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"Mechanical Aids for Learning" (in the 1930s)Created by Mark Morton (University of Waterloo) on March 10, 2006
I recently came across three news items from the early 1930s in the London Times. All three pertain to an exhibition that showcased new "mechanical aids to learning," such as "talking film machines," gramophones, and epidiascopes. It's interesting to see that some of the concerns raised then about new learning technologies echo those that concern us now. Consider this passage: "One of the difficulties of bringing together the teacher and the machine is that the former is not usually mechanically-minded. He is accustomed to working with his mind, and is shy of having to manipulate knobs and wheels and switches which may go wrong." For those interested in how "the more things change, the more they stay the same," I've attached the three news items, in PDF form, to this posting. -- Mark
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I love this kind of stuff - hands-on history and all. Especially pertinent to the Access Technologist is the comment that education needs to be extended to "persons of an older age". As the boomers age and return to campus to either extend their current skills or retool instead of retire, disability access programs are being called upon to service the needs of digital immigrants for whom the Gramophone and Magic Lantern are not mere passages in some history book.