Ink and iPads

Earlier today, as we discussed the new web 2.0 technologies,  I recalled an image from my early childhood.  When I was perhaps 5 or 6 years old, we sat in school behind some very old desks.  They were made of timber and were battle worn with many lines and pits and chips.  In the corner of the desk was a little hole or depression.  I learnt that this was for keeping one's ink.

I didn't think much about this when I was young, but I imagine I am one of the last cohorts to have seen these desks which are now gone.  It is hard to believe that some time before I entered school, people used ink and fountain pens (and even uills along time before that).  It must have seemed an enormous upheaval when the ball-point pen came along.  Elsewhere on the web I have found this description:

The first great success for the ballpoint pen came on an October morning in 1945 when a crowd of over 5,000 people jammed the entrance of New York’s Gimbels Department Store. The day before, Gimbels had taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times promoting the first sale of ballpoints in the United States. The ad described the new pen as a "fantastic... miraculous fountain pen ... guaranteed to write for two years without refilling!" On that first day of sales, Gimbels sold out its entire stock of 10,000 pens-at $12.50 each!

(Source: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm)

It is likely that when ball-point pens took over, some people would have complained loudly, questioned the lack of authentic feel, questioned whether it might damage the developing hands of young people and so on.  There might have been something like the modern concern that Web 2.0 tools generate in teachers unfamiliar with them.


Ultimately, the tools guarantee neither success nor failure in education.  If used well, they can extend our capabilities and deliver rich learning experiences, but ultimately, the media itself is not enough.  Sound design of course activities and high quality teaching skills are always important.  Deficits in these things can't be made up easily, even with fancy new tools.