While today's students may have PowerPoint, Google Maps, and in some really rich school districts, personal laptops that won't definitely distract them during their lessons, kids from the '70s, '80s, and '90s had a whole different experience with classroom tech. Enter overhead projectors, film strips, and of course, Apple's brightly-colored Mac computers.
From wooden pencil sharpeners to those blue calculators, here are 12 nostalgic pics of overhead projectors and forgotten classroom tech.
1
Overhead Tiles
We’re not teachers, but we still can’t think of a better way to learn geometry than with these clear, clicky tiles.
2
The Sound of Not-So-Silence
We can just hear the squeaks of this black overhead marker.
3
Side into Knowledge
From geography to grammar, slides like these were a classroom staple for any ‘90s kid.
4
The TV Cart
If this bad boy rolled into your classroom, you knew you were mere moments away from singing the ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ theme song.
5
The OG TV
But as any ‘80s kid can tell you, these filmstrips walked so Mr. Nye could run … and teach us about science.
6
Wooden Pencil Sharpeners
Our memories of this wooden device’s loud roar are as sharp as all of our classroom pencils.
7
Colorful Mac Computers
The bolder the Macs, the brighter the class.
8
DIY Slides
Elementary schoolers weren’t the only ones getting in on all the fun — just ask the ‘70s high schoolers, college students, and young professionals who had to hand-draw their presentation slides.
9
These Blue Calculators
Who needs a TI-84 when you could pluck one of these bad boys from their plastic holder?
10
Pull-Down Maps
These guys swooshed open before Google was even a twinkle in Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s eyes.
11
Judy Clocks
You knew it was time to learn when these came on the scene.
12
This Old School Projector
“I can hear the “fwap [fwap fwap]” at the end, after the teacher rewinds the film reel back to the beginning. (The sound was usually accompanied by the sleepy ‘click-buzz’ of the classroom lights coming back on…).”
