Printing Press

1) When was your technology tool invented? The printing press was invented in 1440 in Germany by a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg. This would be the beginning of a printing revolution. Other methods of printing like a woodblock printing style could be seen in East Asia since the 8th century during the Tang dynasty. In Europe, woodblock printing based on existing screw presses was seen by the 14th century.

The main difference between Gutenberg's new model and previous models was the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, this generated a 'movable type' press. It was now possible for accurate and efficient copies of metal matrices to be created in large quantities.

2) When was it first used in education (and how)?

There is no exact date for when it started to be officially used in terms of education. However, due to its obvious function, being able to make many more copies at a faster rate than even the best scribes, and the significant increase of accurate copies with no errors as seen when copies were created by hand, the rise of the printing press was quick. The swift growth of literacy due to the large amounts of copies changed the social, economic and cultural structure of the times as reading was no longer only available to the elite. Many manual like books would be created for trade-related jobs teaching techniques increasing the rise of individual traders

3) How did the technology/media tool (re)reshape educational practice and teaching/learning – or transform literacy learning and/or social-institutional-classroom organization? (Changing roles in classrooms, changing positions of authority, power relations, modes of exclusion or inclusion, ideology and modes of social action or creativity?

4) If possible, try to connect your analysis to the literacy paradigms (de Castell & Luke, or Multiliteracies).