Andrea’s Timeline

 

When reading the articles by Watters (2014), I decided to go against the grain on the timeline of EdTech, namely, to look at the timeline of my schooling and what I have experienced. I can actually remember the 90’s when TV’s were a way to pacify children and make them want to read a book. I can actually remember one of the movies I watched in the classroom at such a young age; The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe; not the movie we know today (the old one). Yes, cell phones came in, there were two choices, flip and no flip; all green analog. I was lucky enough to have one at age fifteen. The 1990’s brought the computer into houses but, I didn’t have one. We didn’t even have cable in the rural area where I grew up. I received a hand-me-down computer from my cousin when I got to high school – she was already in University at McMaster.

What got me thinking about this is that there have been so many advances, some have worked, some have not.

Technology will always advance but I find that if it works, it works and people will be early adopters; otherwise, sometimes no one will have even heard about it. So my next encounter was Windows 95′. It worked, so many people used it. It was “popular” at the time and pretty much the operating system for the 200 pound computer system that people owned.

We have had so many advances, software and hardware; and everything in between. There will always be issues with the technology and I feel one of the biggest jumps has been from the 90’s until now. But today, I feel like the classroom may look slightly the same (which is why I decided to make my timeline in pictures, and about my experience). A computer is in the room instead of a TV. The kids being taught today are not as excited to see a monitor in the classroom. The big window of hope that we look at is still the same; but the world is connected to it.

This comes with many issues for the next set of would-be MALAT’s. The ability to filter through the information that is written by anyone is going to be a challenge and even the older kids, like me, have no idea what is happening in these classrooms anymore. Watters talks about so many things failing in terms of technology in the classroom, I on the contrary, can remember things that worked and seek to find those things for the next generation.

 

References

Watters, A. (2014). The History of the Future of Ed-Tech, Chapter 1. In The monsters of education technology. Licensed under the Creative

Commons CC BY-SA.

Watters, A. (2014). Un-fathomable: The Hidden History of Ed-Tech, Chapter 2. In The monsters of education technology. Licensed under

the Creative Commons CC BY-SA.