Reiser wrote a two-part article in 2001 which summarized the history of Instructional Design and Technology and drew some important conclusions. According to Reiser, of the many lessons we can learn from his review, likely the most important is that there has been a consistent tendency of over-estimate the degree of impact that new technologies would have (Reiser, 2001, p. 61). Reiser (2001a) was cognizant of the fact that he was writing at a time when computers and the Internet were just beginning to make their influence in education. Reiser believed these technologies would likely have a greater impact that those that preceded them. However, given the lesson that he identified, he predicted that, “such changes, both in schools and in other instructional settings, are likely to come about more slowly and be less extensive than most media enthusiasts currently predict” (p. 62).
Given that Reiser was writing at a time prior to the advent of the most substantial innovations in computers and the Internet, Web 2.0, it is interesting to compare his prediction to Weller’s (2018) survey of the major developments in education technology since. Again, the trends that Weller lists confirm the lesson identified by Reiser. However, Weller’s list also confirms Reiser’s prediction, where, despite several failed experiments, the introduction of computers in education technology has ultimately been more substantial than technologies of the past.
The prior examples of excessive idealism identified by Reiser (2001a) were the use of film, radio and television. The next significant developments were the introduction of the computer in the 1950s, and the Internet since 1995 (Reiser, 2001a, p. 59-60). Like their predecessors, several new innovations proved to be disappointments, including MOOCs, learning objects, Open Educational Resources (OER), Second Life, and e-portfolios, open textbooks and artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, confirming Reiser’s prediction, educational technology has been permanently transformed with the adoption of online learning supported by LMS, video and even the use of blogging (Weller, 2018).
The tendency identified by Reiser is a symptom of what has been referred to as cyber-utopianism, a characteristic of Western notions of scientific progress (Livingstone, 2018). Of the many periods that marked episodes of such idealism, one of the most potent was the advent of what was described as Web 2.0 (Weller, 2018, p. 40). As I work in the field of web development, I have witnessed this idealism first-hand. I have personally observed how much of the recent prosperity of the industry has been fueled by a panicky clientele feeling pressured to adapt to the ever-changing environment of technology, having been infected by the hype that surrounded new developments. And yet, although some of the technologies may not have been as beneficial as had been anticipated, such as the use of blogs, Facebook and other social media platforms, nevertheless, the nature of modern business and marketing has been permanently transformed.
The lesson learned is not to leap to hasty predictions, or to feel pressured by popular hysteria, but to take the time to analyze the nature of the new affordances, and therefore, to more accurately identify areas for potential. Here, Weller’s list offers another important lesson. Conspicuously absent from his survey are essential e-learning authoring tools like Adobe Captivate and Microsoft’s Articulate. Fundamentally, of the many technologies listed by Weller, the only substantial change introduced was the learning management system (LMS) (Watters, 2014). But an LMS is not a learning aid per se, but is rather a delivery tool, which effectively is merely an additional to forms of traditional education, only providing a platform for the sharing of information back and forth between the student and teacher.
An LMS does not introduce new methods of teaching or learning. This would appear to be the case because, as demonstrated by Weller’s list, the focus has been on the computer as media—a communication or delivery tool. This demonstrates little recognition that one of the computer’s most crucial affordances is not merely that it bridges distances. That is an affordance of the Internet. Most importantly, with regards to education, a very important affordance of the computer is its ability to run software. In that case, computers are able to provide novel forms of educational material that are no longer one-way, but interactive. As such, Articulate and Captivate are profound innovations. As I have seen, while such software has yet to be introduced more broadly in formal education, it has already started making a significance inroads into workplace and organizational training.
References
Livingstone, David (2018, September 8). The Folly of Crowds: Cyber-Utopianism and Education Technology. David Livingstone’s Blog.
Reiser, R. A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part I: A history of instructional media. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(1), 53–64.
Reiser, R. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part II: A history of instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(2), 57–67.
Watters, A. (2014). Un-fathomable: The Hidden History of Ed-Tech, Chapter 2. In The monsters of education technology. Licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA.
Weller, M. (2018). Twenty Years of EdTech. EDUCAUSE Review, 53(4), 34–48.