The following timeline of distance education is my attempt to piece together what I believe to be the most significant milestones in distance education. Some timelines focus on technology, but I’ve decided to focus on more tangible milestones. For example, it doesn’t really matter that the internet was developed in the 1970s if the first online course wasn’t offered until 1981. The mere existence of a technology doesn’t necessarily mean that the technology will contribute meaningfully to distance education.
Nice timeline Jason,
Did you find the timeline JS software difficult to use?
I followed TimelineJS’s step-by-step instructions and found them easy to follow. Here’s a link to the spreadsheet that is generating the timeline (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RonUbpJQnmA91_n0XZ1VreN855nA4XdXc6zlgtlmqNY/edit?usp=sharing), which gives you some idea what needs to be entered in to create a timeline.
Thanks for sharing! I was disappointed with the timeline software I chose and, should I have reason to in future, I’ll use this one next time. I like how painless it is to swipe from one node to the next while still maintaining the consistency and spatial sense you get with the timeline on the bottom. Simple and effective!
Interesting. in one of our readings they said distance education never tried the telephone because it was too expensive, yet you found it was used. I doubt it was successful however, or more people would know about it.
Hi Keith,
You might be referring to the Bates reading (https://www.tonybates.ca/2014/12/10/a-short-history-of-educational-technology/):
“Although the telephone dates from the late 1870s, the standard telephone system never became a major educational tool, not even in distance education, because of the high cost of analogue telephone calls for multiple users”
It’s interesting to note that the telephone wasn’t used for a credit course until 12 years after the television was used for a credit course. And, as you mentioned, it doesn’t sound like it was particularly successful.
Great layout! It is fascinating to learn that people had the concept of distance education and integrating media long before computers or even electricity. What the most interesting or surprising fact that you came across for your research? For me it was that some universities tried distance learning by mail.
Hi Laura,
The most interesting fact to me was probably that a university was mailing phonograph recordings to students. That must have been really labour intensive and expensive, but also really cool at the time in 1906.
I love the question regarding what was surprising in the readings! Thanks or asking that, Laura! Though perhaps not as prominent these days, you might still find instances distance learning by mail. In some areas access to technology is limited and in some cases it might be more efficient to compile course packets and mail them.