The forgotten African American innovators of educational technology: stories of education, technology, and civil rights

Figures & data

Figure 1. Images from the 1983 Edutek Corporation catalog. The top image shows the front cover of the catalog, while the bottom image shows a snippet from inside the catalog that describes the “Fun Drill” philosophy that underpins the collection of educational games described in their catalog. Images courtesy of Dr. Weusijana.

The top image shows the front cover of the 1983 Edutek Corporation catalog, which includes images of several children interacting with computers. At the center of this page is the text ‘FUN DRILL on the Apple II from Edutek Corporation’ followed by contact information for the corporation. The bottom image shows a snippet from inside the catalog that describes the “Fun Drill” philosophy, indicating that it involves adding game elements to educational drill exercises, making them more enjoyable while still placing ‘the emphasis on the learning process as opposed to placing it on entertainment’.

Figure 2. Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear in 2014 (left) and his son Dr. Baba Kofi Weusijana in 2017 (right). Photos courtesy of Dr. Weusijana.

A photograph of Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear and a separate photograph of his son, Dr. Baba Kofi Weusijana.

Figure 3. Dr. Roulette William Smith in 2021. Photo courtesy of Dr. Smith.

A photograph of Dr. Roulette William Smith.

Figure 4. Images depicting the Flagway game, reproduced from the patent (Moses, Moses, and Moses 1998). The FLAGWAY™ lattice is depicted in (a) and its use in the classroom is depicted in (b) where it “is placed on the floor of the classroom … and duplicates of which are distributed to students as worksheets” (Moses, Moses, and Moses 1998).

Hand-drawn images from the Flagway patent. The image on the left (a) depicts the Flagway lattice, which has three branches, each of which has three branches, each of which has three branches, for a total of 27 branches. The image on the right (b) shows a drawing of a classroom where students are either working in their seats around one of two tables, standing on top of the lattice on the ground, or standing next to one of two wall posters labeled ‘Inputs’ and ‘Outputs.’ The teacher is standing by one of the tables.

Figure 5. Dr. Alan Shaw (left), Bob Moses (center), and Michelle Shaw (right) in 2016. Photo courtesy of Dr. Shaw.

A photograph of Dr. Alan Shaw, Bob Moses, and Michelle Shaw embracing each other and smiling.

Figure 6. Images of the MUSIC interface. Reproduced with permission from http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~acs/interface.html.

Screenshots of the graphic user interface of the MUSIC program running on Macintosh. The upper left image shows a drawing of a street intersection with drawings of four buildings (e.g., ‘Library’ and ‘Four Corners’), one in each corner of the intersection. The upper right image shows a pop-up window overlaid over the street intersection with drawings of faces above the names of the different individuals in MUSIC that a user can send a message to. The bottom image is labeled ‘Map Room in the Four Corners Building’ and depicts a map showing the streets in a small Boston neighborhood.

Moses, R. P., M. V. Moses, and T. W. Moses. 1998. Methods of Playing Games Which Enhance Mathematical Understanding (U.S. Patent No. 5,704,790). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/5704790.

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