Hady hadn't given an answer to the first question but she had pulled out a sheet of parchment and her quill to write down the answer and everything else Professor Moxley had said. It was always good to keep detailed notes just in case things ever came up and something was needed.

When the next question was asked she raised her hand. "It made it easier to give family and friends good new? Like a marriage or birth of a baby...maybe even invite them for the wedding or to see the new child." This was just a thought but things like marriage and new family members were always a celebrated thing weren't they? So surely people would've taken advantage of this invention when possible for these things. Plus who didn't like getting good news?

Hughbert KNEW the answer.

He didn't even raise his hand he was so confident of it. Instead, he just spoke out loudly and hoped he would be heard. As he was a genius and his answer was far superior because it enabled one of the necessities of living (if they all actually existed). Food.

"It enabled an eventuality of ordering food to be delivered right to your house." MIC DROP.

Henric was jotting down whatever Professor Moxley had told them about the muggle telephone inventor. It was a pity another muggle woman inventor did not manage to obtain a patent for her communication device too. It was not surprising, woman scientific contributions for the society weren't highly regarded like their male counterparts back then.

One of them made a valid point, what really prompt the inventor to create such a brilliant device whereas it would be hard to use for the deaf. Henric continued to listen to his classmates answer before adding one of his own,"Professor, telephone was made to hear and communicate over long distances instantly without worrying when you owl going to arrive, it is a fast and easy way for muggles to reach for each other,however they can also make use of it to track your whereabouts as soon as you made a call," he grinned.Heheh.. watching muggle movies and muggle police shows thought him that.

Oh, so it wasn't J. R. R. Tolkien? Bugga. At least she had guessed. It was Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. That was interesting. Perhaps this class was about muggle communication, or possibly inventions. Interesting either way.

But what other ways was society changed by the invention of the telephone? Zhenya didn't know, her live certainly hadn't changed by the invention of the telephone. She had never even used one of the things. But she raised her hand anyway, "Perhaps if someone had a broken wrist and couldn't write letters anymore, the telephone would have changed society because they could still communicate to people." That seemed like a pretty good suggestion. It would be very inconvenient if someone had broken an arm or wrist when the only method of communication was writing a letter or telegram.

Toby was thinking THINGS. Mostly things related to the lesson, but his brain was doing that thing where it was going too fast for him to keep up, and jumping all over the place no matter how hard he tried to keep it on track. Phones. Right. Phones. Muggle society. Change. Muggles. Yes.

And then all at once, Toby realised his hand was in the air and that he'd already started talking, uh... rambling. Fast rambling. Welp. May as well go with it.

"It's interesting, Professor; if you sorta look at our community and the muggle community, mainly at Hogwarts or where there's loads of magic. Like... we don't have phones here, 'cause electricity won't work. We can have other communication thingies, like with magic, which you could argue are like more advanced, right? Floo and mirrors and-" Woooahhhhh. He almost said 'patronuses' there, but managed to catch himself... not that it wasn't a method of communication, but... well... ahem... never mind... "... But take all the magic stuff away and when you look at how things work here it's pretty archaic from a muggle perspective, which makes sense 'cause magic has always tended to override electricity anyway. But yeah maybe that's how muggles used to communicate? In the olden days, like. Messengers and sending birds, like we still do, except we moved on to using magical gadgets and doohickeys and spells, and they moved on to phones and texting and internet. Did you know the internet used to use the phone line? Without phones, I bet internet would never have happened. And internet is super great. Real amazing." Just FYI to anyone listening, y'know. Dead handy. "Muggles have internet but we can't have it in places where there's lots of magic because of the electricity thing. Their society thing got way further than ours in that way, didn't it?"

Um. So. Toby had just... totally taken that question and run with it. He didn't even seem to notice how carried away he'd got. He just sat there and nodded earnestly, spinning his quill between his fingers at something close to warp speed.

Thank you Sebby! 11 year olds were a lot more trustworthy than people thought. Or maybe that was just Sebastian. He was a weirdo. Either way, Norah beamed at Professor Moxley and wrote all the stuff she said down on her parchment. Telephones. Radical. She used those to talk to gran n' gramps sometimes when she was at home. but not a whole lot 'cause apparently she talked too loudly. That wasn't very fair 'cause gramps couldn't even hear that well when she yelled to y'know she wasn't doing anything wrong.

The fourth year shot a hand up in the air at the next question 'cause she knew this one from EXPERIENCE. This was one of the only classes where the experience thing ever happened, so that was fun. "Well you can talk to people far away so I bet people were even happier moving other places because you didn't have to wait a million years for a telegram or something. I don't think you get as homesick if you can talk to people you love on the phone automatically whenever you want." Her eyebrows crept together as she thought about that some more. "But then why do we use owls here instead of telephones? Wouldn't it be faster?" She couldn't get Marcel to send her candy over a phone but it made sense in all the other ways, if you thought about it. Or maybe it didn't make sense in all the other ways. Okay. Now she was getting confused. What was happening again?

Kace heard the name Alexander Graham Bell and he did sound familiar. He took notes that he invented the telephone. Well that was basic information since he learned it in elementary school. As he was done taking notes, he heard Moxley's question and he thought about it and answered, "Well Professor I imagine the only form of communication was writing a letter. I am pretty sure people were getting tired of writing and the slowness of the post. They were inspired by the idea of communicating quickly with the touch of a phone. I know the invention was a big clanker though. I can't imagine using that now.." he shrugged. He thought he answered the question right. I mean he gave his own thoughts which that is all that mattered. Let's see what Moxley had to say.

HMMM, that was kind of a good question. Caleb didn't know a whole lot about communications in the muggle world, but he did know that muggle kids seemed to be ADDICTED to their phone. He raised his hand, tapping his chin as he did so and formulated his answer in his head.

"I think the world would be completely different. Cellular phones have helped track down criminals, kidnap victims, stolen cars...all because of satelletes and stuff. Without phones, we wouldn't have the NEED for all those things up in space, and technology as we know it probably wouldn't be as advanced," he explained. Not that they NEEDED all that stuff. Caleb knew the wizarding way of "less is more" was soooo much better.

So it was Alexander Graham Bell. Janelle began to write notes as the Professor talked about him. She knew a little about the man, but not much. When the next question was asked, Janelle raised her hand and began to speak.

"If a person has to move a lot, they have a way of keeping in touch with the friends they leave behind. They can always pick up the phone and give them a call." Janelle knew about this first hand. She had done more than her share of moving around and it was comforting to know that she could talk to her friends and family whenever she wanted.......or whenever her mom let her call them.

Then she added, "Oh, and deaf people can use the telephone. They have a special kind of phone that deaf people can type their message into and send to their friends. And they can also read the messages that other people send to them." Just a little bit of random information that Janelle knew.

Telephones, hmm? Dot wiggled in her seat and tried to consider the question at hand... how had society been impacted by the invention of the telephone? She'd seen them before, and used one once, even. Or no, she'd put her ear to a payphone and her mother had shrieked about germs and they'd had to go home immediately so Dot could have a bath.

But still!

"It's made the world loads smaller, Professor. I mean, before you had a way to talk to someone quickly on the other side of the country, it would take a while to pass letters back and forth. But now you can do it in a moment. It's like... your gran never has to come to visit, because she can talk to you on the phone. Which is good, because she pinches cheeks and smells like cabbage stew."

There it was again. Mr. Fullmer. Hadn't she seen his gigantic notice on the student bulletin board? Rodriguez. He didn't even bother to correct her this time. If she didn't know his last name was Rodriguez at this point, what was there to do?

Regardless, he's gotten the answer correct, so that was good. The second question was easy. Sometimes when Xavi went camping with his family in the summers, they left all types of technology more advanced than a compass at home. No phone, no computers, no tablets, nothing. It was amazing the difference it made in their family time.

He raised his hand to speak. "The telephone Graham Bell invented was very simple, but now we have smartphones and things. They make people stupider," was that a word? "Like, sometimes muggles don't know how to talk to people because they always talk with texts and facebook and things." Right? Like, phones were good and all, but only as needed, not something you looked at seven thousand times in a day.

Well, at least he was right. A certain genius muggle who invented something important. He was the inventor of telephone, which is a muggle communication tools that has been useful for them. Jackson had ever used the old-style telephone before, and the wireless what they called handphone too. Muggles technology was like a magic for them.

Raising his hand, the Korean boy gave his opinion. "Well you can get the news in real-time. Like for example... this morning one of your friend got an accident and then you can use telephone to tell other friend that she got an accident just right after it happened. If told them by mail, The news is not that new and real time anymore." Well, hopefully it make sense.

Okay, he was gonna sit out this round and just listen, okay? 'Cause he was gonna say something about making the world smaller with international communication, but then little Dot went and said that. So he couldn't just repeat her answer. It'd make him look like an answer-stealer and a cheater. And he wasn't about that life. So sorry Professor Moxley, but sigh. This one is a bit too theoretical for the middle of the week.

He did pay attention other people's answers... Though he sorta got lost with Toby's somewhere along the way, but it sounded smart (like he always did) so Zander probably agreed. Maybe. Actually, what was it that Toby was saying again? Then that Slytherin guy who brought food into it. Man, why'd he have to go and do that? Now Zander was just sitting here thinking about Chinese takeout. Dangerous.

And then that Claw girl went and Zander found himself kind of personally offended by her answer. Phones didn't make muggles stupider??? Okay, maybe he was going to talk. "I think it'd make people smart actually," he nodded. "'Cause you've got to figure out how to work all the new technology. Not everyone can keep up with that stuff." Especially old people. So ha. Ravenclaw just got Ravenclawed by a Gryffindor. Er, okay maybe not. But at least he tried?

Soooooooo .... theory was totes not his thing.

Graham Bell... yep, the name sounded vaguely familiar now, it was one of those boring things he was supposed to learn in muggle school. He might have exceed himself for an extended toilet break that time. Oh well. He still understood the gist of how telephones worked and stuff.

Figuring he could contribute to some extent, Zeke raised his hand. "Like with most technologies, they can always be improved. They can be made to do more things, do them faster or more efficiently, to become stronger, more durable, with better energy sources and smaller or larger depending on what you prefer. So like, with the phone, it got better over the years, and communication in general became more different, like, there are more varieties today than there were a hundred years ago."

Nope, nope.

Ever since Professor Moxley had shown that picture of that old man, Wylie had zone out. How could he not?

He was staring at a man, who was the oldest mad he had ever seen in his whole entire life, he was sure. And not only that, but that very old man had one of THE grossest beards he had ever laid eyes on. What the Merlin?

How was he supposed to pay attention to anything NOW? With thoughts about all the gross and old food that got stuck in that beard. What about all the OTHER things that could get stuck in it? Like BUGS. And TRASH. And PEOPLE! The image of a person, getting sucked right into that thing on that guy's face was vivid and he couldn't help but shiver in his seat.

Gross. Gross. GROSS.

As for the question he barely heard? "It made it easier to tell a person with a gross beard that they have a gross beard without them knowing who it is telling them that their beard is gross!"

SPOILER!!: Tophie, Lux, and the Wizarding World/Muggle World comparisons!

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

Coming back to the current discussion just as Moxley posed her question, Sophie gave a thoughtful hum before raising her hand. "Welllll... in our society, our equivalent of a telephone might be... like... two-way mirrors, or head-only transport with the Floo Network, or patronuses for quick exchanges of messages. With our ways of magic, we can really easily call for help in case of an emergency... and I'm thinkin', before this guy Bell invented the telephone for Muggles, getting help in an emergency situation was probably a lot harder and it wasn't as easy to get help like that, right? With a telephone, they could phone to the other side of town for a doctor instead of... having to send someone there to retrieve 'em or somethin', y'know?" Was that the kind of thing Moxley had been looking for?

She didn't know what they'd even used before a telephone, but she envisioned messengers running by foot to seek help when something went wrong. A dreadful thought, really. Wizards had it so much easier - they could floo and apparate at the drop of a hat and provide assistance in seconds. Those poor, poor Muggles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

Toby was thinking THINGS. Mostly things related to the lesson, but his brain was doing that thing where it was going too fast for him to keep up, and jumping all over the place no matter how hard he tried to keep it on track. Phones. Right. Phones. Muggle society. Change. Muggles. Yes.

And then all at once, Toby realised his hand was in the air and that he'd already started talking, uh... rambling. Fast rambling. Welp. May as well go with it.

"It's interesting, Professor; if you sorta look at our community and the muggle community, mainly at Hogwarts or where there's loads of magic. Like... we don't have phones here, 'cause electricity won't work. We can have other communication thingies, like with magic, which you could argue are like more advanced, right? Floo and mirrors and-" Woooahhhhh. He almost said 'patronuses' there, but managed to catch himself... not that it wasn't a method of communication, but... well... ahem... never mind... "... But take all the magic stuff away and when you look at how things work here it's pretty archaic from a muggle perspective, which makes sense 'cause magic has always tended to override electricity anyway. But yeah maybe that's how muggles used to communicate? In the olden days, like. Messengers and sending birds, like we still do, except we moved on to using magical gadgets and doohickeys and spells, and they moved on to phones and texting and internet. Did you know the internet used to use the phone line? Without phones, I bet internet would never have happened. And internet is super great. Real amazing." Just FYI to anyone listening, y'know. Dead handy. "Muggles have internet but we can't have it in places where there's lots of magic because of the electricity thing. Their society thing got way further than ours in that way, didn't it?"

Um. So. Toby had just... totally taken that question and run with it. He didn't even seem to notice how carried away he'd got. He just sat there and nodded earnestly, spinning his quill between his fingers at something close to warp speed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

Some of her classmates were going cute and funny answers to the question. LOL. Santa. Lux had to try not to laugh at the adorableness of it.

As Professor Moxley went on to explain things a little further, Lux proceeded to take notes. Even though she knew a little about Alexander Graham Bell there was a lot more that she could learn. As the next question was asked, she raised her hand. "It makes it MUCH faster to speak to someone. Instead of sending letters back and forth which could take AGES, you can simply call someone on the phone and talk to them! Sort of like how we have two-way mirrors." She absolutely loved her mirror!

Yes! YES! This was what Moxley was talking about. She was all about the students making connections between the muggle world and the wizarding one, as that was what she was trying to make them see each time she taught, that the issues in both societies are the same, even when we have different ways of dealing with them. ”Excellent thinking Ms. Brown, Mr. Fuller Thompson, and Ms. Carrington! In both muggle and wizarding society, communication is vital, sometimes for our survival. As Ms. Brown mentioned, before telephones, handling emergencies was quite difficult. As many doctors made house calls, if they weren’t in the immediate area, getting word to them and having them arrive in a timely fashion wasn’t always easy. In this way, telephones were extremely important to muggles. They connect people directly to help, no matter how far they are from medical facilities.” Nod. Nod. ”And as Ms. Carrington pointed out, with telephones, one could put connected to whoever they needed to speak with quickly, just as we can when we use two-way mirrors.”

"Mr. Fuller-Thompson brings up another great point about the wizarding world compared to the muggle one. Here, we still rely on owls to send messages, much like carrier pigeons were used as far back as ancient times in the muggle world. While magic allows us faster methods of communication such as mirrors, floo, and patronuses mentioned, if we were to lose magic for some reason, we’d be left to rely on more archaic means of doing things than those in the muggle world.”

The Ravenclaw and the Hufflepuffs received big smiles and a nod of her head. Moxley was impressed by their thinking.

SPOILER!!: Communicating with people at greater distances!

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Aha. So Mr Beards was actually Mr Bell, inventor of the telephone and NOT the earphones. Oh, well. The telephone was just as important as that. Adi made the necessary notes with his pen, shaking with laughter still at some of the funny answers that had been given. Angel's was the most hilarious, by the way.

As for the next question, Adi raised his hand without much thought. "Partners in businesses can have a conference call with each other even if they are in various parts of the world to discuss there ideas and strategies.'' Mhmm. Adi knew. His dad did that all the time even at home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holmesian Feline

Benny had remained quiet as some of the other students had ventured guess at who was in the picture, preferring to listen to what was brought up. It wasn't like he was the best and reconizing figures, especially muggle ones. An inventor it seemed, the Gryffindor writing down the man's name in his notes while Professor Moxley further explained to the class just who he was.

Alexander Graham Bell.

Digesting the information that they were being given, Benny was taking notes as best he could. Family deaf...partner named Watson...worked on the telephone. Oh...the telephone. He might not be too familiar with the muggle world but that invention was something he had heard of, even used. "It made long-distance communication faster and easier."

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaetha

Oh, that's right, the telephone. Adrienne remembered that Maman had had to use those at work sometimes, back when she was still a muggle journalist. She had a few vague memories of a toy 'fellytone' when she was a kid, but thinking about her parents and her childhood was already making bitterness rise in her throat like bile. She shoved it all down and tried to focus on the teacher.

Alexander Bell. 1847. Edinburgh. Right. For all that Adrienne didn't care about this class, she still took fairly diligent notes, jotting down everything Professor Moxley said into a notebook page neatly labelled with her name and the date. She didn't have much to add that the other three hadn't already said, but raised her hand nonetheless.

"People wouldn't be as afraid to leave the place they grew up in, yeah? They knew they'd be able to ring someone up and talk to them quickly, so it didn't matter as much if they were around their families for their whole lives."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sararara

The fourth year shot a hand up in the air at the next question 'cause she knew this one from EXPERIENCE. This was one of the only classes where the experience thing ever happened, so that was fun. "Well you can talk to people far away so I bet people were even happier moving other places because you didn't have to wait a million years for a telegram or something. I don't think you get as homesick if you can talk to people you love on the phone automatically whenever you want." Her eyebrows crept together as she thought about that some more. "But then why do we use owls here instead of telephones? Wouldn't it be faster?" She couldn't get Marcel to send her candy over a phone but it made sense in all the other ways, if you thought about it. Or maybe it didn't make sense in all the other ways. Okay. Now she was getting confused. What was happening again?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Telephones, hmm? Dot wiggled in her seat and tried to consider the question at hand... how had society been impacted by the invention of the telephone? She'd seen them before, and used one once, even. Or no, she'd put her ear to a payphone and her mother had shrieked about germs and they'd had to go home immediately so Dot could have a bath.

But still!

"It's made the world loads smaller, Professor. I mean, before you had a way to talk to someone quickly on the other side of the country, it would take a while to pass letters back and forth. But now you can do it in a moment. It's like... your gran never has to come to visit, because she can talk to you on the phone. Which is good, because she pinches cheeks and smells like cabbage stew."

”It has already been mentioned that to get in contact with someone before telephones, you needed to rely on mail delivery or in-person communication, both of which weren’t always done quickly. I think Dot summed it up quite well when she said that telephones made the world smaller. It allowed people to communicate with others from across town, or across an ocean. I do think this made it much easier for people to move away from home because they’d still be able to make contact whenever they needed to hear the voice of someone they were missing. The telephone provided comfort in that sense.” As for Norah’s question, Meredith smiled. ”As Tobias mentioned, electrical devices don’t function well at Hogwarts.” Which was why owl delivery, as well as the other means mentioned, were what the students and staff relied on.

SPOILER!!: Alexander, the deaf, and telephones

Quote:

Originally Posted by carpediem

HAND RAISE.

"Professor, I'm a tad confused. You mentioned how he spent a lot of his time caring for, or studying the human voice and people who are deaf. But there doesn't seem to be a way for deaf people to use that device at all! Why did he invent the device?" The question. Don't forget to answer the question at hand here. "Besides all of that stuff about faster communication that mostly everyone said. But for a guy who spent a lot of his life studying people who couldn't use a device like this and then make said device, it's kind of interesting, right?" Did that make sense,? She hoped it made sense. Because if not, then she probably just asked an awkward, slightly offensive question. And she was sorry. But if so, then she took a crack at it and hit a goal-run! Okay, so having a muggle father taught her nothing about their sports. But still, important questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

So it was Alexander Graham Bell. Janelle began to write notes as the Professor talked about him. She knew a little about the man, but not much. When the next question was asked, Janelle raised her hand and began to speak.

"If a person has to move a lot, they have a way of keeping in touch with the friends they leave behind. They can always pick up the phone and give them a call." Janelle knew about this first hand. She had done more than her share of moving around and it was comforting to know that she could talk to her friends and family whenever she wanted.......or whenever her mom let her call them.

Then she added, "Oh, and deaf people can use the telephone. They have a special kind of phone that deaf people can type their message into and send to their friends. And they can also read the messages that other people send to them." Just a little bit of random information that Janelle knew.

Moxley smiled at Ophelia, happy to see that her mind was working. Her questions were valid, though Meredith didn’t feel she could really speak for Bell. ”It is interesting, Ms. Clarke. All I can say is that perhaps Bell was interested in communication in general, and that is why his journey lead him to work with the deaf, as well as invent something for the hearing.” And she had more to add but Ms. Guidry chimed in to provide the answer Meredith was going to share. ”Indeed, Janelle! These special telephones are called captioned telephones, Ms. Clarke. They have a screen which shows in text, everything that the person on the phone is communicating. ” Unfortunately Moxley didn’t know much more than that but she could certainly find reading materials on it, if Ophelia was still interested.

SPOILER!!: Easier to pass news along to people

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Angel raised her hand and smiled. "Professor! It made it easier to get your messages to other people, like before the phone if something happened say at work then someone would have to go and run and tell someone probably." Angel was sure that must have been the case. "Now though they could just ring up and tell who they needed to right." That was a lot easier, say if the store or something was shut because of something then going around to everyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiritWolfe Malfoy

Hady hadn't given an answer to the first question but she had pulled out a sheet of parchment and her quill to write down the answer and everything else Professor Moxley had said. It was always good to keep detailed notes just in case things ever came up and something was needed.

When the next question was asked she raised her hand. "It made it easier to give family and friends good new? Like a marriage or birth of a baby...maybe even invite them for the wedding or to see the new child." This was just a thought but things like marriage and new family members were always a celebrated thing weren't they? So surely people would've taken advantage of this invention when possible for these things. Plus who didn't like getting good news?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessiqua

But what other ways was society changed by the invention of the telephone? Zhenya didn't know, her live certainly hadn't changed by the invention of the telephone. She had never even used one of the things. But she raised her hand anyway, "Perhaps if someone had a broken wrist and couldn't write letters anymore, the telephone would have changed society because they could still communicate to people." That seemed like a pretty good suggestion. It would be very inconvenient if someone had broken an arm or wrist when the only method of communication was writing a letter or telegram.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

Kace heard the name Alexander Graham Bell and he did sound familiar. He took notes that he invented the telephone. Well that was basic information since he learned it in elementary school. As he was done taking notes, he heard Moxley's question and he thought about it and answered, "Well Professor I imagine the only form of communication was writing a letter. I am pretty sure people were getting tired of writing and the slowness of the post. They were inspired by the idea of communicating quickly with the touch of a phone. I know the invention was a big clanker though. I can't imagine using that now.." he shrugged. He thought he answered the question right. I mean he gave his own thoughts which that is all that mattered. Let's see what Moxley had to say.

Indeed! Moxley nodded her head, agreeing with the students as more answers poured in. ”Yes, passing on news was certainly made easier with the telephone! Both in the sense that you could communicate it quickly and in that it saved you the physical effort of having to write to, or go and see, the person you needed to speak with.” And no, that didn’t mean people were necessarily lazy. Who wanted to walk miles and miles to share that they were having a baby or whatever? Certainly not her.

SPOILER!!: Made it so you didn’t have to see people, if you didn’t want to

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixStar

Woot. 5 points to AJ because she had been right. Okay, technically she just made an educated guess based off of what others were saying, but it was still a winning answer. And she didn't actually get any points. Ahem. Moving on.

Hmm... how else has society changed? She could go so many different ways with this one. AJ listened to Sophie and Adi's answers. Both were great. What could she add? Thinking for a minute, AJ's hand shot into the air.

"It helped let people know when you were mad at them. I hear that nothing is more satisfying than slamming down the phone into its receiver after telling them they were a git... from dramatic affect you see." Beam.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionesclone

He made an interesting point? Well of course he did. Smirking to himself, Grayson picked up his quill and started jotting a thing or two down on his piece of parchment. Kinda needed to know this and all. Maybe.

Eh.

Now for the next question: how had the invention of the telephone changed society? Eaaaaaaasy! Or it would have been if the first few answers hadn't already been said out loud. So, the boy started tapping his quill lightly against his desk as he tried to think of something else. Why did HE like to call someone?

Bingo! "It means you don't have to see someone all the time. Communication I made easier and faster and you can talk to people without actually having to see them. Great, isn't it? Especially if you're a lazy git and want to stay in your pyjamas all day long. Sounds fantastic to me." Shrug.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Destiny

Nope, nope.

Ever since Professor Moxley had shown that picture of that old man, Wylie had zone out. How could he not?

He was staring at a man, who was the oldest mad he had ever seen in his whole entire life, he was sure. And not only that, but that very old man had one of THE grossest beards he had ever laid eyes on. What the Merlin?

How was he supposed to pay attention to anything NOW? With thoughts about all the gross and old food that got stuck in that beard. What about all the OTHER things that could get stuck in it? Like BUGS. And TRASH. And PEOPLE! The image of a person, getting sucked right into that thing on that guy's face was vivid and he couldn't help but shiver in his seat.

Gross. Gross. GROSS.

As for the question he barely heard? "It made it easier to tell a person with a gross beard that they have a gross beard without them knowing who it is telling them that their beard is gross!"

Well, weren’t these kiddos a happy bunch? Moxley tried not to smile, she really did, but she was so amused. Any prank calls received in the future at her residence- because of course she had a phone, hello!-and these would be some of the prime suspects. Well, if they were savvy at figuring out her number, anyway.

”The telephone is definitely a way for people to get messages, sometimes unpleasant ones, across without the caller having to see the callee. It also means a quicker way to end said communication without having to actually deal with the consequences. In this way, some could say the telephone is a negative thing. Sometimes people might be emboldened by the fact they aren’t actually seeing the person they’re talking to.” Just a thought.

SPOILER!!: Technology, some pros and some cons

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harron Peasley

What other ways do you think society was changed by the invention of the telephone?

"Ridiculously annoying companies can phone you up at ridiculous hours of the morning and offer you PPI or a new network or phone provider or something else you're not interested in. But it made it easier for society to just ignore salespeople because it's easier to put the phone down on someone than it is to slam a door in their face. You feel less rude."

And he should know, he'd done both of those things many a time. Dalton was sure that secretly, everyone he lived with was bloody overjoyed when it was him who answered the door or the phone - communication with the other party seemingly ended fairly quickly when that was the case. Unlike a lot of people, he didn't have a problem with being rude, just an opinion that they should have chosen different jobs if they didn't like his reaction.

What even was PPI?

Something NO one cared about, he was sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenSnake

"No telephone, no telephone booth." Grinning wider, the fourth year felt her weariness diminishing slowly as she spoke aloud in class. "No telephone booth, one less convenient way of entering the Ministry of Magic." INGENIOUS, wasn't it? Come on, who would want to get in the Ministry by using the public toilets? DISGUSTING.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

Hughbert KNEW the answer.

He didn't even raise his hand he was so confident of it. Instead, he just spoke out loudly and hoped he would be heard. As he was a genius and his answer was far superior because it enabled one of the necessities of living (if they all actually existed). Food.

"It enabled an eventuality of ordering food to be delivered right to your house." MIC DROP.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Symphora

Henric was jotting down whatever Professor Moxley had told them about the muggle telephone inventor. It was a pity another muggle woman inventor did not manage to obtain a patent for her communication device too. It was not surprising, woman scientific contributions for the society weren't highly regarded like their male counterparts back then.

One of them made a valid point, what really prompt the inventor to create such a brilliant device whereas it would be hard to use for the deaf. Henric continued to listen to his classmates answer before adding one of his own,"Professor, telephone was made to hear and communicate over long distances instantly without worrying when you owl going to arrive, it is a fast and easy way for muggles to reach for each other,however they can also make use of it to track your whereabouts as soon as you made a call," he grinned.Heheh.. watching muggle movies and muggle police shows thought him that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

HMMM, that was kind of a good question. Caleb didn't know a whole lot about communications in the muggle world, but he did know that muggle kids seemed to be ADDICTED to their phone. He raised his hand, tapping his chin as he did so and formulated his answer in his head.

"I think the world would be completely different. Cellular phones have helped track down criminals, kidnap victims, stolen cars...all because of satelletes and stuff. Without phones, we wouldn't have the NEED for all those things up in space, and technology as we know it probably wouldn't be as advanced," he explained. Not that they NEEDED all that stuff. Caleb knew the wizarding way of "less is more" was soooo much better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Presley Black

There it was again. Mr. Fullmer. Hadn't she seen his gigantic notice on the student bulletin board? Rodriguez. He didn't even bother to correct her this time. If she didn't know his last name was Rodriguez at this point, what was there to do?

Regardless, he's gotten the answer correct, so that was good. The second question was easy. Sometimes when Xavi went camping with his family in the summers, they left all types of technology more advanced than a compass at home. No phone, no computers, no tablets, nothing. It was amazing the difference it made in their family time.

He raised his hand to speak. "The telephone Graham Bell invented was very simple, but now we have smartphones and things. They make people stupider," was that a word? "Like, sometimes muggles don't know how to talk to people because they always talk with texts and facebook and things." Right? Like, phones were good and all, but only as needed, not something you looked at seven thousand times in a day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

Raising his hand, the Korean boy gave his opinion. "Well you can get the news in real-time. Like for example... this morning one of your friend got an accident and then you can use telephone to tell other friend that she got an accident just right after it happened. If told them by mail, The news is not that new and real time anymore." Well, hopefully it make sense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

And then that Claw girl went and Zander found himself kind of personally offended by her answer. Phones didn't make muggles stupider??? Okay, maybe he was going to talk. "I think it'd make people smart actually," he nodded. "'Cause you've got to figure out how to work all the new technology. Not everyone can keep up with that stuff." Especially old people. So ha. Ravenclaw just got Ravenclawed by a Gryffindor. Er, okay maybe not. But at least he tried?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hera

Figuring he could contribute to some extent, Zeke raised his hand. "Like with most technologies, they can always be improved. They can be made to do more things, do them faster or more efficiently, to become stronger, more durable, with better energy sources and smaller or larger depending on what you prefer. So like, with the phone, it got better over the years, and communication in general became more different, like, there are more varieties today than there were a hundred years ago."

And now some pros and cons provided by the students and elaborated on by on Meredith Moxley. You’re welcome.

”The invention of the telephone had a domino effect, if you will. It inspired many other inventions that came after it, leading to even new ways to communicate today. Mr. Hughbert mentioned that one can call on the phone and have food delivered to your home but now, not only can you call, but you can also use the internet to connect you to restaurants and place orders. You don’t even have to talk on the phone anymore to communicate something like that. Also, things like cellphones, a portable version of home phones, have been constantly revamped so that they can do things like update you on weather, the events going on in the lives of your loved ones, and even act as a tracker to help locate you, or a stolen item you left your phone in. It’s all quite amazing the way the inspiration from one invention can create a ripple effect you’ll continue to see years from that first stone tossed into the proverbial water.” Nod. Nod.

Pausing to let everyone catch up on notes, Moxley gave an encouraging smile. She knew this was a lot of information to take in.

”Now for the cons. Yes, all of the technology sometimes means people focus more on their phones than what’s going on elsewhere and that can be an issue. I don’t think that necessarily makes them stupid and would like to say that instead, perhaps phones can be a bigger distraction than some can handle. Also, they allow people access to your life. For example, dealing with people who’ve gotten your number and sold it to persistent businesses looking to rope you into something you’re not interested in. There are always drawbacks to new inventions and those are just a few.”

And that was a lot of information, Merlin! Time for Moxley to give her voice a rest for a bit! The brunette went to her desk and pulled out an enlarged picture, turning to then fix it to the white board.




"Now I'm sure all of you are getting tired of my voice," Moxley joked, a big smile on her face. "So I'd like everyone to take some time to copy down the image I've put up on the board. Now this is obviously not the most up to date version of the telephone but it will be helpful to you when doing your homework. So everyone, get started on that and then we'll move on to our activity!"


OOC: 1 post for this will do! Just have your charrie copying down the diagram as best they can! It's up to you whether or not you wish to actually use paint or another method to actually draw it out. I'm not requiring it <3

Kace heard Moxley go over A LOT of stuff. I mean some stuff he never thought to mention. He began to scribble some stuff in his notes but he mostly knew this telephone information because he had one in the muggle world. Usually his mother let him work the telephone. I mean you know how many times his aunts and uncles called the house. Like constantly. Anyways as Moxley began to move on, he saw the diagram and he thought it was really old fashioned. He was like this is dinosaur aged. He chuckled and began to copy down the diagram and he was sketching it the best he could.

He was like laughing because this isn't what they used back in the muggle world. I mean this was something used in the business world. After he was done and satisfied he waited for more directions.

Penelope jotted down a few notes about the pros and cons of telephones and what later inventions were possible because of the telephone. It was interesting how the invention of the telephone allowed better communication and led to new inventions. Looking up at the picture on the board, Penelope studied the labels of the different parts. That phone looked about a hundred years old. Penelope copied the diagram into her notes. There was the base and the dial pad and the handset and the handset cord... Penelope finished labeling her diagram and waited silently for the class to move on to the activity.

Lots and lots of information was being given at the moment. Let's just say it was a good thing that AJ came from an all muggle background because she pretty much knew all this stuff. Minus, the important dudes that invented the phone and all the specific details about them, but did that really matter? She sure didn't think so.

AJ blinked a few times at the diagram. Um, outdated was not exactly the term she would use. Ancient. Old school. Like, way back when. Did people actually have phones like this anymore? She imagined this was the sort of frame of mind a wizard would have when it came to muggle technology.

The brunette drew the phone to the best of her ability and made notations of what everything was even though she already knew it. Look at her being a model student over here.

Henric nodded..and nodded...woah...soo much information just for a telephone.He made quick bullet point notes for each pros and the cons of the telephone in his notebook.

Henric stared at the diagram for a moment...yep...it was definitely ancient.He thought if he had a muggle great-great grandfather, he believed he had used one of them before during his time. He copied the diagram onto his notebook and tried drawing some of the parts down scratch that...more like doodled on it. Basically, his drawing consisted of mostly uneven shapes of squares and rectangles. The hard part was drawing the handset cord,hmm...whatever...he made weird squiggly circles and leave it like that. He then labeled each one of them last...DONE! He admired his handiwork, okay...it was the most ugliest drawing he had ever done in his life. But ehh...it would do...lets move on.

Outdated? That was one way to put it...Caleb didn't know why they weren't studying muggle MOBILE phones. Weren't those what all the cool kids were using these days? Did anyone even USE a house phone anymore? Everyone had moved to mobile phones, except his Great Uncle Ben, who thought that house land lines had some sort of nostalgic charm to them. But he was super weird, so there was that.

He scribbled down the diagram on his parchment as instructed and then sat back, waiting for class to continue.

It seemed that Lux, Toby, and Sophie gave the answers that Professor Moxley was looking for based on her response to them. Drawing connections between both societies was always good in her opinion, and made things easier to understand.

This lesson was interesting - but then they always were - and Lux made sure to keep detailed notes on what they were learning. Muggle technology was so interesting and it was helpful to learn more about how it works and where it originated from. As a diagram of a telephone appeared on the board, Lux studied it carefully.

Turning to a new page in her notebook, she began to slowly and carefully sketch it out. These drawings were always so helpful even if she had used phones before.

It probably wasn't the best thing that Toby's rambling had ended up being totally on the money, because that was just gonna encourage him. He smiled at Moxley, his big shiny-toothed grin, and got to work trying to quickly jot down all this stuff. It was hard, 'cause there was a lot, but he more or less managed.

Next time he looked up, the diagram was there on the board, just as Moxley had said. He took a moment to stare at it for a moment, noticing how weird and different it looked to his phone (which was a mobile). Was that weird rope thing a cord? Or a wire? Wow, that was amazing. SO COOL. Would they get to see one of those IN the FLESH? Or, well... Toby supposed phones didn't HAVE flesh, but how cool would that be? Like a HUMAN PHONE. Some guy who just hangs out in your house, and when you want to call someone you just tell the HUMAN PHONE, and in your friend's house there would be another HUMAN PHONE who'd say your words. HAHA. That would be weird. BUT COOL. But weird.

Minutes passed, and Toby was still just staring at that picture, getting quite distracted by and lost in his own thoughts. Eventually he blinked, and just like that, he was back in the room. He was... meant to be doing... something. Oh. OH. RIGHT. DRAWING THE DIAGRAM, OKAY.

Not knowing how much time they might have left, Toby hurriedly got to work on copying the diagram. He tried to be neat but likely failed. Plants were his thing, he could draw plant diagrams for dayyyyzzzzzz. STILL, this one wasn't bad. So. Yeah.

That old old phone diagram looked like it had its own kind of magic. Like the kind of magic where there were loads of buttons and dials and things to fiddle with. The kind of magic that was actually just fun and curiosity and Muggle weirdness combined. Dot pulled out a piece of parchment and did her best to sketch out the diagram as she saw it.

Of course, she kept getting distracted by all the different buttons. And that cord thing. Whew, Dot's was a spiraly mess that twisted into a heart and then a planet and then a whirlpool. Dangerous cord thing. Boop boop boop. She poked at all the buttons, smudging her ink a bit before it dried. Oops.

Norah scribbled and scribbled and scribbled so many notes that she didn't even have time to doodle in between it all. Whew. There sure was a whole LOT to say about these telephone thingies, which was kinda weird 'cause she hadn't been THAT impressed when she'd used one. It didn't have a cool boingy cord like the one in that picture, though. That cord looked like much more fun than the little square thingy mabob she'd used instead. Cordless and portable, yeah, but BORING. Sometimes people payed far too much attention to making things smaller and faster that they lost a lot of the fun stuff. And there was her big thought for the day. Ta da!

But it didn't even matter that she didn't get a chance to doodle because apparently they got to draw now! WOOOOOH. The fourth year beamed at Professot Moxley because this was perfect timing for some drawing, before pulling a second bottle of ink (purple, obviously) out of her bag and set it next to the bottle of the glittery kind. Alllll set! She squinted at the drawing as she tried to copy it onto her parchment, switching ink colors every so often for excitement reasons, y'know. Double colors for the buttons and the boingy cord because those were the funnest parts, obviously. Those deserved purple AND glitter, which was pretty special. Once she'd finished the diagram, Norah straightened up to admire her handiwork.

Uhh. Well it didn't look exactly the diagram Moxley had shown, but it wasn't THAT bad. Right? OKay fine. Maybe it was that bad. Her different inks had sorta kinda bled together, and apparently drawing straight lines wasn't on the very top of her talent list. But if you put it on its side it looked like a one-eared cow chewing on a keychain! That was COOL. Even cooler than a phone, probably. She'd name the cow Gerome. Yes, good plan.