Journey back to SRA
This morning, I was researching instructional technology and soon found myself hunting for images of vintage SRA reading cards. Why did I end up there? Because when I was in grade school I loved SRA reading cards, especially the aqua ones (I can’t remember why.)
1. Design Based Research is a relatively new approach to studying how we learn and how to design learning structures that facilitate learning.
Knowlton, D. S. (2007). I Design; Therefore I Research: Revealing DBR through Personal Narrative. Educational Technology & Society, 10 (4), 209-223.
2. There’s a Design Based Research collective sponsored by the Spencer Foundation, which looks at how education can be improved. It was established by Lyle Spencer in 1962.
3. Lyle Spencer founded the educational publishing firm Science Research Associates (SRA) in 1938, when he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. (Note: In the bio link here, the phrase “modus vivendi” means “way of living” or working out a peaceful accord, particularly in a disputed territory.)
4. SRA Laboratory Reading Kits had their beginnings in 1957, when SRA broadened its focus from trades and occupations to include education.
5. Early SRA reading kits contained color-coded cards organized by level of difficulty. In the 1960s, SRA colors were as follows (as far as I can tell from a Google image search):
red
orange
gold
brown
tan
lime
green
olive
aqua
blue
violet
silver
6. IBM purchased SRA in 1964. By 1989, SRA belonged to MacMillan/McGraw-Hill. (Wikipedia)
7. SRA kits, old and new, are still popular worldwide. Just look on eBay.