History of Technology Quiz
The topic is name that technology: See if you can name the technology
the speaker is oh-so-enthusiastic about.
(A hint is that the quotes range from between 1840 and 1980, and only
one answer is computer.)
1."[This technology] will enable us to so modify the learning environment outside the classrooms that much if not all the knowledge schools presently try to teach with such pain and expense and such limited success will e learned, as the child learns to talk, painlessly, successfully, and without organized instruction."
2. "…the existing system is utterly ineffective. The teacher may pout it in the ear or exhibit it in caricature in the miserable embellishments of the school-book, but unless he teaches thorough the eye…no satisfactory instruction can be conveyed."
3. It "is going to make school so attractive that a big army with swords and guns couldn't keep boys and girls out of it."
4. "And yet, as far as the knowledge and information of the speaker extend, these useful implements of learning are not to be found in many schools claiming to be well furnished with the means of instruction, and in may others, where they are found, are but little used, and that in a very superficial manner."
5. "we are living in times of accelerated change…we must recognize [this technology] as an avenue of communication; it can help students to be intelligent about important events…; it can bring them the good things of life…" [This instrument] will ultimately be used as a substitute for certain teacher instruction."
6. "We are convinced that the American people want [this technology] and that they need [it]. [This device] will not be simply a luxury entertainment service. Its educational potential is unlimited. It will be there most powerful communication tools of them all."
7."These instruments are but little resorted to by the teacher, who knows almost as little how to use it as his pupils. It's in vain that our more intelligent [school] committees urge the importance of its use, from year to year."
8."[This device] appeals at once to the eye and ear and naturally forms the habit of attention, which is so difficult to form by the study of books…Whenever a pupil does not understand, the [device will have the opportunity … of enlarging and making intelligible. "