Must-Have Tech: Then & Now
From typewriters to laptops, rotary phones to smartphones, OHIO鈥檚 students are always in step with cutting-edge tech. No matter the device at their fingertips, Bobcats over the decades still use tech for the same reasons.
Jamie Clarkson, BSJ '20 | February 20, 2020
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Tech is used as a tool by students to be successful in and out of the classroom. When it came to homework, Wendy Mandel, AB 鈥88, was able to tick away at her Brother electric typewriter from the comfort of her room in Jefferson Hall, saving her many late-night trips to the use-by-appointment-only computer labs at Alden Library. Today, a student鈥檚 laptop is an essential tool for completing and submitting assignments entirely online, from anywhere.
Tech has always allowed students to ensure the highest quality in their work. Mandel purchased fancy stationary from the College Book Store to give her term papers a special touch. Now, students use online resources like Google Docs to have classmates view and edit their work to double- and triple-check assignments that encompass their semester鈥檚 work.
Before the cell phone, students connected with the folks back home by purchasing a calling card. In the late 鈥90s, Teresa Barney, BSSE 鈥99, used her card鈥攁nd had the multi-digit number memorized鈥攖o make long-distance calls to her family.
Calls to her grandmother, who lived in Chillicothe, 60 miles from Athens, was considered long-distance. Today鈥檚 students call, text, and video chat with friends and family anywhere on the globe with a simple tap on their smartphones.
From the very same smartphone, today鈥檚 Bobcats can amplify their favorite music for their friends through wireless stereos. Jon Denti, BS 鈥70, needed his 1966 Garrard turntable and stereo to achieve the same effect. With this setup, Denti and his friends created a makeshift radio station in his Parks Hall dorm, pointing his stereo out his window to play music and tell jokes to passing students. 鈥淢ost people loved us, but a few said the only problem was they couldn鈥檛 turn us off. But after about three weeks, the dean did!鈥
Feature photographs: (TOP LEFT and BOTTOM RIGHT) courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections. Photo (TOP RIGHT and BOTTOM LEFT) by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC 鈥02