Researching the history of educational technology felt akin to venturing down the rabbit hole into Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s Wonderland. There is a multitude of information to digest and depending on who you ask, you will get a different rendition of events that led up to today’s state of educational technology. The Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) define educational technology as the ” study and ethical application of theory, research, and best practices to advance knowledge as well as mediate and improve learning and performance through the strategic design, management and implementation of learning and instructional processes and resources ” (Aect.org, 2018). I am reminded of the Spaceship Earth ride at Disney World that gives its riders a lesson in the history of communication, which is a tool used for the spread of knowledge and facilitating learning.
On this ride, the history of communication starts with cave drawings and then moves far through time to hieroglyphs and then to the invention of paper. Books mark a significant leap forward but not as substantial as the Gutenberg press. Then we see more modern devices like the telegraph, radio, motion pictures, television, the computer, the PC and finally the internet. It is interesting to note that all of the histories of educational technology that I have researched include all of these inventions that are represented in this ride. Some historical accounts begin in the 1600s with the advent of public education, citing books, blackboards and chalkboard slates being the predominant educational technologies until the 1900s. Some historical renditions begin in the 1900s with the invention of the magic lantern that projected images on glass plates and continue on a whirlwind ride of creative innovation after innovation that propelled our society from the information age in the 60s, 70s and 80s to the computer age in 1990 to the digital age in 1995 all the way to the present interactive age.
One can dig up an unending stream of information about the history of educational technology but it is clear to me that there are parallel histories of the way we have come to communicate and the technology we use in education. These histories appear to be tied together in a way that is continually advancing on another in a perpetual quest for knowledge mobilization.
References
A History of Education Technology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://institute-of-progressive-education-and-learning.org/a-history-of-education-technology/
Aect.org. (2018). Home – Association for Educational Communications and Technology. [online] Available at: https://www.aect.org/index.php [Accessed 7 Sep. 2018].
Gallegos, D. (2014, March 22). The Brief History of Educational Technology. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDULupPTTvU
Retterer, O. (2008, April 17). Instructional Technology: Looking Backward, Thinking Forward. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdwEIi22Dv8
SMARTEduEMEA. (2011, October 03). The history of technology in education. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFwWWsz_X9s
The Learning Machines. (2010, September 15). Retrieved from https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/19/magazine/classroom-technology.html?_r=0
September 9, 2018 at 2:52 pm
Thanks for the wonderful insights Theresa! What amazing serendipity that the Spaceship Earth ride would include a lot of the same advancements in technology. I too found the same parallels between communication and education. Coming from a communications background myself, the purpose of communications is one or more of three: to inform, to motivate action, or to entertain. Even though we’d like to be entertaining in our teachings, I think informing and motivation are directly linked to education. What do you think?
September 9, 2018 at 5:17 pm
I agree. In my field mobilization of knowledge is not only to inform our audience but also to give insights that will hopefully motivate positive change.
September 9, 2018 at 5:33 pm
I find it interesting to see how communication has changed over time. At one point, individuals were expected to memorize stories, as there was no way to document the information. This changed over time, from carving on walls, slates and chalk, pencils and paper and now the use of digital technologies that have the capabilities of connecting people from all around the world.
September 9, 2018 at 11:47 pm
I really enjoyed the parallel connections you made between technology and communication. They are so interconnected and intertwined with each other that you actually see it that much more clearer as you spoke of it. I believe the success and acceptance is dependent on them being viewed together more than in isolation of each other. As we continue to see the push further in to the future with more technological advancements they will continue to collide and connect interchangeably at times.
September 10, 2018 at 5:29 pm
Completely agree the field of Ed Tech is an ambiguous one. (Weller, 2018) concludes in twenty years of Ed Tech there is no shared set of concepts or history in the field. I have come to the conclusion that like (Reiser, 2001) I believe the field is a merging of media for instructional purpose and instruction design procedures. Further perplexing is the inclusion of noninstructional solutions to some performance problems as a recent interest in the field. There seems to be a lot of inter-disciplinary factors at work in the field of Ed Tech and as such pretty hard to nail down any definitive definition. I’m encouraged by how the field readily adopts and adapts technology it feels like it’s always on the cusp of a new knowledge discovery.
Lorne
References
Reiser, R. A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part II: A history of instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(2), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02504928
Weller, M. (2018). Twenty Years of Edtech. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/~/media/files/articles/2018/7/er184101.pdf