Older technology is extremely practical for teaching (yourself or others) because it's (mostly?) simpler than what exists today. For example writing an emulato

Older technology is extremely practical for teaching (yourself or others) because it's (mostly?) simpler than what exists today. For example writing an emulator for an older 8-bit CPU will be a simple problem overall to tackle than x86. That said, sometimes using modern technology is better for teaching since there are more tools and resources that exist today to help you learn today's technology than there are for older technology. So it depends. But it's definitely worth not completely ignoring old technology when learning a topic in case the older tech _is_ easier to learn because it's simpler.