Kevin
Musiorski
LIS 391, SPRING
February 7th, 2002
CHALK
During the mid 19th century, classes were
given large boards placed in the front of the class for the teacher to display her
script. It was a large step in education, giving the students a larger view of
the material, and overall, an opportunity to bring classes together at the
front of the room. After searching and searching on the internet for the
inventor of the chalkboard, I could only find some information from J.L. Hammett Co..
They deem themselves responsible for the finalization of the chalkboard a.k.a.
the slate board. See, the chalkboard was originally invented as the slate
board. It was a small black board that was used in place of the very expensive
paper at the time. Instead of wasting this "cloth" like paper, each
student had an opportunity to practice on a slate board. These boards were not
full proof just yet though, that is where J.L. Hammett stepped in, and created
a slating paint, which would lengthen the short life of the slate boards and
save some of the schools' budgets. When this slating paint was applied to a
wall, it was easily transformed into a chalkboard. The only problem at that
time was how to erase it. Created by mistake, the eraser was born when Hammett
used left over pieces of their carpet renovation to erase during the
presentation he was giving. There, the chalkboard eraser was born. This began
the grueling after-school detention of slapping the erasers together to clean
the old chalk.
"Classroom Chalkboard Becomes Electronic Touchpad Multi-task
System"
Summer, 2005
For the past three years, Kevin Musiorski
has been working towards a state of the art chalkboard that takes the place of
chalk and erasers, the deathly screeching nails, the broken chalk, the tiresome
erasing, allergenic dust, chalky clothing, and most of all neurotic notetaking.
With this new Microsoft Smartboard, a teacher can easily switch sections of the
board from either a Paint Board, to a Browser Board, to audiovisual programs.
With the use of your finger, you can write in a white text on a black
background...unlike some "greyboards" which provide a tough display
of white chalk on a grey background. The fonts and backgrounds can be
manipulated and the options of "Paint" can enhance your illustrations
and figures for 100% comprehension. Currently under production is an optional
fingertip sensor which increases touch quality, and can be used as an infrared
light pen. The smartboard when in free mode can be erased by using the flat
palm of any hand. A feature that most traditional students will enjoy, is the
document saving feature which allows all material to be saved to a *.smbd file.
This file is then emailed to students or placed on a class website. According
to President Dubyah Bush and the education reform, all classroom chalkboards
will be replaced with the Smartboard by January 2006, and the remaining
abundance of leftover chalkboards will be sent to Afghanistan and other
burdened countries.