Wednesday, 20 January 2010
This is part 7 in my series on the history and impact of distance education. Yesterday in Part 6, we examined the impact computers have made on pedagogy. Another innovation as ubiquitous and influential as the computer was invented by a Briton prior to the Second World War. This invention also has a great deal of importance to the practice of distance education, as we understand it today.
We have a Scot to thank for one of the most taken for granted technologies in the modern world. Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1875, along with his assistant Thomas A. Watson, Bell constructed instruments that transmitted speech. In 1876 Bell invented the forerunner of the modern telephone, a device which today forms the basis of many communications technologies from the cellular phone to the Internet.
Bell received his official patent to the telephone on March 7, 1876. Three days later he and Watson, located in different rooms, tested the new type of transmission device described in his patent. As they were setting up the experiment, Watson suddenly heard Bell's voice through the earpiece saying, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." Bell had had an accident with a battery, and had spilled acid over his clothes. He had inadvertently use the telephone to speak to Watson, but when he realised what he had achieved, the accident was soon forgotten!
The first telephone company, the Bell Telephone Company, was established in 1877 to exploit the potential of Bell's new invention. During his productive career, Alexander Graham Bell invented several other devices, although none were as useful as the telephone. He died on August 2, 1922, in Nova Scotia, Canada. Technology supported distance education owes a lot to this Scot inventor, who changed the concept of what it meant to communicate with others over great distances. Today we take for granted the fact that we can punch a number into a keypad, and somewhere in the world, a corresponding telephone will ring, connecting us to a person who we can hear in 'real time'. The social presence of the telephone (the perception that you are connected to the other person) is very high, and many prefer it to so-called richer media such as videoconferencing. We often forget that telecommunication methods are the backbone upon which the Internet and other global communication methods have been based. Tomorrow we will take a look at another technology. Can you guess what it is yet?
Tomorrow: Part 8: Man of vision
Image source Posted by Steve Wheeler at 06:12 
The second turning point was in the 19th century, when telephones were invented. It has enabled people to talk to each other despite the fact that they might be living far apart from each other.
The telephone is an invention that changed the world. Throughout the years, the appearance of telephones has evolved with technology. It is, now, not an unusual sight to see kids carrying hand phones.
The last turning point was that internet made the biggest impact on the English language. Since the way we speak is usually different from the way we type, many new words were invented. Or so to speak, the internet lingo, or internet slang. It consists of acronyms of certain phrases, and saves the user’s effort for typing the whole phrase out. Words like “lol” is actually an abbreviation of “laugh out loud” and “brb” means “be right back”. These are just a few examples of the internet lingo.
The internet slang expanded so much that there is even an Internet Slang Dictionary which contains many meanings of the internet slang.
The telephone is a device used to transmit and receive sounds.
The telephone was invented in the year of March 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell had been working on an idea that could transmit sound to a different place since the age of 18. Bell had spilt an acid on him and was asking if his assistant, Thomas Watson, could come and help him clean it off. The first clear message through the telephone was: “Mr. Watson, come here I want you.” After that, Bell had his invention patented. Many inventors tried to claim the title of inventor of the telephone. In fact, there were lawsuits about who actually invented it. His claim for inventing it was defended over six hundred times until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor.
The picture of one of the first phones completely created:
Today, there are many types of telephones. They come in unbelievable small sizes. The most popular telephones of today are the cellular phones. They can do remarkable things. You can pick up the radio or even check your email on phones today. These mobile phones are made by various companies and also have different functions.
one of the popular companies producing mobile phones is NOKIA.
NOKIA started with very big and unsuffisticated phones which were merely used for calling and receiving.
But later with time they came up with new phones, with various shapes, and many suffisticated functions. These functions may be; GPS, wireless internet, cameras, mp3 player, television viewing, infrared ports, bluetooth devices and many more functions.
These phones with all these phones are not more simply called phones but smartphones. virtually it is seen that with time, phones are not more simply used for talking and listening but other various suffisticated functions partaining to advanced computers.
An example of a nokia smartphone;
With all this evolution in technology i am tempted to say that mobile phones will not be ”mobile phones” but mini computers.
http://google.com
http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312675/communications/telephony/types.html
Friday, October 3, 2008
Telephone Operators
This is a neat photograph of an old telephone exchange office from about 1915. The operators actually made the connections on the telephone by way of the pictured switchboards. It is amazing to consider that in the past every telephone call had to be routed manually by operators like the ones pictured above.
When I was growing up in the 1960's we had a "party line". This meant that a number of people along a road in a rural area shared the same line. The result was that only one family could use the phone at a time. If you picked the phone up, and another family was already using it, you could hear them speaking on the line. You would then hang up, and try again later to see if they were done. Sometimes when you were on the phone you would hear a click, indicating someone else on the line had picked up the phone. Usually when you heard this you would wrap the call up, freeing the line up for someone else. It is amazing how far things have come just in my lifetime.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
I have a busy day behind me, another ahead. And I've been wasting time (Oh, I am soooo good at procrastination!) looking at spider photos on BugGuide, instead of setting alarms and packing the cell phone for the morning.
Speaking of phones, here are a pair from days gone by:
And now, to set three alarms to make sure I don't sleep through, and off to bed.
'night, all!
