The+Magic+Box


 * Recording**

Paul, R. (Executive Producer) & Petrina, S. (2002, October 11). //The Magic Box: Technology in education// (Sound Recording). Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio, Sound Prints.



**Key figures**

 * Sidney Pressey: [|Pressey's Teaching Machine]
 * Francis Keppel:[|Bio detail]
 * Dale L, Sylvia Charp, Bob Albrecht, Pat S.
 * Liza Loop: [|Bio detail]
 * Steve Jobs: [|Bio detail]
 * Steve Wozniak: [|Bio detail]

**Main points**

 * It has become somewhat difficult to imagine schools without computers. An interesting thought is provoked: what came before?
 * It is not 'accidental' that computers have become entrenched in classrooms and schools - a concerted effort over time has been made for this integration.
 * Motivated teachers and marketers/business minds have worked to ensure that computers are part of daily life in schools.
 * At the heart of the rise of computers in schools were several key individuals, and economy-based motivators.
 * Business competition between computer companies IBM and Apple contributed dramatically to the rate at which computers made their ways into schools.
 * 'Failures' in development were necessary for the computer advent to take hold in educational systems.

**Overview and interactivites**
media type="youtube" key="S-z1iXz3SDo" height="315" width="560" [] 'Title: History of Educational Technology'
 * View this clip - it offers an interesting glimpse at how technology in schools has developed over time.**

The recording from Sound Prints,//The Magic Box//, offers a thorough discussion of the various moments in history that have helped move computers into schools, and into the hands of teachers and learners. Starting with the image of the simplest form of technology, the pencil, listeners are introduced to an impressive list of innovative minds who have helped students experience computers as learning tools. A number of historical figures and references are introduced, some directly linked to education and some more peripheral. But let's focus on the pencil for just a moment - read [|here] for a brief history of a technological tool that we surely all take for granted!

Figure 1. History of the pencil


 * Sidney Pressey** is mentioned in this recording as being fascinated, if not slightly obsessed, with automated teaching. [|View this short clip] where Harvard psychologist BF Skinner describes two key uses to the use of the automated teaching machine.

media type="youtube" key="wfU___GMMJw" height="315" width="420" //@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfU___GMMJw&feature=related//
 * Implicit in //The Magic Box// is the development of computers over time. Look below at a //s//hort, dramatic visual compilation of the development of computers including the first code breaking computer, the IBM Norc and Sage system, the Apple II, Commodore and more.**

One interesting aspect to //The Magic Box// is the brief overview provided about when school based computer funding was supported by the US government, and the correlation between this support and the activities of the Defense Department. Take time to review this comprehensive timeline of the [|history of computers in education]. Note the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in1965, the first Apple donation to schools in 1975, and more. This site is dated as it ends about 2008, but the historical overivew is interesting. Also, [|Here] is a brief clip that gives you a sense of what the Sage air defence system was, how it operated, and how important funding would have been for the US government to keep abreast of technological developments.

media type="youtube" key="EqMEIgEyjLk" height="360" width="480" @http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=02A7C5BAEF32C075 Homebrew Computer Club (4 Parts) [|What was the Homebrew Computer Club?] This special 'club', as outlined in //The Magic Box// was extremely important for the historical rise of computers in general but also specifically in education as this was where Liza Loop met Apple cofounders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The Homebrew Computer Club was a meeting point in California for where computer enthusiasts could meet and share ideas, and incredible innovations grew out of this club where it was 'hip to be square'. In this clip you will see key inventors interviwed, including Wozniak, as they candidly discuss how their club began and what they were hoping for in the initial states of meetings. Here we get the sense of the importance of 'cornering a market' as cofounders Jobs and Wozniak clearly took advantage of the opening they saw in the educational system to integrate computer technology.
 * Another very interesting aspect to this recording is the reference to how the first Apple computer made it into schools. This process began at something called the 'Homebrew Computer Club'.**

In reference to //The Magic Box//, the meeting among Jobs, Wozniak, and Loop was key because it was the starting point for the first donation of Apple computers to American schools. An interesting aspect to this was the belief Jobs and Wozniak held that the first computer used by children would likely be the computer they would use in their future. //Consider your own use of technology - do you stick with what you know?//



[|VoiceThread] discussion question:

 * Module 6 asks us to consider historical elements behind the rise of educational technology. Reflect on your first interaction with a computer in the workplace and/or in school. What do you recall? Was it a foregone conclusion that you would work with a computer?

Vista discussion/reflection:

 * 1) Sidney Pressey figures in this talk as he was an early innovator of the 'automated teacher'. His dream was never fully realized, but what implications does the idea of the 'automated teacher' have for teachers, students, and schools?
 * 2) Is competition always healthy for the rise of educational technology?

Further resources:

 * In the broadcast, Sylvia Charp is referenced as having been editor of a journal called Technological Horizons in Education. The link is [|here]. You will find a variety of useful tools on this site, including features, useful webinars, grant awards, and more.


 * Soundprint Radio is a useful resource where you can listen to shows on a variety of topics such as gaming and the perceived link between gaming and violence. You can visit Soundprint Radio [|here.]


 * One of the topics that has come up in discussion is the varied access schools have to information technology, and thus the varied exposure students have to IT in a learning environment. [|Watch this talk] by Sugata Mitra who discusses his India based 'Hole in the Wall' project where children newly exposed to computers show they are able to teach themselves and others, using 'self instruction' and 'self organizing' methods.

**References**
[Untitled photograph of history of the pencil]. Retrieved October 9, 2011, from: http://www.officemuseum.com/pencil_history.htm

[Untitled photograph of IBM Writing to Read]. Retrieved October 14, 2011 from: http://www.kpsurplus.com/ibm-writing-to-read-john-henry-martin.html

Homebrew Computer Club retrieved from: http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/sv/pc_homebrew.html