Teacher Information

Internet Field Trips are guided tours to the best of classroom appropriate Web sites. Each field trip provides quick
suggestions for using targeted Web sites to teach a specific topic. This field trip will take you through the history of
writing machines. 

Objectives:

The student will view and read about photographs of various writing machines/keyboards from 1829 - present day.
The student will develop an understanding of the progress that has been made from the earliest writing machine to the present computer keyboard. 
To gather and classify information from observation of photographs; to have students differentiate between fact and inference.

Mid- Continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL) educational standards
Understands the relationships among science, technology, society, and the individual
    Level II (Grade 3-5)
    3.  Knows that new inventions often lead to other new inventions and ways of doing things 
    4.  Knows that new inventions reflect people's needs and wants, and when these change, technology changes to reflect the new needs and wants 
    Level III (Grade 6-8)
    3.  Knows ways in which technology has influenced the course of history (e.g., revolutions in agriculture, manufacturing, sanitation, medicine, warfare, transportation, information processing, communication) 
    5.  Knows ways in which technology and society influence one another (e.g., new products and processes for society are developed through technology; technological changes are often accompanied by social, political, and economic changes; technology is influenced by social needs, attitudes, values, and limitations, and cultural backgrounds and beliefs) 

Activities:

The student will answer questions pertaining to the virtual field trip web site.
The student will complete a treasure hunt using the virtual field trip web site as a follow up acitivity.
The student will choose one writing machine, copy and paste the image into a word processing document and complete some questions pertaining to their choice of writing machine.

Suggested  Notes:

As a pre-activity to the virtual field trip, view the following site http://www.precision-dynamics.com.au/typewriters/history.html
Use this site as an introduction to briefly show the students a few of the machines in each generation.

Preview the field trip web site.  http://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters.htm

Preview the student page and familiarize yourself with the student activities.

Related sites for background information:

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/
http://educate.si.edu/scitech/carbons/ - This paticular site is very valuable.