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I may be a few years older than Ivorytickler and Mrs. Skeffington, but am in the same ballpark. Started first grade in '61, and finished high school in '73. We had the mimeograph machines and reel-to-reel movie projectors all the way through school. And I really vividly remember when several classrooms of kids, or sometimes the whole school, would be moved into a single classroom or an assembly room to watch the liftoffs and splashdowns with the space missions (on a black-and-white set of course).
The main changes in technology I recall happening by the time I finished high school were that computers and calculators had appeared on the scene. Neither was standard school equipment, though.
It would still be something like ten years before desktop computers began to be ubiquitous. My high school had one computer room, where the machine used punch cards. Use of the computer was not a standard part of the curriculum. A few left-brain geeks in advanced math classes occasionally had assignments on the computer, just to introduce them to the technology. Most of the time, though, the math geeks used slide rules, and no one but the math geeks ever did anything involving a computer.
If I recall correctly, calculators in the early '70's cost several hundred dollars (and you multiply by five or so to get the equivalent cost today, so it was probably equivalent to 1,000-1,500), and they didn't perform anything like the range of calculations they do today. Unlike today, when calculators are often required in math and science classes, kids in my high school were prohibited from using calculators for exams. That was because of the price. As much as calculators cost at the time, the thinking was that it could not be assumed that every family could afford to buy their kids calculators, so those who had them would have an unfair advantage on exams.
Still, the presence of computers and calculators at all, even in these fledgling stages, was a notable advance from the other technology we'd had all through school.
How did the technology used in your school district(s) change between when you were in elementary school and when you graduated?
You and I are probably the same age, so much of what had progressed in your educational experience mimics what I have undergone too.
I started kindergarten in 1992, and ended high school in 2006. In third grade, my school underwent some construction. The only difference I remember was getting whiteboards that used markers which replaced chalkboards. We also got telecom systems with phones in every room, something not present before. Computers had always been present in the computer lab, but it wasn't until 1st grade that we were "taught" how to use them. We had some old Apple computers, can't say which kind.
In middle school, 2000-2002, I remember watching 9/11 on a wheeled-in CRT TV. I think I was already used to typing out any important essay by this point, though I can' remember what I would be typing out in 6th grade! I got really involved in AIM messenger in 8th grade, and using AOL chat rooms was something so hilarious for me and my friends because it was so ridiculous and filled with perverts. School hah white boards too, with a telecom system in every room which included a phone.
In high school, 2002-2006, I can't say I saw too much progress. We used chalk boards. My senior year, the school introduced some sort of student/parent log-in system to monitor your grades or something! Clearly I never logged in. MySpace was big, but because you could lawlessly customize your page, all that music/glitter effects/marquees bogged down any CPU to the point of crashing. I got caught on a forum in the library once, a no-no. CRT TV's were still used, and computers were regular monitors and not flat screens. We had Windows XP. We used TI-84's/85's/86's in the math classes, so almost everyone at least had those. I remember playing games like Tetris and Snake.
I went to college in 2006-2012 (BA and MA). In that time, MySpace died and Facebook rose, so you saw more educational connections/promotions on Facebook and online. Cellphones became ubiquitous, and interestingly enough, the school e-mail changed three times: first we had maybe 50 mb of storage, then 500 mb, then finally we switched over to Google. By that time, everyone had been forwarding their e-mails to Google. The university page also became cleaner, less text-based and more Java/Flash laden.
You and I are probably the same age, so much of what had progressed in your educational experience mimics what I have undergone too.
I started kindergarten in 1992, and ended high school in 2006. In third grade, my school underwent some construction. The only difference I remember was getting whiteboards that used markers which replaced chalkboards. We also got telecom systems with phones in every room, something not present before. Computers had always been present in the computer lab, but it wasn't until 1st grade that we were "taught" how to use them. We had some old Apple computers, can't say which kind.
In middle school, 2000-2002, I remember watching 9/11 on a wheeled-in CRT TV. I think I was already used to typing out any important essay by this point, though I can' remember what I would be typing out in 6th grade! I got really involved in AIM messenger in 8th grade, and using AOL chat rooms was something so hilarious for me and my friends because it was so ridiculous and filled with perverts. School hah white boards too, with a telecom system in every room which included a phone.
In high school, 2002-2006, I can't say I saw too much progress. We used chalk boards. My senior year, the school introduced some sort of student/parent log-in system to monitor your grades or something! Clearly I never logged in. MySpace was big, but because you could lawlessly customize your page, all that music/glitter effects/marquees bogged down any CPU to the point of crashing. I got caught on a forum in the library once, a no-no. CRT TV's were still used, and computers were regular monitors and not flat screens. We had Windows XP. We used TI-84's/85's/86's in the math classes, so almost everyone at least had those. I remember playing games like Tetris and Snake.
I went to college in 2006-2012 (BA and MA). In that time, MySpace died and Facebook rose, so you saw more educational connections/promotions on Facebook and online. Cellphones became ubiquitous, and interestingly enough, the school e-mail changed three times: first we had maybe 50 mb of storage, then 500 mb, then finally we switched over to Google. By that time, everyone had been forwarding their e-mails to Google. The university page also became cleaner, less text-based and more Java/Flash laden.
Interesting.
Our college e-mail system was a terrible Novel-based system. Accessing it from the web was often jaw-achingly slow, and if I remember correctly it had a low storage limit. The accounts were cleaned out each year, and if you wanted to save messages at the end of the semester, you had to "archive" each message individually! They went to a Google-based system the year after I graduated, which was great. Unfortunately, they changed the authentication system soon after, which meant I could not log in. The college website was also redesigned to a more "modern" look in 2008 or 2009; I complained about the re-design.
I graduated before Myspace became popular in my area. Rather, there was Xanga, which was used by everybody at a neighboring school district but only a select few (usually friends of students where it was popular) at mine. However, many years before, when I was in 7th and 8th grade (2000), there was a brief spike in the popularity of free "webpages" hosted at servers such as Expage, AOL Hometown, Angelfire, and a few others. They usually had a single page with a bunch of "shout outs" and a guestbook, as well as a visit counter, and rarely, a scanned picture. Many my age even learned HTML to customize their websites from the standardized bland design. The fad seemed to disappear during my high school years.
The winter after I graduated high school (2005-2006), though, I found that half of my class was on Myspace and even some of my co-workers had pages there. I actually discovered Youtube through Myspace, as many had embedded links to music videos. At the same time, Facebook was becoming popular among college students, and you had to have a college or high school E-mail account to register. I registered as soon as I gained a college e-mail in the Summer of 2006, and began adding old high school friends. Back then, you could not see anybody not on your network(s) unless you added them as friends, but virtually everybody on your network, as privacy settings were rarely used. Privacy settings were virtually never used on Myspace. That changed during my freshman and sophomore years. During my freshman year, students often used both sites concurrently; however, beginning in my sophomore year people began to abandon Myspace, leaving it for the non-college crowd. Soon even they migrated over to Facebook, leaving Myspace for bands. Twitter existed but never was that popular when I was in college, used only by a few literati, which hardly describes its current make-up. Neither Pinterest nor Google+ were known.
My sister, on the other hand, who graduated this year, registered with Bebo as soon as she got a laptop for her 13th birthday, and almost became a minor Myspace celebrity before switching over to Facebook in high school and eventually deleting her Myspace account. She opened up a Twitter her junior or senior year and is active mostly on there today.
I'm not sure if we ought to limit things to changes in technology only. I also think that expectations for people who deal in Technology have been ramped-up as well. People have very high expectations for what Technology is to provide and a lot of that is a function of Marketing. As a result, people are not willing to settle for professional intervention in which the Tech's first question is ...."did you try to reboot the machine". While the Tech may work with a broad range of people, a growing number of clients ARE able to find the floor with their foot and expect ANSWERS and not just more nose-scrathing when they seek help. Just sayin'......
I may be a few years older than Ivorytickler and Mrs. Skeffington, but am in the same ballpark. Started first grade in '61, and finished high school in '73. We had the mimeograph machines and reel-to-reel movie projectors all the way through school. And I really vividly remember when several classrooms of kids, or sometimes the whole school, would be moved into a single classroom or an assembly room to watch the liftoffs and splashdowns with the space missions (on a black-and-white set of course).
LOL. That depresses me. I wish the schools I went to had, had TVs to watch space missions. The 6th grade was the first school I attended that even had TVs. By that time the Apollo moon missions were over, and there was nothing to watch on the TVs. I feel deprived that I never got to watch space missions in school.
I started Kindergarten in 1992 or 1993 . I remember having the old macintosh computers with the huge 3"x5" floppy disks.
I remember having a cordless phone was cool.
Dialed *69 when I did prank calls.
I also went from bringing casettes to school, to having a portable CD player to having an Ipod in high school.
It's really crazy to think how far technology has come
The OP was wondering how technology at your schools changed, though. Technology in my personal life changed a lot, but it didn't change much at my schools.
The OP was wondering how technology at your schools changed, though. Technology in my personal life changed a lot, but it didn't change much at my schools.
Ahh, I guess I misinterpreted the question. At each school I didn't see too many technological advances. I remember when I was in 3rd grade though, we got those macintosh computers that looked kind of like a big 3-Dimensional "D". Don't remember the model though.
Then I went from an elementary school to a Catholic school for two years, nothing changed in those two years.
At my high school, I don't think anything was updated in the 4 years I was there.. however the computers when I arrived seemed pretty up to date for the most part. I started in 2001 and they were all equiped with Windows XP
In elementary school (K in 83), movies were shown on a reel to reel projector - usually 16mm. Handouts were mimeographs. TVs in carts with VHS started showing up in like 3rd or 4th grade.
In middle school (5th - 8th), we had Apple IIGS and original Macs in computer labs for typing classes and Oregon Trail. VHS and TVs on carts were pretty normal.
In HS (91-96), multiple Mac labs, CAD labs, in my Soph year, my HS built an addition which held drafting labs, physics labs and some other tech related, including a full digital video recording studio. Handouts were still mimeographs though , and the TVs with VCRs on carts were the way to watch something.
LOL. That depresses me. I wish the schools I went to had, had TVs to watch space missions. The 6th grade was the first school I attended that even had TVs. By that time the Apollo moon missions were over, and there was nothing to watch on the TVs. I feel deprived that I never got to watch space missions in school.
Sounds as if you were caught in a dead zone between phases of space exploration. You first attended a school with televisions after the Apollo missions, but I'm guessing you were done with high school before the shuttle program really got going. I don't know whether they took kids out of class to watch shuttle missions, but the early shuttle flights were televised, so at least it would have been possible.
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, and the TVs with VCRs on carts were the way to watch something.
