


































From Laddie Pencils and Big Chief Tablets to Blogs and Wiki’s 

 

Larry J. Kelly and Allison M. Huie 

Texas A&M University 

 

Abstract 

   Throughout American education, several 

periods of technological change occurred in the 

last two centuries. Each educational innovation or 

technology normally took approximately fifty 

years to trickle down to the nation’s schools. 

However, the last several decades have witnessed 

a communications revolution. This rapid 

expansion of communication technology has 

changed challenged teachers’ existing methods of 

instruction, selection of curricular materials, 

approaches to discipline and effectiveness in the 

classroom. 

 

Education Technology as a Necessity of Life  

In an 1838 meeting convened to study the 

Normal School of Plymouth County, Daniel 

Webster suggested that teaching apparatuses 

(technology) should be a part of American 

education. Speaking to an audience that included 

Horace Mann, George Putnam, and John Quincy 

Adams, he made the following statement: “We 

teach too much by manuals, too little by direct 

intercourse with the pupil’s mind; we have too 

much of words, too little of things. Take any of 

the common departments, how little do we know 

of the practical detail, say geology. It is taught by 

books. It should be taught by excursions in the 

field” (Webster 1856, 590).  

As schools transitioned from academies to 

private schools, and then to public education, a 

strong motive developed to provide an adequate 

education for all, rather than the college-bound, 

privileged few. In 1865, one magazine editorial 

stated, “We ought to be doing something to keep 

up our reputation for running faster, flying higher, 

diving deeper and coming up drier than all other 

people in creation” (Editorial, 1865, 121). New 

subjects such as physics, mechanics and 

chemistry were introduced that had practical 

benefit to all pupils, whether attending college or 

entering the work force (Editorial, 1868). Herbert 

Spencer continued the momentum for practical 

courses in the last twenty-five years of the 

nineteenth century, placing a premium on 

educational experiences in the present and in 

subjects that are useful in the present (Cremin 

1961). The foundations of education were formed 

not only to pass on to new generations the culture, 

principles, ethic and lessons of the past, but also 

to prepare each student for the world in which he 

or she would live (Molnar 1997). 

These early calls to include technology in 

an effort to enhance educational experience were 

brought to new significance through the work of 

John Dewey. In Philosophy and Civilization, 

(1931), Dewey illustrates “the revolutionary 

nature of science and technology” and argues, 

“that they could create new possibilities in life 

were they to be redirected from commercial to 

humanistic goals” (Vartan 2005, B3). Dewey, 

arguing against the objectivist principles that had 

previously driven American education, promoted 

a system of education grounded in learning 

through experience. He called for an educational 

experience that taught not just facts and figures, 

but how one should and could possibly interact 

with his own environment in such a way that he 

could derive such truths. Dewey advocated 

teaching students not what to learn, but how to 

learn. While early views on technology in 

education extolled only its production-related 

virtues, it is essential that we continue to view the 

use of technology in education as Dewey and 

others would have it: as a “necessity of life” for 

the opportunities it provides in allowing our 



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students to develop the ability to learn (Dewey 

2005). It is in this light, that one must consider 

the current and future roles of technology in 

education. 

   

Brief History of Educational Technology 

Innovation 

American education has been marked by 

several periods of technological change 

throughout the last two centuries. Early 

technological innovations sometimes took as long 

as fifty years to trickle down to the nation’s 

schools and universities (Murphy and Gross 

1966). During these periods of change, the 

intended aim of each innovation was to enhance 

the efficiency or quality of learning (Percival and 

Ellington 1988).  

Many of the first technological 

innovations were aimed at improving or 

increasing student work product. The first 

blackboard was used in 1809 in a Philadelphia 

school, and by 1850-1853, chalkboards and 

erasers became widely used in schools. This 

allowed the teacher to quickly illustrate lessons to 

the entire class (PBS 2007). These first 

blackboards were pine lumber covered with 

carbon from charred potatoes and egg whites. 

Students used chunks of chalk and cloth rags to 

erase the board. Students used smaller-sized slate 

boards with slate pencils. White chalk eventually 

replaced the slate pencil and was among the first 

innovations for student writing. After the end of 

the Civil War (1861–1865), manufactured 

wooden pencils were available, allowing students 

to create a more lasting record (PBS 2007). 

Further developments to writing utensils included 

the advent of the eraser, and the introduction of 

the thicker, sturdier, graphite–cored device 

commonly known as the “Laddie” pencil. . Mass-

produced paper in the 1870’s provided the 

opportunity for students to create longer 

documents, allowing for more self-expression 

(PBS 2007). The advances in production-oriented 

technology continued with the Remington No. 2 

typewriter, introduced in 1878. The Remington 

possessed the capability to type both lower and 

upper case, allowing students to prepare formal 

papers (Early Office Museum 2007). Now, 

whiteboards have largely replaced blackboards, 

eliminating the chalk dust that generations of 

mothers scrubbed from jumpers (PBS 2007).   

 Continuing the development of teacher-

led instructional technologies, the first 

commercial radio broadcast occurred on 

Christmas Eve 1906. By 1923, Haaren High 

School in New York City had introduced radio in 

the classrooms. Soon after, other school districts 

and universities followed suit. In the years from 

1925-1935, radio came into real prominence as an 

instructional tool. Formal courses in radio 

education were offered including radio instruction 

on subjects such as “penmanship, accounting, 

arithmetic, and history” (PBS 2007). The U.S. 

Office of Education even established a radio 

section to meet the increasing needs of radio 

education. Radio had found a place in the 

classroom as one of the best teaching tools and 

became a useful aid to the classroom teacher. 

However, any thought of the radio displacing 

teachers was quickly dispelled (Brodie 1935). 

While radio use in classrooms peaked in the 

1930’s, its use virtually stopped during World 

War II, and never recovered quite the same 

popularity. In fact, it would be difficult to find 

regular curricular inclusion of radio in most 

classrooms in today’s schools (Saettler 1990).  

 

 From Radio Waves to TV Waves   

The first publicly accessible electronic 

television transmission occurred in 1936, when 

the opening ceremonies of the Berlin Olympics in 

the summer of 1936 were broadcast (Winston 



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1998). The U.S. armed forces were the first to 

experiment with this technology, utilizing it for 

training to meet mass instruction requirements. 

During the early 1950’s, many thought television 

would provide solutions to educational problems 

such as teacher shortages, overcrowded 

classrooms, and poorly prepared teachers. 

Therefore, it was not surprising when 

administrators, given available Title I funds, 

began purchasing television and videotape 

recording equipment. It was hoped that cable 

television in the 70’s might provide flexibility of 

choice for teachers. However, as with previous 

television programs and equipment there was no 

common standard for the television broadcasting 

equipment hindering broad acceptance. 

Educational television use reached a peak in the 

1960’s, but has since declined. Today, the 

television is the most widely used form of 

technology in the classroom; however, it serves 

mostly to supplement teacher-led classroom 

instruction (Saettler 1990). 

 While radio and television were making 

their mark in classrooms, computers were quietly 

beginning development as large, room-sized 

expensive machines in the U.S. military branches. 

The first operational computer was the MARK I 

in 1944 at Harvard, followed by the University of 

Pennsylvania’s ENIAC computer in 1946. 

PLATO, (Programmed Logic for Automated 

Teaching Operations) at the University of Illinois 

marked the first large-scale use of computer-

assisted instruction in education (Molnar 1997). 

These huge machines were primarily 

limited to uses in the mathematics, science and 

engineering disciplines Improvements in the size 

and price of computers (both decreasing) became 

possible with Intel’s introduction of the 1103 

RAM chip in 1970 which substantially reduced 

the cost of memory. With each new version of the 

Intel chip, the enhanced chips reputation for 

reliability improved, finally opening the door for 

broad public acceptance and availability (Winston 

1998). Xerox introduced the smaller Alto 

computer in 1973; however, it was never sold to 

the public. The development of smaller, more 

versatile computers also made way for further 

developments, such as the WYSIWYG (what you 

see is what you get) editor, the mouse, the word 

“internet”, and the first flat bed scanner. Software 

programs, such as VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet 

application, were created for new small personal 

computers such as the Atari and Apple IIe, Radio 

Shack entered the market with the TRS-80 and 

Commodore International introduced the PET, a 

true microcomputer, in 1977. IBM, one of the 

larger companies mainly interested in the large, 

expensive computers, soon joined the 

microcomputer market. IBM began offering a 

smaller computer, the 1500, but it was more 

expensive than the Atari or Apple IIe’s (Winston 

1998). In 1981, IBM began marketing the PC, and 

sold 35,000 the first year. While only a few 

hundred households had microcomputers in 1975, 

that number increased to just under a million 

machines by 1982. Initially, these new 

microcomputers but were limited to replacing 

cookbooks, balancing checkbooks, recalculating 

home mortgages and keeping track of personal 

investments. However, when word processing 

programs became available the personal computer 

enjoyed a change of status, shifting from the role 

of a fancy calculator into that of a very effective 

typewriter. This shift, along with the introduction 

of the modem and email positioned the personal 

computer as a powerful device for 

communication. Thus, the business market for 

PC’s experienced a dramatic boom. (Winston 

1998). However, with the limited programs 

offered, retail consumers had trouble seeing a 

clear purpose for the machines in the home. These 

design deficiencies allowed new software 



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companies to take advantage of the market by 

developing new operating systems. Market focus 

then shifted from the manufacturing companies to 

smaller systems companies like Microsoft. As the 

sales focus gradually shifted to households, 

education became the next market demographic to 

be targeted (Winston 1998).  

By the 1990’s, most classrooms had at 

least one computer. Radio took thirty-eight years 

to reach 50 million users. It took TV thirteen 

years to reach 50 million viewers. By contrast, it 

took the Internet four years, iPod three years and 

Facebook less than nine months to reach one 

hundred million users (Real Time Marketing 

Group 2009). In fact, the utilization of computers 

in the classroom has sparked a swift pace of 

change in an educational climate that has 

previously been relatively resistant to substantive 

change through technological innovation. 

Computers connected to the World Wide Web 

have facilitated the rapid exchange of information 

and afford individuals the freedom and ability to 

manipulate this information. This openness of 

information and increased communication has 

had real and lasting effects.  

 

Educational Technology in the Digital Age 

Educators and their pupils now have 

access to a truly interconnected world. The 

personal computer, Internet, and fiber optics, have 

increased the speed of communication and the 

pace of advancement in teaching and learning. 

Individuals can now send and receive messages 

with the push of a virtual button, or investigate a 

wealth of data and ideas at the click of a mouse. 

Once, of the dissemination of new information 

could have taken 80 years or more. Information 

sharing can now take place in terms of minutes, 

or seconds (Marx 2006). The impact of such swift 

advances in technology and communications is 

being felt strongly in the world of education. 

Distance learning is fast becoming an important 

part of university, college and public school 

teaching. Curriculum and instruction are 

supported through the World Wide Web, on-line 

courses, MP3’s, satellite communication and, 

audio/video conferences.  

For example, Curriki, a new on-line 

community, allows educators from anywhere in 

the world to publish curricula and lesson plans for 

review and use by fellow teachers. Curriki 

encourages contributors to access the content 

presented, upgrade it, and revise it to suit the 

needs of students (Reuters 2007). Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology, (MIT), now offers MIT 

OpenCourseWare a free and open educational 

resource (OER) for educators, students, and self-

learners around the world. The goal is to provide 

free, searchable access to MIT's course materials 

for educators, students, and self-learners around 

the world. Students around the world can view 

course materials in subjects such as Aeronautics, 

Astronautics, Writing, and Humanistic Studies 

(Tapscott 2006). A book-scanning project begun 

by Google two years ago now includes twelve 

major library systems, including Princeton, The 

University of Texas at Austin, University of 

California, New York Public Library, Harvard, 

Oxford, Stanford, and the National Library of 

Catalonia. This ambitious project will provide the 

world’s great literary works available and 

searchable over the Web (Reuters 2007). 

The ability to search vast amounts of ideas 

and information on the Web has opened new 

avenues for collaboration using blogs a user-

generated website where entries are made in 

journal style. Blogs provide commentary or news 

on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or 

local news. Some function as personal online 

diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and 

links to other blogs, web pages, and other media 

related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave 



111 

 

comments in an interactive format is an essential 

feature of most blogs. A wiki is another simple, 

easy-to-use user-maintained database website that 

allows visitors to add, remove, edit, and change 

content. It can allow links to other pages, making 

a wiki an effective tool through ease of 

interaction and opportunities for collaboration. A 

defining characteristic of wiki technology is the 

ease with which pages can be created and 

updated. Generally, there is no review before 

modifications are accepted with many wikis open 

to the public without the need to register 

(Wikipedia 2007). 

The California Open Source Textbook 

Project plans to use collaboration, insights, and 

spare time of its teachers to create high-quality 

educational materials freely available to each 

student. The first project is to create a world 

history book for tenth grade. This project will use 

the advantages of open-sourced content to help 

reduce the cost of textbooks (Tapscott 2006). 

Pedagogy and technology can create a community 

of instructors and students constructing 

knowledge building communities, thus creating a 

highly interactive environment. 

  

Impact on Teaching & Learning 

Whereas the previously discussed early 

schoolhouse technologies such as Laddie pencils 

and Big Chief tablets were focused on enhancing 

student work-product, these new these  

technologies are  opening  classrooms to the 

world and requiring teachers to address an 

entirely new literacy. Collaboration through use 

of new technologies encourages critical and 

creative thinking while helping students to 

transfer data into usable knowledge and wisdom. 

Developing communicative skills while building 

connections in an educative environment will 

encourage active learning, making thinking and 

reasoning basic to education. These connections 

help to fit curricula to the needs and interests of 

various learners (Marx 2006). In teaching and 

learning with technology and about media 

literacy, educators and students develop higher-

order thinking skills, and highlight real-world 

problem-solving skills to fit students’ capacities. 

These activities shift the importance from 

learning to thinking (Molnar 1997). 

 

Big-Picture Implications 

The leveling power of the World Wide 

Web has created a new world economy, 

international trade, shift in balance of capital and 

labor, restructuring the U.S. workplace through 

technological innovation and globalization 

(Kirsch 2007). Technology, science and 

economies are interconnected creating new 

industries and jobs, all requiring a more highly 

skilled, educated workforce. Each innovation 

depends on rapid dissemination throughout the 

education system and workplace (Molnar 1997). 

This rapid pace and speed of communication has 

created competitive playing fields between 

industrial and emerging countries (Friedman 

2006). The cell phone today is about a million 

times cheaper and a thousand times more 

powerful than the MIT’s computer in 1965. 

Today, one can carry in their pocket a computer 

that used to take an entire building to house 

(Kurzweil 2008). 

An Ideological Return 

 Current educational practices rely on 

creating an environment where learning consists 

of what can be conveyed and assessed only in a 

standardized state or national curriculum 

(Sutherland 2004). However, we can no longer 

rely on the Industrial Age’s banking model of 

education (Friere, 1972). The usual model where 

teachers’ simply transfer knowledge to students, 

no longer serves our students (LaMonica 2009). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database


112 

 

Educators should consider a more hands-on 

approach in participatory form stemming from 

interaction with all of the new resources 

available. The emphasis now should be on 

collaborative utilization of the connecting 

technologies in the world, and should lead to 

students learning whatever they want, whenever 

they want, from whomever they want. Students 

and teachers should now press forward to extend 

the capabilities of educational tools in order to 

work across time zones, cultures and technologies 

(Richardson 2008). One of the main challenges 

associated with the new literacy is determining 

how to help students become full participants in 

each new learning field while creating and 

collaborating in transparent online groups and 

networks (Richardson 2008). Such 

communicative, yet individually oriented, 

activities afford a wealth of opportunity for each 

individual student. In this new educational model, 

students become self directed, editing, organizing 

and publishing on their own. The previously 

work-product oriented educational culture 

becomes a collaborative, creative, communicative 

environment, where the focus is on the process of 

learning rather than product. This is especially 

ideal when we must consider that global product 

demands change with increasing rapidity. It is not 

sufficient for us to train students with a single 

work-product, or singular set of skills in mind. 

For Dewey, “democratic education was an 

experiment in intercultural and international 

living, intended to provide a potential model for 

global democratic order” (Waks 2007, 34). 

Similar logic should now be applied to the role of 

technology in education.  We must allow the 

creative, communicative and connective 

possibilities of new technologies to lead to a 

“fusion of horizons” in an ever-globalized world 

(Dewey 2005). In the new, digital age of 

education (and existence), we must return to our 

modern educational roots and are called to 

embrace the educational charges set by Webster, 

Spencer and Dewey: let us teach how to learn, not 

what to learn; let us emphasize and utilize 

technological innovation as an individually-

motivated mode to learn (everything) rather than 

teacher-led tool to teach (particular things); and 

let authentic experience within the realities of 

today’s environment be our students’ most 

influential teacher. In this way, will we prepare 

students who are truly prepared to participate as 

full members of the global society.  

 

References 

 

Brodie, Robert B. 1935.  "Fitting Radio into the 

School Program." The Nation’s Schools Vol. 

15 February: 56-60. 

Cremin, Lawrence. 1961. The Transformation of 

the School: Progressivism in American 

Education, 1876-1957. New York: Alfred A 

Knopf. 

Early Office Museum. “Antique Office 

Typewriters.”  

http://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters_office

_models.htm (accessed March 23, 2007). 

Editorial. 1865." A Sensation Wanted." American 

Artisan Vol. II, December 27: 121. 

Editorial. 1868. American Journal of Education. 

Vol.17 April. 558. 

Marx, Gary. 2006 “An Overview of Sixteen 

Trends: Their Profound Impact on Our Future, 

Implications for Students, Education, 

Communities, and the Whole of Society.” 

Alexandra, VA. Educational Research 

Service: 172-175. 

Molnar, Andrew. 1997. " Computers in 

Education: A Brief History." T.H.E. Journal 

24 Issue 11:  June: 63. 

Murphy, Judith and Ronald Gross. 1996. 

Learning by Television. New York: TFAE. 

PBS. 2007. School The Story of American 

Education.  23 March 2007 

http://www.pbs.org/kcet publicschool/ 

roots_in_history/index.html 



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Saettler, Paul. 1990. The Evolution of American 

Educational Technology. Englewood, CO. 

Libraries Unlimited. 

Sutherland, R.,  V. Armstrong, S. Barnes, R. 

Brawn, M. Gall, S. Matthewman, F. Olivero, 

A. Taylor, P. Triggs, J. Wishart, and P. John. 

2004. "Transforming Teaching and Learning: 

Embedding ICT into Everyday Classroom 

Practices."  Journal of Computer Assisted 

Learning, 20 Issue 6: 413-425. 

Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. 2006. 

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration 

Changes Everything. New York: Penguin 

Press. 

Waks, Leonard. 2007. "Rereading Democracy 

and Education Today: John Dewey on 

Globalization, Multiculturalism, and 

Democratic Education." Education and 

Culture. 23 Issue 1:34.  

Webster, Daniel. 1856. American Journal of 

Education, Vol. I: 590. 

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 2007.  12 

March 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/ 

wiki/Main_Page 25  

Winston, Brian. 1998. Media Technology and 

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Vartan, Gregorian. 2005.  "Grounding 

Technology in Both Science and 

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