15 February 2008

Education Adopts Latest Technology Advances

From the typewriter and the camera to the computer and the DVD, technology has influenced the classroom. As film, recordings, the television program Sesame Street and the electronic calculator changed the educational experience for an earlier generation, today the computer and the Internet are revolutionizing what people call the “classroom” around the world.

1872 -- Christopher Sholes invents the first practical typewriter, with the familiar QWERTY keyboard. It is marketed by the Remington Arms Company, maker of many famous guns. Typing classes and jobs for typists proliferate, providing new employment opportunities for women in clerical jobs previously closed to them. A typist can produce a document three times to 20 times faster than a clerk with a pen. Educators soon notice that students who learn to type improve their reading and writing skills. (© AP Images)

1900s -- Eastman Kodak Co. founder George Eastman, left, and Thomas Edison pose with their inventions in a photograph taken in the late 1920s. Eastman invented roll film and the camera box, while Edison invented motion picture equipment. By 1930, sound recordings and motion pictures are important resources in many U.S. classrooms. In an article published in 1930, "Educating the Twentieth-Century Youth," a teacher argues that young people should be taught using such 20th-century technology as the radio and the motion picture. (© AP Images)

1946 -- The first fully electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC fills up a room 9 meters by 15 meters big and weighs more than 45 metric tons. In 1960, PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), the first computer-assisted-instruction (CAI) system, is initiated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. PLATO profoundly will influence computer-based education systems throughout the world. (© AP Images)

1967 -- Texas Instruments develops the first hand-held electronic calculator. It is the first mini-calculator to have the power found at that time only in considerably larger machines. The working heart of the first miniature calculator is an integrated semiconductor circuit for performing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In 1990, Texas Instruments creates the popular TI-81 graphing calculator, again improving math instruction and providing scientists with a new tool. (See related article.) (Courtesy Texas Instruments)

1969 -- The children’s program Sesame Street debuts on the National Educational Television network (later the Public Broadcasting Service) and soon becomes an international hit. Since its debut, local co-productions of Sesame Street have been developed in nearly 30 countries and versions have aired in more than 120 nations. International co-productions engage child-development experts in each country to "translate the magic of Sesame Street in a way that captures the rich cultural flavors of each region." (See "Sesame Street Educates and Entertains Internationally.") (© AP Images)

1970 -- ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, goes online. Created by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET is opened to nonmilitary users both in the United States and other countries in the 1970s. In this 1997 photo, high-tech pioneer Douglas C. Engelbart holds the computer mouse he designed. Engelbart also invented hypertext and groupware. His other firsts include creation of hypermedia, multiple-window screens, online publishing and electronic mail systems, all of great importance in modern education. (© AP Images)

1971 -- University of Illinois student Michael Hart keys the U.S. Declaration of Independence into a mainframe computer and offers it to others, becoming the first information provider on what would develop into the Internet and launching Project Gutenberg, the oldest digital library with the largest single collection of free electronic books. Digitalized books also can be downloaded into PDAs and smart phones using software such as "plucker." Hart’s project inspires many other digital libraries. (Courtesy Project Gutenberg) (See "Project Gutenberg Digital Library Seeks To Spur Literacy.")

1974 -- The first affordable personal computer is featured on the cover of the magazine Popular Electronics. The Altair 8800 has 1KB of memory, an Intel 8080 processor, and sells as a kit for $395 or assembled for $498.  It was designed by H. Edward Roberts, a former U.S. Air Force officer who headed a small firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, named MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems). In February 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen provide the Altair with the first computer language program written for a personal computer. (© AP Images)

1983 -- Compact disc (CD-ROM) technology is introduced in the United States. The digital CD was invented in the late 1960s by James T. Russell working at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. SONY and other audio companies eventually realize Russell’s technology is viable and purchase licenses. By the end of 1983, 30,000 CD players and 800,000 CDs have been sold in the United States. Among other things, CD technology allows for storage of larger amounts of data and reference materials. (See "New Free Software Will Help Close Digital Divide in Education.") (© AP Images)

1996 -- DVD technology allows storage of even larger amounts of digital data, which makes possible superior sound and visual performance. DVD-ROM holds computer data that can be read but not overwritten by a DVD-ROM drive hooked up to a computer, such as the DVD-ROM drive shown here. DVD-Video holds video programs and is played in a DVD player and watched on a TV. Other variations on the basic DVD can be written once or rewritten multiple times, or are designed specifically for audio. (© AP Images)

2001-- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launches its OpenCourseWare (OCW) Web site, which today offers free online access to educational materials from all of its courses to any user anywhere in the world. Hundreds of institutions around the world follow MIT’s lead. Shown here is MIT mathematics professor Gilbert Strang, whose Math 18.06 course is among the most popular, with visitors downloading his lectures more than 1.3 million times in the last six months of 2007. (See "Online Learning Changing the Face of American Education.") (© AP Images)

2005 -- One Laptop per Child is launched with the aim of distributing $100 laptops to poor children around the world. Through a U.S.-based organization created by faculty members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, the program aims to revolutionize the world’s education. The latest model is bright orange, with "rabbit ears" antenna for Internet connectivity and a hand crank to provide power. It has a special reflective screen for use outdoors, a camera and an excellent sound system. (See "One Laptop per Child Association Aims To Revolutionize Education.") (© AP Images)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)