It's amazing to me that technology has advanced so quickly and drastically from the original film cameras to digital. I had the privilege of learning how to shoot film from the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies before they closed their film section. Shooting in black and white film was probably the best thing I could have done, because I'm someone who much prefers to highlight color.

If you're shooting with a digital camera, there's a likely chance that it has a setting to photograph solely in black and white. It's a great practice to just get out and shoot with this setting, so you don't have the option to see what the image would also look like in color. 

As a photographer who tends to highlight color, I had to learn how to recognize what tones each element would migrate towards and how to capture expression, detail and contrast without the booster of color.