How to Use the Dial Phone
The Internet Archives, and its large inventory of classic films is an invaluable resource. Ethan used a couple of the cold war era bomb-prep films to spice up his recent school project, and they were a big hit.
The power went out today for a couple of hours, and all of the cordless telephones were also out of service. We have one old dial phone that is still connected, and my older son wanted to place a call. But the problem was he didn’t know how to use it! He got the hang of it pretty quickly, and then Ethan decided he had to use it too.
Bitsie Clark, the former director of the New Haven Arts Council, related a story to me once about her childhood in Brooklyn. She was home alone one day with her grandmother and there was some emergency that required them to make a telephone call. But they had a new dial phone, and neither one could figure out how to use it. Bitsie remembered just staring at it, with no idea how to even get started. She was relating this story in the context of some computer tutoring I was giving her, and being reminded of this incident while staring at her newly purchased computer. Its funny to think of a dial telephone as a technology that required training. But like any good "technology" they gradually fade into the background as they move from novelty status. Xbox, video games, email, IM — For our kids those aren’t technologies. They are just ways to play games or interact with friends. Its refreshing to see that the dial telephone still is technology to them!
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