REMEMBER WHEN
We had low-tech classrooms
THE pandemic has certainly brought high technology to the fore in education, connecting students and teachers over the internet using Wi-Fi, tablets, computers and other devices. But when I first went to school in the early 1970s classrooms were low-tech.
For much of my early school days the most sophisticated piece of equipment was a black and white TV, occasionally wheeled out to show us educational programs (but often just to fill in time). Up until the late 70s we had to watch the shows at the time they aired because video recorders were not widely available until about 1976. Otherwise we sometimes watched educational films from the 1950s and 60s on a rickety old film projector.
But perhaps the most often used piece of technology in the 1970s classroom was the overhead projector, a pretty basic device but which seemed like magic the first time I saw it in kindergarten.
Basically it was a box with a bright light underneath a pane of glass, above which, attached by a metal arm, was a wedgeshaped box with a lens in it. On the lower box, teachers put a clear sheet of plastic on which they had written (in erasable felt-tipped pen) words and diagrams which were then projected onto a screen.
It seems pretty primitive compared to modern devices such as electronic smart boards, but it was way ahead of the blackboard, which had been around for centuries as the only tool for teachers to write things for students to copy.
In the early 70s there were relatively few overhead projectors, but they were slowly making their way into classrooms, providing a cleaner alternative to blackboards and the mess created by the constant erasure of chalk.
By the time I was in high school both projectors and blackboards were being replaced by whiteboards that made a mess with erasable ink instead of chalk.
By then we were also using electronic calculators, not without some controversy from people who thought it would make us mentally lazy. In my final years of school there were even computers in the classroom. A new era in education had dawned. TROY LENNON
Tell us your story: Write to the History Editor, 2 Holt St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010