1965: LEARNING MACHINES are CHANGING EDUCATION | News | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

[@videogamebookreviews]

"Would you like to do all your lessons all the time on the machines?" 3:50 "No, because I wouldn't be able to hear myself think."

[@BBC600]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Clack, clack, clack.

[@peterharvey1762]

Those machines were dear 😮 £22k in 1965 is = to £300k nearly today 😮

[@davidpanton3192]

I think you meant £12k in 1965

[@wisteela]

Yes, that would be why they didn't take off.

[@djmull63]

I recall using a similar machine at primary school in the early 70,s

[@newmankidman5763]

In 2009, laptops were introduced to my school, and parents had to pay for them, but students were not allowed to take them home. We would be messaging other students sitting next to us or behind us :)

[@effess8698]

The calculating machines on the desks that look like a cross between a typewriter and an old style telephone are (or appear to be) Monroe mechanical calculators. Monroe is a company that was founded in the 1920s and the brand still exists. They produced a range of similar machines. The actual screen device is (appears to be) an Empirical AutoTutor Mark 2. An interesting device that could run different lessons stored on reels called TutorFilms. Yeah I googled that. There are loads of retro/vintage computing websites with more details of both machines.

[@wisteela]

Thanks for the info.

[@DeannaAllison]

Pretty impressive for the time.

[@TopOfThePopsFan]

I spent years learning pounds shillings and pence. Then we went decimal just before I left.😂

[@syedalamgir5838]

Wonderful work

[@mid-walesrover681]

Reminds me of my 1960s tech grammar school's language laboratory where we sat in little booths with a tape recorder and headphones trying to learn french. Did they disappear with the advent of the PC?

[@pit_stop77]

Teacher shortage in 1965? Some things never change 😂

[@orangejjay]

Well, except the teacher shortage has changed and gotten significantly worse and depending on where you are teachers are harassed and accused of "brainwashing our children" but yeah, some things never change like you said. 😂

[@davidpanton3192]

3:40 Looks like she wants to say 'When you press the wrong button the floor opens up beneath you'.

[@MrJakeTucker]

I was hoping to hear what the name of the system was. Unless I missed it.

[@bonnetdedouche437]

That's not a classroom. That's a pachinko hall.

[@wisteela]

That was rather ahead of it's time. Cost would have been why they didn't take off.

[@fburton8]

And the cleverest children got to meet the Krotons in the back room.

[@petergivenbless900]

No wonder that poor teacher looks like a zombie; having to listen to the cacophony of incessant click-clacking all day! Who needs textbooks when an overcomplicated slide projector can be given to each student?

[@paulrayner9567]

Pressing buttons,,now they are pressing tiktok

[@FordPrefect-Earth]

The maths teacher was straight from horror movie central casting.

[@lemdixon01]

This was before the invasion

[@Keithbarber]

*WHAT* "invasion" *_EXACTLY?_* may I ask???

[@lemdixon01]

@@Keithbarber the conquest

[@Keithbarber]

@@lemdixon01 That was 1066 1000 years before this happened

[@PeteLogan101]

​@@Keithbarbermaybe he means the third world invasion of the UK & Europe.

[@lemdixon01]

@@Keithbarber oh not that one

[@whiteonggoy7009]

She sounds like maggie thatcher😊

[@heraldeventsandfilms5970]

Drivel. Ignorant see you enn tee.

[@532bluepeter1]

What utter junk. A complete waste of money. I don't suppose that the machines survived long. Attrition due to vandalism would have rendered them unworkable in a short time.

[@navalenigma]

Yes, a bored child is a very effective destroyer of equipment. These wouldn't have lasted long and take up so much room. Looks like they perhaps never got beyond this trial stage.

[@BusyBusyPanda]

This is why America has been to the moon while Britain has sat there thinking "What a rubbish waste of tea & biscuit quid"

[@navalenigma]

@@BusyBusyPanda absolutely

[@532bluepeter1]

@@BusyBusyPandaSo these were used in the U.S. Were they?

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

@@BusyBusyPandaAmerica wouldn’t have done so without everything we invented. Explain how you would have done so without electricity and light bulbs?

[@BusyBusyPanda]

Why do the British call teenagers children? Is this a cultural thing? Do they infantilize them as insults? I just don't understand it.

[@532bluepeter1]

Because if one is under the age of consent one is a child. Childhood goes through phases from baby through toddlers and infants but until adulthood one is a child.

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

Because teenagers are children up to (legally) 18 years old. Most people class children as 0-16 years of age.

[@handsoffmycactus2958]

13 year olds ARE children. Are you trying to use this to make you feel better about something? Are you saying to yourself you’re attracted to teenagers? Very dark and sinister. You need to be watched.

[@MichaelBosley]

They're school children, in a school, who are not adults. So they are children.

[@anonUK]

​@@handsoffmycactus2958 I didn't get that from his question. Are you perhaps hiding a dark secret yourself?