EDC

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EDCI 510History of Educational Technology

• Steve Kerr
• Wednesday, 430-650 pm
• 215 Miller Hall

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Educational TechnologyWhat Kind of History?

• EDCI 510
• 28 Sept 2011

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Definition?

• Technology is
• cool gadgets and stuff
• Popular usage
• the scientific study of the practical or
  industrial arts (Here, education a
  practical art?)
• Oxford English Dictionary, sense 1.a
• the application of scientific knowledge to the
  practical aims of human life
• Encyclopedia Britannica

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Possible Approaches-WHAT to Consider

• Devices
• Film projector, computer, chalkboard
• Symbol systems
• Writing, number systems, musical notation
• Theoretically based methods
• Skinnerian programmed instruction, Ausubel
  lecture method
• Production systems
• Textbook writing and editing

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Possible Approaches-HOW to Consider It

• Devices and their perfection over time
• Heritage of ideas
• Behaviorism
• Cognitive psychology/learning sciences
• Critical theory
• Social anthropology and contexts of use in
  particular settings
• Policy development and implementation

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DEVICESBooks (manuscript and printed)

• The original technology for education?
• Complexity and expensive production limited
  access
• Discipline of copying as a moral good
• Mediaeval scriptorium

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DEVICES The Hornbook

• Early aid to basic literacy
• Horn layer student-proof technology
• Reusable, simple production
• 17th century hornbook

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DEVICESEarly Textbooks

• New England Primer (from mid-17th c.)
• Picture-verse combinations aid memory
• Common cultural experience
• Primer from 1784

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DEVICES Wall Charts and Maps

• Mid-19th century (Germany, Netherlands)
• Easy, large-class display
• Better printing technology allows easier
  production
• Knys botanical charts, ca. 1874

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DEVICESThe Chalkboard

• Most successful educational innovation of the
  19th c.?
• (And maybe 20th?)
• Ease of use, reusable, user-friendly
• (Except for teacher-back-turned problem)

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DEVICES Clever Combinations

• Chautauqua Desk
• Swiss Army Knife of educational material
• Part of larger movement for self-improvement,
  home education
• Chautauqua desk, ca. 1916

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DEVICESOverhead Projector

• Really?!? But this thing is so simple
• Yeah, but It spread around US classrooms faster
  than any other device
• Why?

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SYMBOL SYSTEMSWriting systems

• From 4000 BCE
• Codify knowledge
• Cultural continuity
• Systematize thought
• Papyrus with hieroglyphs

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SYMBOL SYSTEMSInstructional text

• The Thousand Character Classic
• Ca. 520 CE, by Zhou Xingsi
• Explicit instructional design
• Meaning and sound represented
• Calligraphic version

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SYMBOL SYSTEMS Mathematical Representation

• Symbol systems for representing knowledge
• Encoding, operations, etc.
• Reisch, Margarita Philosophica, 1508 Arithmetica
  instructing an algorist and an abacist

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SYMBOL SYSTEMS Other Representation Forms

• LABANOTATION
• Represent dance movements, including speed,
  direction, lights source, etc.
• Cf. musical scores
• Other similar systems for rhythm, etc.

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SYMBOL SYSTEMSFilm and Video

• The Montage (from Sergei Eisensteins Battleship
  Potemkin 1925 the Odessa Steps sequence)
• All manner of filmic/video devices fades, cuts,
  wipes, dissolves had to be invented, and
  acquire meaning

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SYMBOL SYSTEMSSo Do They Have Cognitive Effects?

• Orality vs. Literacy debate
• McLuhans theses
• Tufte on PowerPoint, etc.
• Walter Ong

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SYMBOL SYSTEMSGaming

• Narrative, Metaphor, Engagement
• Elicit extended focus
• Complex environments, real learning
• Action and violence
• How to harness the potential for learning?

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THEORETICALLY BASED METHODSSkinnerian Programmed
Instruction

• Skinners behaviorist learning theory
• Wide popularity in late 1950s-1960s
• B o r i n g . . .

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PRODUCTION SYSTEMSTextbook writing, editing,
revision

• From simple book to industrial complex
• Production team model
• Systems for regular revision
• Competition OER movement (cf. Wikibooks, WSBCTC)

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PRODUCTION SYSTEMSClassroom Assessment

• Student data digitized (responses, work samples,
  quizzes)
• Real-time availability to instructors
• Linkage to other systems (remediation tools, etc.)

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PRODUCTION SYSTEMSSocial Media

• Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, etc.
• How we communicate and share now
• Multitasking and cognitive load
• This is how I goof off and waste time why would
  I want to use it for my education?

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Possible Approaches-HOW to Consider It

• Devices and their perfection over time
• Heritage of ideas
• Behaviorism
• Cognitive psychology/learning sciences
• Critical theory
• Social anthropology and contexts of use in
  particular settings
• Policy development and implementation

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Our Approach Here ThreefoldView from the Past

• Devices ?
• Emergence of new symbol systems to capitalize on
  what those devices make possible ?
• Incorporation of those symbol systems into
  educational materials, products, experiences ?
• Research studies to determine if those materials
  (etc.) are effective

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Our Approach HereView from the Present

• Research studies (done in the past) ?
• More contemporary studies or reviews that address
  those or related themes ?
• Understanding of the contributions of past work
• Knowledge and appreciation
• Extension of existing lines of work
• Avoidance of pitfalls and blind alleys!

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Our Approach HereView towards the Future I

• Changes in theory (Learning sciences focus)
• Learning collaborative, socially embedded
• Context and prior experience matter
  (decontextualized knowledge dead knowledge)
• How information is represented matters
• Changes in technology
• More pervasive, less special
• Affecting our relationship with text?

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Our Approach HereView towards the Future II

• Changes in education
• Heightened focus on outcomes, assessment
• Less room for open exploration
• More focus on teacher professionalism
• Changes in policy
• Increased global competitiveness pressure
• Pressures to rationalize education (esp. higher
  ed)

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What Else?

• Comments, extensions, arguments?
• (Much more to come)
• Thanks!
• Steve Kerr