![\"\"](\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0118\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2019\/09\/20-yrs-of-Ed-Tech-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
twenty years of edtech by technovore<\/p>\n
Briggs (2014, para. 2) in her blog, The Evolution of Learning Technologies<\/a>, provided valuable insight into the meaning of educational technology. The word technology comes from the two Greek words; Techne means art, skill, craft, or the way, manner, or means by which a thing is gained. Logos means word or expression by words. According to Briggs, educational technology are things such as skills or information, acquired through training. Education technology can be traced back to the ancient times of the Egyptians and Romans when oral and written communications are the technologies of that era.<\/p>\n The printing press was invented in Europe in the 15th century. The mass distribution of written documents due to the explosion of the printing press, as Bates asserted, has compelled people to become literate and analytical, which led to the rapid expansion of formal education (2015, \u201chistory of educational technology,\u201d para. 6.2.2). Distance education arose in the 19<\/span>th<\/sup> century when improvements in the transportation and the affordability of postal services emerged.\u00a0 Fast forward to the 20<\/span>th<\/sup> century; radio, TVs, and computer-based training with multi-media were considered as innovations in education and to the present time of eLearning, MOOCS, mobile learning, and online social learning.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The evolution in educational technology has been successful in reaching a vast population of learners. These resulted in flourishing people\u2019s ability to learn, be inspired, and creative to build a better world. On the other hand, progress has been slow in shifting the teaching model. Leinonen\u2019s (2005, para. 13) blog post about the history of ICT in education<\/a>, demonstrates educators\u2019 propensity to mix the old paradigm with the new ones. In one of the examples, he indicated that the application of the computer drill and practice are still heavily present in today’s’ eLearning design. These exercises only help with learners\u2019 short-term memory and not much for gaining a deeper understanding of the subject at hand. Would I consider this as unsuccessful? Probably not. What I learned from this is educational technology, and learning models are iterative. New digital tools will emerge to replace or transform the old ones, but at the end of the day, learning is about people. It is about sharing ideas.<\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Bates, Tony (2015). Teaching in a Digital Age. Retrieved from https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/teachinginadigitalage\/<\/a><\/p>\n Briggs, Saga (2014, December 17). The Evolution of Learning Technologies [Blog post]. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.opencolleges.edu.au\/informed\/features\/the-evolution-of-learning-technology\/<\/a><\/p>\n