Classroom Technology Over Time
How does your teacher tell you about your schedule for the day? For many years, teachers have used chalkboards to communicate daily schedules and other bits of news that students need to know. Today, teachers might communicate this same information through texts, emails, or even on interactive whiteboards! How things have changed! How has technology in your classroom changed since you have been in school? Keep reading to learn about some common changes to today’s classroom.
Older: Textbooks
Even with new technology available in classrooms, many students still use textbooks. These are the books you read in school that teach you about different subjects, such as math, science, and social studies. Textbooks are useful when reading information, but they have drawbacks too. They are often heavy and difficult to carry around. Also, they are used over and over again by different students, which might cause them to fall apart after awhile. Many teachers still use textbooks, but more and more often, they want to use technology instead.
Newer: E-books
“E-book” stands for “electronic book,” or a book that you read digitally. E-books have been popular in classrooms for about 10 years now. E-books have several advantages over traditional textbooks. They are usually cheaper to make, for one thing. Also, a student can access an e-book from a computer, a smartphone, or even a tablet like an iPad without having to carry around a heavy book. Also, some e-books are interactive, which means a student can click on links within the e-book and learn more about what they are reading.
Older: Chalkboards
Many teachers still use chalkboards in their classrooms today. You probably have one in your classroom right now! Chalkboards are convenient for teachers, and the boards, chalk, and erasers are inexpensive. Chalk does make a lot of dust, though! Also, the teacher needs to always be in front of the class, or at the chalkboard, in order to use it. Chalkboards can also be difficult for students in the back of the classroom to read.
Newer: Interactive Whiteboards
No more messy chalk and erasers! A whiteboard looks a lot like a chalkboard, but it can be moved around the classroom. The whiteboard itself is a hard, smooth, white surface, and teachers and students can draw on it with colored markers. Around 1990, whiteboards became interactive. They can now communicate with a computer to put text or images up on the board. An interactive whiteboard uses a computer to save information, and it can be controlled by the teacher from anywhere in a classroom! A student can even approach the board and move things around with their fingers. It’s just like having a big computer screen at the front of your classroom.
Older: Devices to Deliver Music and Movies
Does your teacher ever show videos to help you learn? Do you listen to audio recordings, such as songs, poems, or speeches? Long ago, people needed different kinds of machines in order to listen to recordings or watch movies. Movies were shown on projectors, which were machines that held reels of film. These film machines were bulky, and sometimes the film would break or get stuck in the machine—no more movie! For audio recordings, people listened to cassette tapes. These were small tapes of recordings that had to be rewound or forwarded to the part you wanted to listen to. Later, people listened to music on CDs and watched movies on DVDs.
Newer: Streaming Audio and Video
Although people still listen to CDs and watch DVDs, more and more often now we rely on computers to deliver movies, television shows, and music. Today, your teacher might use a computer to stream videos and audio recordings to help you learn new things. To stream means to pull videos and recordings directly off the Internet so that you can watch them whenever you want! Teachers can even project videos onto an interactive whiteboard, blending many new technologies to make their classrooms come alive.
TLX News Journal: History Activity
Think about the advantages and disadvantages of older and newer technology. For example, do you think an interactive whiteboard is better or worse than a chalkboard? Why? What new technology would you like to see in your school?
