Brief History of Educational Technology

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Brief History ofEducational Technology
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Activity 1 (a)
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What is technology?
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What is educational technology?
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Big T versus little t

• Instructional Technology versus instruction
  technology
• Or
• Big T versus little t
• Instructional Technology (or Big T) is sometimes
  referred to as a systematic way of designing,
  carrying out, and evaluating the total process of
  learning and teaching in terms of specific
  objectives, based on research in research in
  human learning and communications, and employing
  a combination of human and nonhuman resources to
  bring about more effective instruction
• Instructional technology (or little t) is the
  things of learning or the devices and the
  materials which are used in the processes of
  learning and teaching

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Activity 1 (b)

• Turn paper over. Brainstorm as many different
  examples of little t as you can.

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Consider

• Does available technology drive what happens in
  the classroom?
• Should technology drive what happens in the
  classroom?

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Activity 2
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1600s 1700s

• Knowledge and information primarily located in
  teachers heads (and clergy)
• Limited availability of books
• No blackboards (large slate hard to transport)
• Individual graphite slates used for writing and
  arithmetic
• Instruction was student-centric and individual
• Focus on memorization, due to need to erase
  slates daily

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Early to Mid-1800s

• Introduction of crude blackboards (boards painted
  with mixture of black paint and grit)
• Increased availability of books through public
  libraries, but still limited in schools
• Instruction becomes teacher-centric in classrooms
  with the new blackboard technology
• Instruction becomes more standardized with
  single lessons/lectures
• Focus still on memorization on rote learning

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Mid to Late 1800s

• Large slate blackboards become more common with
  railroad transportation
• Increased availability of books and growth of
  public libraries
• Text books and readers become available in some
  schools
• Lessons/lectures become more standardized
• Pencils and paper replace individual slates
• Instruction becomes even more teacher-centric
• Focus on memorization continues but with greater
  standardization of learning objectives

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Early to Mid 1900s

• Slate blackboards are common
• Free textbooks in most public schools
• Public libraries common in most communities and
  school libraries in larger schools
• Lessons/lectures use standard curricula
• Pencils, ink pens and paper tablets are cheaper
  and heavily used
• Educational films/filmstrips are used in
  classrooms
• Instruction is almost entirely teacher-centric
• Focus continues on memorization and rote
  calculations (not creative problem solving)

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Mid 1900s

• Steel black/whiteboards replace slate in the
  1960s
• Free textbooks in all public schools
• Public and school libraries common
• Pencils, pens and paper are primary medium
• Educational Films continue
• Educational Television offers to fundamentally
  reform education
• Instruction remains teacher-centric
• Calls to change focus from memorization to
  higher-order thinking/problem-solving

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Late 1900s

• Steel black/green/white boards common
• Free textbooks in all public schools
• Public and school libraries see declines in usage
  due to television
• Use of educational films declines
• Opaque projectors and memeograph become common
• Handheld calculators become widely available
• Word-processing on desktop computers begins to
  replace pen and pencil in homework and major
  assignments
• Instruction remains largely teacher-centric
• Focus moves toward higher-order thinking and
  problem-solving
• Internet offers potential to change education,
  but not widely available

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Early 21st Century

• Internet becomes widely available
• Google and other search engines make information
  easier to find
• Home computers become more common
• Public and school libraries offer internet access
  and online research
• Most classrooms have computers and students work
  in pods/groups
• Teaching becomes more student/group-centric
• Focus moves to creative problem-solving and
  higher order thinking skills memorization no
  longer necessary since almost all information is
  on the net

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What it all means for teachers

• Knowledge has moved from teachers heads to books
  and libraries, then to television and now to the
  internet.
• Knowledge is no longer in schools and libraries
  but out there on the internet
• Teachers become guides, facilitators, stimuli and
  coaches for learning
• Students become more independent and responsible
  for their own learning
• Information is updated rapidly and memorization
  is depreciated
• Libraries change roles from storehouses of
  knowledge to portals through which information
  can be found out there
• Schools are no longer knowledge factories but
  thinking and problem-solving laboratories

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Activity 3

• Wiki Develop methods matrix
• Other Assignments
• Readings for next week
• Discussion Forum
• Spreadsheet