{"id":250,"date":"2019-09-08T10:48:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T17:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/?p=250"},"modified":"2019-09-08T10:50:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T17:50:31","slug":"the-history-of-educational-technology-a-very-brief-overview-activity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/the-history-of-educational-technology-a-very-brief-overview-activity-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Educational Technology: A Very Brief Overview (Activity 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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image source: http:\/\/cliparting.com\/free-history-clipart-42386\/<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is no universally-accepted definition of educational technology (also known as EdTech and instructional technology, among others), so it is not surprising that different sources also give varying histories of the field.\u00a0 <\/span>While some sources indicate that the history of educational technology started \u201cseveral decades ago\u201d (Jones, 2019, para. 2), others extend all the way back to include cave drawings (SMARTEduEMEA, 2011, 0:13).\u00a0 <\/span>Some sources cast a wide net in EdTech history, including instruments such as the pencil, pen, and slide rule (Elemento, 2018, 0:58), while others omit even the overhead projector and video-tape recorder (Saettler, 1968, as cited in Lesniak, n.d., p. 510). <\/span><\/p>\n

Perspectives on the success of educational technology are equally diverse.\u00a0 <\/span>New technologies often come with great promise as to how they will revolutionize our lives, including education.\u00a0 <\/span>With the advent of educational films, Thomas Edison proposed in 1913 that books would soon become obsolete in schools as \u201cit is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture\u201d (The Economist, 2013, para. 1).\u00a0 <\/span>Others assert that the medium through which the instruction occurs doesn\u2019t offer learning gains: \u201ca lecture is a lecture regardless of the medium through which it was delivered\u201d (Veletsianos, 2014, para. 8).\u00a0 <\/span>Writer and educator, John Warner (2017), offers an austere perspective, stating that the \u201chistory of education technology is . . . one of unfulfilled promise\u201d (para. 22), adding that he has \u201ca hard time naming a purely ed tech innovation that has had a significant (positive) impact on education\u201d (para. 21).\u00a0 <\/span>One\u2019s perspective on the success of educational technology is perhaps highly dependent on how one defines success. <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the debated definition and history of educational technology are advantages.\u00a0 <\/span>Learners\u2019 needs vary greatly and continue to change over time.\u00a0 <\/span>By not putting education technology\u2019s history in a clearly-marked box, we are forced to keep an open perspective of what it is and perhaps be more open to its future possibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Resources<\/span><\/p>\n

Elemento, R. (2018, February 8). History of educational technology (timeline). <\/i>[Video file]. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x6WqA4wRPZE<\/span><\/p>\n

The Economist. (2013, June 29). Teaching and technology: E-ducation. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.economist.com\/leaders\/2013\/06\/29\/e-ducation<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones, Jermaine. (2019). History of technology in education. The Classroom. <\/i>Retrieved from https:\/\/www.theclassroom.com\/history-technology-education-6518584.html<\/span><\/p>\n

Lesniak, R. J. (1968). Saettler, Paul: A history of instructional technology. [Review of the book A History of Instructional Technology<\/i>]. The Journal of Teacher Education, 19<\/i>(4), pp. 509-510. Retrieved from https:\/\/journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/002248716801900421<\/span><\/p>\n

Veletsianos, G. (2014, November). The significance of educational technology history and research. eLearn Magazine. <\/i>Retrieved from https:\/\/elearnmag.acm.org\/archive.cfm?aid=2686761<\/span><\/p>\n

SMARTEduEMEA. (2011, October 3). The history of technology in education. <\/i>[Video file].\u00a0 <\/span>Retrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UFwWWsz_X9s<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no universally-accepted definition of educational technology (also known as EdTech and instructional technology, among others), so it is not surprising that different sources also give varying histories of the field.\u00a0 While some sources indicate that the history of educational technology started \u201cseveral decades ago\u201d (Jones, 2019, para. 2), others extend all the way … Continue reading “The History of Educational Technology: A Very Brief Overview (Activity 2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt523"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0119\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}