How have educational tools and methodologies changed in the last ten years? What will they look like ten years from now? Today, up-to-date classroom hold nothing of the previous generation’s: rows of bolted down wooden lift top desks with an ink well, the Palmer Method cursive writing and personal typing classes, the excitement when you had a film and everyone filed into the auditorium for a special program or being called to the blackboard to do an arithmetic problem or conjugate a sentence. Everything has changed – whiteboards instead of blackboards, laptops instead of typewriters and smart wireless classrooms instead of screens and slide projectors. What’s next?

To celebrate the evolution of the classroom, Endicott College’s Archive and Museum is pleased to announce its next exhibit, School Days…They aren’t what they used to be! The exhibit will be on display now through July 20, 2012 in the Halle Library Archive & Museum Gallery here at Endicott. Exhibit hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  An opening reception will be held on Tuesday, February 14 from 4-6 pm.  The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public, so please come in and visit us!

The history of academics is one of changing tools, methodology and ideas. For many centuries, advances were largely related to creating tools that improved the dissemination of knowledge. The change has accelerated.  Dramatic improvements in communication and the development of a global community mark the past century.  And the last ten years have seen the greatest changes of all, with rapid advances in social media, communication and the cognitive sciences. If history is any guide, the next ten years hold even greater promise for the technological enhancement of education. What will the classroom be like in 2020 and 2025? You may be surprised. The exhibit will include: objects, photographs, paper ephemera, interactive activities and technology.

For more information on this exhibit please contact Archives Director Barbara Broudo at 978-232-2257.