Year 7 Technology Generational Interviews

We began the Year 7 Technology course this year with a new activity asking our students to interview a family or friend of another generation about their experiences with technology during high school.

Here is a snippet of the wonderful narratives and articles the students produced:

Instead of information being displayed on IWBs, John grew up with the chalkboard and to research information he used textbooks and the Microfiche. Now, for those of us born in the 21^st century, this piece of technology may seem foreign. When I asked John the positive and negatives impacts technology has on his life, he told me that the pros outweighed the cons. He felt technology had improved people’s overall safety drastically. John used to fly planes from when he was about 16, and from an aviation point of view he felt much safer. Unfortunately, with positives comes negatives, John told me he doesn’t like seeing the reliance some people have on their mobile phones. He feels some of them aren’t aware of their surroundings.

Adison Lewis

Rebecca acquired her first mobile phone when she was 26 years old. She dropped it in a sink filled with water the day after. She learnt from that experience how fragile and expensive technology is. Since then, Rebecca said technology has evolved rapidly. She struggles to keep up with the new developments however her children help keep up to date.

Jemima Collins

From a technology as simple as the abacus to AI technology that is incorporated in our everyday lives, technology has advanced and improved immensely throughout history. To think that only a few decades ago technologies like texting, Siri and the internet that we use today, were only ideas. This just conveys to us just how much we as a community have evolved.

Lucia Buchanan

There was a land line phone at mum’s house. Straight after school Helen would go on the phone and call her friends, dragging the phone line all the way to her room so she could shut the door. Her mum was not happy about this, but local calls were not timed so her mother let her talk well into the evening.

Gemma Shennan

Below are some other notable technologies and experiences mentioned:

“Bec also used a fax machine to text her friend, at that point in time Bec said it seemed magical”.
“We would record all research on a disc which was called a ‘Floppy Disc’”.
“They didn’t have IWBs back then, they had a projector that projected the teachers writing on a clear sheet over a light box”.
“If it was a big presentation for a test of sorts, she would get to use the slides or film in school. She would spin these slides around on a carrousel to show her work”.
“Fiona did not have any computers whilst she was at school. However, you could choose to study typing and basic computer skills as an elective in Year 12”.

TAS Department