Wednesday, October 1, 2008
A Swank Time: the Space Race
This entry is to ask one question: What was the first memory you have of media teaching something that couldn't have been learned otherwise? I have memories from grade school in the early 1960's of the television coverage of the first Americans being launched into space. Those tiny, one-man capsules, perched on top of spindly Atlas rockets, seemed impossibly frail back then. Seeing the event live on black-and-white television screen made us feel we were living the Buck Rogers life - with a little of the Twilight Zone thrown in. TV coverage droned on and on for hours. We watched from home; schools rarely had television sets. We were the first generation to see watch history happen from our livings rooms ( almost no one had more than one TV). The future had arrived and I think we knew it.
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5 comments:
Hi Robert! My name is Kelli and I'm in Dr. Baylen's Instructional Technology course and I'll be responding to your blog and postings for the month of October. The first time I can think of where media taught me something that I wouldn't have known with out it is when the Twin Towers were hit. I was just discussing this recentely on the anniversary with my mom and sister about how everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened. I remember that I was in school and we were listening to it on the radio and everyone was confused, but then my teacher wheeled in a television and it became so much more real. Words couldn't describe what was going on when that happened because it was so unfathomable and like the "space race" it was something that had to be seen to be believed.
Sorry, I'm usually not such a downer, it was just the first and only thing that was significant enough and stuck out in my mind!
Kelli, Thanks for the post. 2001 happened soon after I began working as a media specialist and we all watched it happen almost as if we were there. I think technology bound the country together at that instant. My sad memory was of the JFK assasination when I was in grade school. TV technology made that personal, too, just as TV did in 2001. Thanks, RobertW
Much like Kelli, I can remember when I was in the 6th grade and we (all the students on our hallway) went into one classroom and watched the replay on television of when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas. It is a moment I will never forget. Back then everyone walked to and from school and so we were all sent home from school early that day.
Hey Robert, I just noticed your posting and saw your response to Kelli. I too was in grammar school when JFK was shot. We must be about the same age!!
Bonnie, That's true. That means we're wise. I try to point that out to my children, who don't quite believe it yet. They live in this technology world and that doesn't help matters. To quote Mark Twain, I'm sure they'll be amazed how much I've learned by the time they're five years older. Thanks, Robert
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