A Brief History of Classroom Projectors

Running Head COURSE PROJECT 1
EDUC 8846 Course Project Outline
Michelle MartensDragalin
Student ID: A00113550
Michelle.martens-dragalin@waldenu.edu
The Evolution of the Overhead Projector

The Evolution of the Overhead Projector
This paper will explore the following technology from the supply cabinet, an overhead
projector. This particular form of technology is not obsolete, but document cameras and Epsom
projectors are replacing it. Throughout this paper, these statements will be explored, discussed,
and visually represented in a PowerPoint presentation that isattached in the appendixes, as well
as, interviews and transcripts, which is a part of PowerPoint presentation. The answers are
represented by visual material, the individuals did not want to film for the project.
learnerdictionary.com
To
A Brief History
In the last five years, the schools have been replacing their technology with the newest
type of technology that they can afford. Many schools have received technology grants in order
to purchase new computer, laptops, and overhead projectors. The devices are more efficient to

use and take up less storage room. The overhead projector is a device that has been evolving
throughout the years. The first document invention of the overhead projector technology was in
the 1420. Several people credited for developing this technology are:
(Marples, 9/11/2008)
As the business and corporate world grew during the Industrial Revolution, people
needed a way to promote their items and train their people in an efficient manner. The period
between World War 2 and the advent of personal computers in 1982 is regarded as the
audiovisual instruction period. Immediately after world war two, educational technology practice
revolved around the media formats that had widely become available to teachers by 1946; i.e. 16
mm films, 35 mm slide/filmstrip projector, radio receivers, and record players. These formats
were owned by schools at a rate of one per 100 teachers. Television receivers reached this status
by 1958 and overhead projectors in 1960 (Finn et al., 1962) (Spector, Merrill, Van Merrienboer
& Driscoll, 2008 p. 9). An overhead projector used to be considered a necessary piece of
technology for every classroom. This is called “old technologies (p. 12) “along with textbooks,
blackboard, overhead projectors, television and videocassettes, (p. 12). A teacher would use
these items, and it would be demonstrate an innovative in its use of technology. Now with the
inclusion of document camera and Epson cameras are replacing the use of overhead projector.
The use of this technology promotes what is referred to as teacher center instruction. From 1980s

through 1990s the pendulum was swinging from analog media to digital media as the primary
source of instructional materials in schools, colleges and corporate training centers; however
traditional formats such as textbooks, the overhead projector, and videocassettes have contained
to be used heavily by teachers at all levels right up to present. (Cuban, 2001)
(Cuban, 2001)
More and more schools are teaching student the necessary skills in order to prepare them
for the 21st century. The idea presented by our district technology department (DPS website,
2009), is that students will pay more attention to their teachers if the students use “cool”
technology in the classroom. The technology will also provide teachers with an efficient method
to present curriculum, as well as, interact with the students in the classroom. Finally, the teacher
will be able to diversify their lesson in order to appeal to the multi different learning styles of
their students. The overhead projectors were replaced by the below items LCD projector and
Epson cameras as noted in the picture below:

Google Images
Current Technology
The overhead projector I found in the supply closet was the one I used last year in my
classroom. According to the technology integration specialist at our school, she recycled 50
overhead projectors back to the district’s warehouse this year. (Recycled means that a piece of
technology was returned to the district, and the school is credited with the cost of that item.) Ther
are only two teachers that use the overhead projector at our school the early childhood teacher
and the music teacher. The technology grant that was allocated to the school covered the cost of
the Epson camera and document cameras for the general education teachers. The special
education department wrote a series of grants and we purchased our own devices and material to
be used with students who have individual education plans. Technology in today’s world is
changing on a regular basis, emerging technology is based on what state of the environment of
the technology. The following individuals define emerging technology as follows:
“Dr. Soloway (n.d) described an emerging technology as technology that has yet to cross
the chasm from early adopter to early majority. That phase is the period where the cost of the
technology is high, and users do not yet consider the technology essential to their everyday life.
Using an example of a prototype he developed. Dr. Thornburg (2009) described an emerging
technology as something that has just been developed. By the time, a piece of technology hits
the mainstream it is no long emerging. Rogers (2003) defined emerging technology as an
innovation that is considered new to a person or a group of people. The perceived newness
describes an innovation (Roger, 2003, Soloway, n.d, Thornburg. 2009)”.
As I stated in the above section, the definition of emerging technology depends on the
financial state and environment of the technology.

Tetrads, Interviews, and Mulitimedia Presentation
This section will review the tetrads of the overhead projector, interviews from the
decision makers, technology users and an outline of the multimedia presentation for this course.
The information is summarized from the interviews and presented in paragraph form and
narration. The interviewees did not want to be filmed, so I am providing a transcript of our
conversations. In addition, the link to visual presentation will be posted on my blog: Michelle’s
Notes
Interviews: The Decision Makers
The section provides a summary of the decision makers in our district. This list is different from
my original list because I was told that they approved or disapprove it would be best to discuss it
with individuals on this list. The original list has changed since I discovered that the ITS was
also a decision maker. I reviewed the original list of interview and made some changes. The
information provided in this section is a summary of the information that obtained from the
following: (Interview questions are in the Appendix)
• Robbie Makely (Integration Technology Specialist at our school)
• Ligia Gibson (our principal)
• Sharyn Guhman (Chief Information Officer)
• Tim Summers (web tech)
Denver Public Schools has a department that handles the distribution, training, acquiring
and inventory of all of the technology in the district..

The following screenshots illustrate the mission and responsbilities of the technology
departmens.

https://dots.dpsk12.org
According to Ms. Guham, the district has been awared several million dollars in grant
money which is used to provide training, hardware, software and adminsteration of technology to
the schools in the Denver Public schools.

. In addition, the school received money from several
bonds that have been passed since 2007.
Budgets
The schools are given an amount of money that is determined on their school population.
The students are counted based on the following breakdown; 0 for students in the early
childhood education class, .5 for students in kinder; 1.0 for students in grades 1-5 and finally
students in middle and high school are counted as 1.5. The numbers are tallied up, and a broken
down for each school by the budget department in the technology department and presented to
the board of education and passed onto the schools. Each school determines their own
educational technology needs, based on a needs assessments completed by the integration
specialist. The requests are presented to the assistant superintendent of curriculum and
instruction and technology. It is approved or disapproved based on those requests. In addition,
each school is allocated for an Integrated Technology Specialists (ITS), some schools dig into

Running Head COURSE PROJECT
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their building fund for a para professional to assist their ITS, so the ITS can teach and develop
professional development course for their teachers. In addition, the school determines which
classroom will receive different technology for their school. Also, the Technology department
also receives grants and money from the federal government for different age, race, language and
disability needs. This money is generally put into the schools building fund for the
administration to use the money as they determined. board of education and passed onto the
schools.
In addition, the school determines which classroom will receive different technology for
their school. Also, the Technology department also receives grants and money from the federal
government for different age, race, language and disability needs. This money is generally put
into the schools building fund for the adminsteration to use the money as they determined.

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Interview: Technology Users or Not
The following people use the overhead projector, the Epson camera and as little
technology as possible in our building.
• special educator
• special educators
• ECE teacher
Center based Teacher does not use technology, unless she has to in the classroom. She does not
own
any type of technology (cell phone, iPad, computer and she has no internet at home). One of her
students has a Go Talk that has taken her all year to use because no provided training for her or
the family. The type of computer she prefers are laptops since they are portable. However, her
favorite educational technology are the white board and bulletin board in the classroom. Mild
Moderate Teacher is a resource special educator who used an Epson camera for everything;
lessons, center work and Individual Education Plans meetings. All of the information is posted
on the wall so that everyone can see the information. The technology lets her provide a visual for
everything that she completes in her work. ECE teacher is an ECE teacher who uses the
overhead projector to teacher her students the letters. She posts them on the wall and the children
trace the letter and post pictures that represent the letters. It is really quite interesting. All of the
teachers agreed that the overhead projector is bulky and takes up a lot of room. The Epson
camera will replace the overhead, because of its portability. They did think that it will eventually
become wireless, a fact that some businesses may use, however, at this point schools won’t

12
receive that technology for a few years. All of the teachers agreed that small and compatible is
best. We all such small room.
Tetrad
This section will illustrate the obsolete technology and the technology that is replaced by
new materials. Tetrad One is used to analyze the obsolete technology in the school’s supply
closet:
Tetrad One is used to analyze the obosolete technology in the school’s supply closet:

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Multimedia Presentation
The following will be used to cmplete this project:
• Dell laptop
o sharepoint maker
o Audiocity
o Microsoft Word
• Dell netbook

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o Microsoft Word
• Apple iPad
o Video
o Camera
o APA citation format
Conclusion: the future
This course project was very interesting for me because when I went over the history of
the overhead it reminded me of the time when I was in high school. I was part of the audio visual
team at our school. I used to splice the film and filmstrips for the teachers when they tore the
film or broke it. In addition, I set up the videos for the teachers, laminated their materials and did
a lot of other work with the various technology. The educational technology had changed
between the time when I graduated from high school and went back to full time teaching. The
VCRs and 16 mm were still in existence, but on their way out, by the mid 90s, most of the

15
technology I was familiar with was becoming obsolete. Also, the hardware used to laminate
had .
• The iPad can connect to the Epson camera and document camera with a VGA
cord.

16
• The whiteborad turn into SmartBoard.

17
The classroom teacher goes from this setting:
---except for the people who are sticking with “old technologies”.

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References
Cuban, L (2001). Oversold & undersused: computers in the classroom. Cambridge,
Massachusetts Lond, England: Harvard University Press.
Denver Public Schools website.
Jennifer, J. (2012) Who invented the overhead projector? eHow. Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/about_4679041who-invented-projector.html.
Kriegal, M.S.Ed; O. (2013) Everything a new teacher really needs to know (but didn’t learn in
college). Free Spirit Publishing, Inc.
learnerdictionary.com. Retrieved from Google Images.
Marples, G. (9/11/2008). The History of Projectors-The Battle for Brightness. Retrieved from
http://www.thehistory of.net/history-of-projectors.html.
Morgan, H. (2012) History of the overhead projector. eHow. Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/about_5345030_who-invented-projector.html.

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Oppenheimer, T., (1983). The flickering mind: the false promise of technology in the classroom
and how learning can be saved. New York: Random House.
Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of innovation (5th
ed.) New York. NY: Free Press
Soloway, E. (n.d.) Emerging vs. emerged technologies [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=2_1&url=%2F.
Spector, J.M., Merrill, M.D., Van Merrienboer, J., & Driscoll, M. (editors) (2008). Handbook of
research on educational communications and technology. New York, London: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates Taylor & Fancis Group.
Thornburg. D.D. (2009). When is a technology emergent? Lake Barrington, IL. Thornburg
Center for Space Exploration.
Zafra, A.; Goss, T. (6/23/2009). Brief histroy of overhead projector. Retrieved from
http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/article/39556.aspx.

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Appendix A
Interview Consent Form
All of the individuals signed a form similar to this form.
I, the undersigned agree to answer questions about the technology, use of technology
andapplication and distribuion of technology that is used in the classroom. I do not want my
likeness used as part of this project since it will appear on the internet blog.
Signed.

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Appendix B
Interview Questions
Teacher questions:
1. What type of technology do you use in the classroom?
2. Do you use the overhead projector in the classroom? If so, how do you use it?
3. Do you use an expson camera? Document camera?
4. Which type of technology do you use most often and why?
5. General feeling of technology?
Decision Makers Questions
1. How is technology used in the classrom?
2. How are educational technology needs determined in the classroom?
3. How is thebudget determined for educational technology?
These were the outlined questions I used to get my information, for the most part I used it as
jumping off form with the questions.

A Brief History of Classroom Projectors

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