needless to say, this isn't quite the ed tech we're looking for, but I do have my parents scouring the old albums to find a more suitable picture! :)
Hello,
ReplyDeleteMy earliest educational technology memory would be playing on the keyboard on my father's super old school computer. I had no idea what it does and how it worked but just thought that it was fun to press on things and see things pop-up on the screen. For the first time, I typed "Monday" on the screen by applying how to play scramble to the keyboard.
- Karon
Hi. Please post any pictures as a link or in the Vista discussion area once it is live. Thanks. :(
ReplyDeleteHi, I guess for me, it was the typewriter. I was fascinated by the electronic typewriter and how it worked like a machine, but wasn't too happy about getting white-out on my fingers! And then it was computers at school. When I was in Grade 6, we had computer class and it was exciting, definitely something we all looked forward to compared to the same old Math and Social Studies lessons.
ReplyDeleteKiran Sidhu
Hi. For me, outside of school, I would say that TV is my earliest educational technology memory. Like many other Canadians of my generation (born in the '60's), good old Sesame Street, Mr. Dress-Up and the Friendly Giant (later Zoom and the Electric Company with a few School House Rock cartoons added in) were my first exposure to educational technology. In school, technology beyond chalkboard and pencil, didn't really exist until high school and then it was a "computer" class with 8 Apple IIe's where we learned BASIC. Technology was specific to Computer Science and not used anywhere else, much.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the trip down memory lane!
Janet Barker
Earliest memories.......oh dear! Sometimes I can't quite remember what happened earlier in the week.
ReplyDeleteA few things come to mind - my cousin's ATARI that we played to death in his basement, hoping to be asked by my teacher to go down to the library to bring back the film projector (or better still getting to click the "clicker" on the film strip projector), watching slide shows on the slide projector in my great-grandma's basement.....the list could go on.
I think I first realized how quickly technology could change when we purchased our first VCR - it was BETA (not VHS). I was devastated as the video rental store in our small town slowly started carrying fewer and fewer BETA tapes. How quickly that $500 machine became obsolete.
Enjoyed exploring BASIC in junior high - probably made me a better problem solver as I was always tweeking and adjusting.
I would be extremely curious to see how my kids would respond to this in 10 years. "Do you remember the iPad? It was so cool!"
Jaime
Great contributions thus far. I learned how to type on a manual typewriter as well. I even asked for an electric one for Christmas once....and Santa delivered!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in China I did own and was taught how to use an abacus in grade 3 (I was born in the 80s). I doubt all schools in China made this mandatory. That same year I also remember going to my cousin's house to play Monopoly on his computer (it was my first exposure to using a computer). I remember how I was fascinated by both devices.
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ReplyDeleteHmmmm.... first device.... I think the tv and the radio were my first introductions to technology. Although we had ATARI and Nintendo, my brother played it and I never showed much interest. I was a book worm and loved to play my parents 8 track tapes of the beach boys and grease.
ReplyDeleteMy favouite was my DOS computer I got for x-mas when I was nine. I had a hard drive disk for Roger Rabbit and Where in the World is Carmen Santiago. This is where I found my passion for the computer. :-)
Sarah Richer
Okay I know this is showing my age but my very first memory of technology was our black and white T.V, the test pattern pops to mind. Also I remember fondly when we got a color T.V the first one on our street. All of our friends would come to watch!
ReplyDeleteIn school it would have to be film strip projectors, you the kind where the the bulb would get too hot and burn the film and the projector would make a clicking sound. Many a film strip was watched in the dark at school. We all thought it was great.
I asked my own children about their memory of educational technology and both boys said they remember fondly using the Mavis Beacon typing program in tech class on the school computers. Too funny!!
Valerie Wells
My first memory was listening to the broadcast over the classroom PA system of the first landing on the moon. I remember being excited and scared at once. I held my breath as Neil Armstrong descended the ladder. I was sure he was going to die when he set foot on the surface of the moon. I was also intrigued by the fact that the event was being broadcast to us from the moon, via the USA to our school in New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteJoy
I would have to say that my first educational technology memory would be the cassette player. I loved putting in the cassettes and listening to the music. I also liked to record my voice, I still have a tape where I was recorded singing the ABC's...It amazed me that a thin black strip encased in the cassette could produce sound!
ReplyDeleteMilena
Oh, so many memories...my first memory of technology in school would be the Apple computer. We were scheduled for one recess per week to play on the Apple computer. The earliest game I remember would be Number Munchers. I couldn't wait for my turn to roll around each week. Later on, I was introduced to Oregon Trail and where in the World is Sandiego?
ReplyDeleteAt home, I remember the giant tv in the ugly wood box that sat on the floor. It was a hand me down from my grandparents so it was old when we got it. I occasionally watched Mr. Dress Up or Sesame Street but my favourite show was Romper Room. I watched faithly to see if my name would ever be called at the end of the show. I loved Dooby!
Sabrina
I love reading everyone's ET memories. Mine would probably be TV and VCR at school. Those addicting Bill Nye theme songs..."Bill Nye the science guy, Bill, Bill, Bill..."
ReplyDeleteI wonder what our students would say about their first ET memories.
Great discussion. I tried to enter a couple of days ago and only two had been posted then. :)
ReplyDeleteMy first "Ed Tech" would have to be the television. I spent many hours watching Sesame Street.
Then I moved on to the Atari. I learned lots about problem solving, persistence, and turn taking.
These would have to be my first ET connections.
I remember watching Sesame Street, but I don't remember learning from it or thinking of it as being educational. I also remember Speak and Spell devices but I don't recall if I ever really used one or even if I had one myself.
ReplyDeleteWe used film projectors for school assemblies to show the odd movie, and I imagine that some cassette recorders may have been used. I think my first really solid memory of using ET would be the Commodore Vic-20.
cheers
I have two great memories.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a high school teacher, so we had access to a few neat novelties that my friends did not. First was the ditto paper and ditto machine. As a young child, I thought this was coolest thing - except for the ink residue you likely ended up with on your hands.
On the weekends, my dad would bring home a PET computer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET) from the high school he was working at. My brothers and myself loved this. Upon reflection, it must have been a real back-breaker trying to haul that machine in and out of the school.
Cheers,
Ryan M.
My earliest memory was a black and white T.V. that may parents brought home and we had an antennae and I could watch switch back on channel 3 when I was in kindergarten. My dad also listened to the radio a lot. When I was in grade 3 (in 1983) my dad was taking a course at SFU and would bring me to his class and there was a computer lab that the students would work in with floppy disks (imagine being able to bring your kid to a class now!) and sometimes my dad would bring home this thing that played these silver records that played both sound and images much like a video...but I don't know what they're called.
ReplyDeleteAdrienne.
My first ET memories, I think I can find them around the TV in my house. I loved watching TV.
ReplyDeletethe first computer we had at home was an AMIGA 500.
But I played on my friends ATARI and Commodore 64, with the cassette tapes.
In school, I think the furthest I remember is in High school, where we took the electric typewriter courses. And I was praticing on my father's original typewriter. You could break your fingers on those machine...
Wow!! so many thoughts rush to mind. I remember the first time television went colour and we stood there waiting for the colour to show up on our black and white television screen. How we would scream with joy when we thought we saw a line of colour.
ReplyDeleteI also remember the first time telephone came into our home. Those big heavy ones with the circular dial that you had to spin around when dialing.
I remember the manual typewriter and the pains my little finger went through to type the 'a' and semi-colon. Lastly I remember the dos prompt and the black computer screens. c:dir/p
Ok..that wasn't just one memory but once I got started I could not stop.
The best was the portable tape decks with the giant headphones. Add a giant read along picture book and bean bag chair and you are in 6 year old heaven.
ReplyDeleteNo ipod minis then!
Earliest school memory would have to be the old film strips(which were old when we watched them)and the clicking noise they made. I also remember the "hand crank" Risograph that would copy tests and worksheets. There were always those kids that would smell(huff)the ink if they were hot off the press.
ReplyDeleteMy father was a sportscaster so I use to play with my sisters typewriter (very girly colour)and type up a newscast and sportscast as a kid in elementary school.
As someone who loves music, the cassette tape was huge. You could make your own mix tapes instead of buying those crappy K-Tel Hit albums(dating myself). It also let you share music and listen to new music before you bought it. That was P2P sharing before there was P2P sharing!!!
When you say Educational Technology I think of that first "turtle" computer program. I think it was called LOGO?? I loved it!
ReplyDeleteBut now that I am a bit (a lot) older I think the technology that has had the biggest impact on education for an even earlier stage is the TV. I say that because it is basically a mass marketing device (during commercials). Every few minutes they are trying to sell some device and so many of them can end being used in education.
My 2 cents
Ryan
My earliest school memory was getting 'computer time' in a small cold lab where we were taken out of our usual class time and we could practice typing. It's funny because I can't remember the name of the teacher or any of the details around the course, but I remember sitting down in front of this 'thing' and not knowing what the heck to do! I also remember my first memory from home - my mom was a typist and I had to type something for school for the first time and I remember the frustration of making a mistake and having to start again! No backspace/delete button in those times...
ReplyDeleteMy earliest technology-related memory is watching a kiddie show with my mom when I was about three years old. We didn't have a VCR then so she would record the audio onto cassette tapes so I could listen to them again later. Unfortunately I broke one of the sides in our tape deck shoving a cassette into it. By the time I was four years old we got a JVC VCR that 'lived' over a decade.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest technology-related school memory is being introduced 'Paint' on the PCs at school in my third grade class ('92-'93), which started my life-long love affair with graphic making and photo editing.
Marie-Hélène
Personally, I have fond memories of sitting at the Apple computers and making the little turtle move up, down, left and right across my screen. It was an exciting day when I discovered the command to make him spin in place! Soon after that Kid Pix became a large part of our technology time in elementary school, though the versions that exist in schools today have so many more options!
ReplyDeleteAt the time, it never crossed our minds to look at how many pixels were in the images or how slow the computer was, we were just eager to use them at all!
-Meggan
My earliest educational technology memory was playing game boy. I am not sure if it's educational but it was fun. I remembered I had to share this video game device with my two sisters and we always fought who got to play it first. I thought it was a great way to train my brain and fingers. :)
ReplyDelete- Carol Chuu