8 Technologies You Won’t Find in Classrooms Today
By Distributel
When Ferris Bueller said “life moves pretty fast,” he meant you had to grab every chance to get the most out of life – even if that meant skipping a class or two.
While Ferris was busy ditching school back in the 80s and complaining that his parents got him a computer instead of a car, he couldn’t have realized how much things in his classroom would change – or how quickly his clunky desktop would be obsolete!
In fact, technology has moved so fast that it’s made the classroom of the ’80s and ’90s almost completely unrecognizable to kids today.
How many of these did you have at school?
Overhead projectors
Things you said in the ’90s: “Sir? I can’t see the top, the transparency slipped.”. And, if you were really into school, you’d definitely volunteer to clean off the transparency sheets after class.
Ditto machines
Before the photocopier, there was the Duplicate, or Ditto, machine. Pull the handle and make a bunch of those fuzzy “duplicates” in faded purple ink. Plus there was the intoxicating smell of toner! It was probably really bad for you, but you loved it.
Carbon paper
Just need one or two copies done by hand? That’s where carbon paper came in handy.
VHS and laserdisc machines
When the wheelie TV cart came into the room, you knew class was about to get good! Hopefully it was an actual movie and not one of those cheesy “health class” videos from decades earlier.
Microsoft Encarta
Remember this little intro? The high-tech encyclopedia of the ’90s – you could learn about anything, as long as it was on the CD or DVD version of Encarta! Pair that with whatever super clunky desktop you had at school, and the world was your oyster. That was before it went online and you needed a subscription – and way before Wikipedia!
AOL
And speaking of vintage online experiences, who could forget AOL getting us all online to do our homework? If you had AOL, you would definitely remember the sweet sound of dial-up too.
Electric typewriters
We took “keyboarding,” but we learned it on electric typewriters, even if we had a desktop computer at home. There’s something so satisfying about those chunky clicky keys that kids are really missing out on now that they learn on computers.
Physically handing in assignments
Everyone remembers lining up at the teacher’s desk to hand in their assignments, back in the day. But that’s happening less and less with the introduction of online and digital learning. Now, there’s no excuse for being sick and handing in your assignment late, because kids can submit either written or oral assignments online via tools like Google Classroom!
No matter how many hairstyles and fashion trends might make a comeback, new technology has forever changed the classroom. Still, we miss some of those classic school standbys from the good old days!