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40,000 BCE
Ancient Cave Paintings
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world have been found in the islands of Indonesia. The latest being over 39,900 years old These cave paintings were Mankind's first attempt to relay information through visual images. Through this prehistoric medium, ancient cave dwellers communicated information, myths, stories, and events integral to their cultural heritage. -
500 BCE
Greek Theater
For the Ancient Greeks, theater was the center of storytelling and the best way to understand their history as a people. In the theater oral storytellers such as Thespis, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, would tell the stories of their age involving central Greek understandings of morals and their beliefs. To keep their audiences attention, thespians would take on the roles of the story's characters and use fanciful masks and outfits to symbolize their role. -
Mar 12, 1439
Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468)
In 1439 the German blacksmith had introduced the movable printer to Western Europe. This allowed the rapid spread of information across the world and helped greatly to increase the learning potential of all classes of people, regardless of wealth imbalances. His invention would allow people, especially those of academia, to pick up on new concepts and ideas and give them a platform on which to constantly share and refine them. -
The Black Board
Pioneered by Scottish educational reformer James Pillans in 1810, Pillan utilized the new board by teaching students with it. On this board he would teach his students Greek, geography, and more. It quickly spread throughout the United States and world. -
John Logie Baird (1888-1946)
A Scottish engineer who became famous for demonstrating the world's first working television system in 1926. His invention would spread throughout Europe and America, allowing images from one area to be shown in another area thousands of miles away. His invention would allow people to not only learn visually of the places they had not visited but of the language and accents spoken by people they never met. -
Overhead Projector
Developed by the French photographer Jules Duboscq, the projector saw widespread use in the U.S. after 1945. The projector was popular for it's utility of allowing educators to project images drawn on transparent slides and projecting the image in an expanded form over a wall. This allowed for educators to show in real time, with a magnified view, of how they worked out problems in math and geography. -
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
Aside from his massive contributions to the Allied effort in World War Two by encrypting secret German codes, resulting in the saving of over 14 million lives. In 1946, Turing presented a paper on the detailed concept of a store-program computer. It was the first that such an idea had been proposed and due to his articulation of it had allowed scientists to begin laying the groundwork immediately for the first modern computer. -
Rise of the White Board
In the 1960s, through the utilization of enameled steel coating and chadding came the final product of the white board. An invention which allowed users, with dry-erase markers, to rapidly write on them and remove what was written quickly and cleanly. It would dominate the field that chalk boards had held for so long as the new tools of educational technology. -
The Cell Phone
The first demonstration of the handheld phone's capability was held in 1973 by a Motorola scientist. Decades later, the cellphone has become the center of the social networking between many groups people. It's rapid adoption among both rich and poor has made communication between people the most rapid and consistent it has ever been in history. With the advent of advanced programs, educators are now able to use these devices as part of their teaching strategies for present day classrooms. -
The World Wide Web
Invented by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web allowed users to upload and share documents on the web on a stable platform. Being the key factor of the Information Age, the Web allowed billions of people at any given time to share information and interact with each other in a myriad of ways involving fields of science, commerce, transport, information-gathering, and entertainment.
