When we first think of the term educational technology, we probably think about computers, tablets, virtual & augmented reality headsets, and other electronic technologies. The misconception here is that educational technology must be electronic when in actuality according to Richey, (2008) “Educational Technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources” (p. 24). This more semiotic definition states that educational technology can be anything that improves learning from physical items such as blackboards, to conceptual frameworks like problem based learning.

From here we may be able to determine that cave paintings as early as early as 30,000 B.C.E. were the earliest forms of educational technology (Pappas, 2014).

From here we can jump around to pictograms, hieroglyphs, or Sumarian written language, but the first record of formal education was Pythagoras Academy in 510 B.C.E. (Mohamed, n.d.), this represents an educational tool of formal education. The development of paper in China in 105 B.C.E (Mohamed, n.d.), was a technological boon not just to education, but to communications in general. Manuscript transcription was popularized in the medieval period around 300 A.D. (Walker-Meikle, 2016), this allowed for multiple copies of the same manuscript to be provided to multiple individuals. Manuscript transcription was done by hand and potentially took a very long time to develop one copy, however that ended when Johannes Gutenberg developed the Gutenberg printing press around 1450 A.D. (Dittmar, 2011). Sandboxes, blackboards, and chalk slates all came about in the 1800’s.

The early 1900’s began the age that Pappas (2014) described as the audiovisual age, wherein the filmstrip projector came about around 1910 and subsequently used in the classroom, the Radio where “Harren high school became the first public school to use the radio in classroom teaching” (Haran, 2015, para. 29). Pappas (2014) claims that from around 1960 to 1980 as the information age. Although television had been used for instructional purposes before 1950, the popularization had not stated until the 1960’s in the United States (Reiser, 2001).

Soon thereafter, we began the computer age. Computers used for education started with IBM in the 1950’s, but did not gain prevalent interest until the 1980’s (Reiser, 2001). Calgary based Smart Technologies developed the first interactive whiteboard called the SMART Board in 1991 (Overly, 2016).

This brings us closer to the information age we live in today. From the 1990’s to the 2010’s we have established a widespread internet use, Learning Management Systems (LMS), and various micro and mobile learning strategies. With the new technology we have available it’s important to note that these are just the latest steps in a long line of technologies that have helped move us forward in education.

References

Dittmar, J. E. (2011). Information Technology and Economic Change: The Impact of The Printing Press. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(3), 1133–1172. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr035

Haran, M. (2015, May 29). A History of Education Technology. Retrieved September 8, 2018, from http://institute-of-progressive-education-and-learning.org/a-history-of-education-technology/

Mohamed, S. (n.d.). The History of Educational Technology. Retrieved September 7, 2018, from https://www.sutori.com/story/the-history-of-educational-technology-8149

Overly, S. (2016, November 12). Google releases Jamboard, a high-tech whiteboard for office meetings. Retrieved September 8, 2018, from https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/11/12/google-releases-jamboard-a-high-tech-whiteboard-for-office-meetings.html

Pappas, C. (2014, August 16). The History of Technology in Education – Free Tutorial. Retrieved September 6, 2018, from https://vivaelearning.com/the-history-of-technology-in-education/

Reiser, R. A. (2001). A History of Instructional Design and Technology: Part I: A History of Instructional Media. Technology Research and Development, 49(1), 53–64. Retrieved from https://docdrop.org/static/drop-pdf/A-history-of-instructional-design-and-technology-1-8nOHG.pdf

Richey, R. C. (2008). Reflections on the 2008 AECT Definitions of the Field. TechTrends, 52(1), 24–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-008-0108-2

Walker-Meikle, K. (2016). Transcribing medieval manuscripts. CENDARI Archival Research Guide. Retrieved from http://www.cendari.eu/sites/default/files/ARGTranscriptions.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,-289,756