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30,000 BCE
Cave Drawings
Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, but cave paintings can also be of recent production: In the Gabarnmung cave of northern Australia, the oldest paintings certainly predate 28,000 years ago, while the most recent ones were made less than a century ago. -
510 BCE
Socrates and his followers.
"I know that I know nothing", claimed Socrates in the 400 B.C., showing a new way of teaching his followers. Socrates teaching is a form of inquiry and discussion between teacher and students, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking. In the 510 B.C. a school was opened based on the teachings by the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. -
105
Manuscript
A manuscript was, traditionally, any document that is written by hand — or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten — as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. -
1447
Printing press
In Germany, around 1440, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which started a printing revolution. Woodblock printing in East Asia had been prevalent since China's Tang dynasty in the 8th century, In Europe, woodblock printing based on existing screw presses was common by the 14th century. Gutenberg's most important innovation was the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, producing a movable type–based printing press system. -
Horn-books
A sheet containing the letters of the alphabet was mounted on a wooden frame and protected with thin, transparent plates of horn. The frame was shaped like a table-tennis paddle, had a handle, and was usually hung at the child’s belt. -
School slate
Modern blackboard dates back to the 1801, which was at the time considered quite a revolution. James Pillans, a geography teacher in Edinburgh, Scotland, hung a large piece of slate on the classroom wall.
A slate is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock composed of clay or volcanic ash. In 18th- and 19th-century schools, slate was extensively used for blackboards and individual writing slates for which chalk pencils were used. -
The mimeograph
The stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The mimeograph process should not be confused with the spirit duplicator process.
Mimeographs, along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, were a common technology in printing small quantities, as in classroom materials. In the late 1960s, mimeographs, spirit duplicators, and hectographs began to be gradually displaced by photocopying. -
Overhead projector
In the 1930’s the overhead projector was widely used by the U. S. Military to train forces during World War II and eventually the device spread to schools. -
Tablet computers
The tablet computer and the associated special operating software is an example of pen computing technology, and the development of tablets has deep historical roots. The first patent for a system that recognized handwritten characters by analyzing the handwriting motion was granted in 1914. The first publicly demonstrated system using a tablet and handwriting text recognition instead of a keyboard for working with a modern digital computer dates to 1956. -
Hand-held calculator
A study of the Featured Desktop Electronic Calculators section shows that through the 1960s large numbers of electronics components were required in a calculator. So electronic calculators were then very large, consumed a lot of power, and only AC-powered desktop models were available.
As integrated circuits were developed it was possible to squeeze more and more functionality into fewer and fewer chips. So electronic calculators became smaller and also their power consumption was reduced. -
Internet
The origins of the Internet date back to research commissioned by the federal government of the United States in the 1960s to build robust, fault-tolerant communication with computer networks. The primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1980s. The funding of the National Science Foundation Network led to worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies. -
Computer
Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer, and polymath originated the concept of a programmable computer. Considered the "father of the computer", he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century.
