Royan Lee, a teacher at Beverley Acres Public School uses technology to create a more interactive, collaborative and social classroom. He is seen teaching Zinedine Jina-Pettersen, 12, Alessandra Tuzi, 12, Michelle Bennett, 12, and Kamran Rahbar, 12, how to use GarageBand for the iPad.
Jennifer Roberts/The Globe and Mail
Timeline: Classroom technology from papyrus to iPads
Tamara Baluja
Published
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c. 2400 B.C. - Papyrus
Sliced and dried sheets of papyrus plant were first used by the Egyptians as a writing base for books and legal documentation. Wood-fibre paper, which was invented in China around 105 A.D. succeeded papyrus and made its way to Europe by 700 A.D. But paper was not widely used throughout Europe until paper mills were built in the late 14th century.
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c. 2300 B.C. - Abacus
The abacus, the ancestor of modern-day calculators, is believed to be Babylonian in origin. Abaci have been used in elementary schools as an aid in teaching the numeral system, counting and basic arithmetic.
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c. 700 A.D. - Quill Pen
A pen made from bird feathers, the quill has been around since the 7th century. In the literary world, they’re still use in some magical schools – famous boy wizard Harry Potter uses an eagle-feather quill to write letters to Sirius Black.
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c. 1650 - Hornbooks
Hornbooks was a children’s primer common in both England and America from the late 16th to the late 18th century. A sheet containing the letters of the alphabet was mounted on a wooden frame shaped like a table-tennis paddle and hung usually from a child’s belt for quick access and an ever constant reminder to keep at the alphabets.
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1801 - Chalkboard
James Pillans, headmaster of the Old High School of Edinburgh, Scotland, is widely credited for inventing the blackboard and colored chalk, which he used to teach geography. By 1801, teachers in the U.S. had started incorporating chalkboards into their classrooms, both as a large board at the front of the room and smaller chalk slates for each child.
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1884 - Fountain pen
The first practical version of the fountain pen was produced in 1884 by the American inventor L.E. Waterman. Since then, generations of school children have practiced their penmanship, complaining of ink-stained fingers and sharp raps on the knuckles from teachers if they didn’t keep their writing within the lines. Although not common in Canada, cursive writing with fountain pens remains popular in schools in some European and South Asian countries.
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c. 1890 - Pencil
In the late 19th century, pencil production became more prevalent, leading to the gradual replacement of the chalk and slate, which had been popular in classrooms throughout the 19th century.
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1906 - Modern school essentials
School essentials from the Alberta Department of Education: a globe, a dictionary, maps of the world, a blackboard, a thermometer, a clock, a broom, a pail and cup, washbasins and towels, and one or two chairs.
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c. 1920 - Radio
Schools started funnelling lessons through instructional radio programs. In 1951, the world’s first “school of the air” or correspondence school for primary and elementary students opened in Adelaide, Australia, to service remote communities in the Outback.
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c. 1950 - Instructional TV
Education television gains popularity in the U.S. and Canada, with channels like PBS airing instructional episodes for classroom use.
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1958 - Liquid Paper
Tired of having to retype entire pages because of one small error, a secretary by the name of Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper in her kitchen. Eventually, she sold her patent to Gilette for nearly $50-million.
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c. 1960 - Overhead projectors
The overhead projector was used by the U.S. army to train soldiers on tactics, but it didn’t become commonplace in classrooms until the 1960s.
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1978 - Personal computers
When 17 Ontario high schools were hooked up with 8-by-10-inch computer screens and monitors, Douglas Penny, then director of the research and evaluation branch at the province’s Ministry of Education, found it necessary to dispel fears that computers would replace math teachers.
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1985 - Calculators
Although calculators of varying abilities to compute had been around since the late 19th century, Toronto classrooms wouldn’t allow students to use them until Grade 7, and only a little more than half the Grade 12 classes in Ontario could use calculators more than two periods a week. Times have changed: Graphing calculators are now mandatory for many high school calculus courses.
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1988 - Scantron
By making students fill in bubbles with an HB pencil on a data sheet that could be read by a computer, the Scantron Corporation took away the hassle of grading multiple choice tests. Ironically, the corporation was acquired by the John H. Harland Company, whose founder was a dropout.
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1995 - Video conferencing
Professors in the engineering department at McMaster University experimented with video conferencing their lectures to classes in Hamilton and Waterloo – all for $400,000.
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2003 - Interactive whiteboards
Schools start replacing the traditional blackboard with interactive whiteboards. This touch-sensitive technology connects computers and digital projectors, allowing teachers to pull up graphics, stream videos and surf the Web.
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2005 - Clickers
Four professors in University of Illinois’s physics department develop their own wireless radio frequency system. Now, iClickers – which allow professors to poll students and quiz them over a wireless connection that sends instant feedback on their understanding of concepts – are making their way into many university lectures.
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2010 - Robot teachers
Korea begins experimenting with robot teachers – shaped like penguins on a whim – that are programmed to deliver English language lessons. Bringing foreign language teachers to Korea is expensive, and it’s increasingly difficult to attract them to the country’s islands and other remote areas.
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January, 2010 - iPads
iPads make their way into classrooms in both universities and grade schools. South Korea has vowed to replace all their textbooks with e-books readable on tablets by 2015. Could this be the end of the traditional textbook?
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August, 2010 - Wireless Internet
Several parents and teachers in Ontario argue that Wi-Fi should be banned from schools because of health concerns, including brain damage. But Health Canada says scientific evidence indicates exposure to low-level radiofrequency energy, such as that emitted by Wi-Fi systems, is not dangerous to the public. For now, Wi-Fi remains a common feature in many schools in Canada.
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Septemeber, 2010 - Cellphones
Premier Dalton McGuinty creates an uproar when he says cellphones should be allowed into Ontario classrooms as learning tools. Many school boards, including the Toronto District School Board – one of the largest in Canada – currently ban cellphones and other mobile devices.
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2011 - Flipped classrooms
Okanagan Mission Secondary school in Kelowna, B.C. introduces what is believed to be the first flipped classroom in a Canadian public school. The “flip” refers to what students do at home versus what they do in the class. Instead of lectures at school, and homework at, well, home, students now watch YouTube lectures at home on their laptops, and work with teachers one-on-one on assignments during class time.
