Evolution of Technology Timeline - EDUC 8840

Strand 1: The Agricultural Age (The 1st Wave)

Period: Jan 1, 1600 to Jan 1, 1700

The agricultural age was a time when extended families worked together on farms, there were one room schoolhouses, and the everyday mode of transportation was by foot or horse and buggy,

Strand 1: The Instustrial Age (The 2nd Wave)

Period: Jan 1, 1700 to Jan 1, 1995

The Instustrial Age can be characterized by nuclear family, factories and mass production, television, film strips, trains, overnight mail, schools with students divided by age and content, books, and telephones.

Strand 6 - Hawaii becomes a US territory.

Apr 30, 1900

Hawaii becomes an official U.S. territory.

Strand 5 - First radio transmission received

Jan 1, 1901

The first radio receiver (successfully received a radio transmission). This receiver was developed by Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi established a wireless transmitting station at Marconi House, Rosslare Strand, County Wexford, Ireland in 1901 to act as a link between Poldhu in Cornwall and Clifden in County Galway.

Strand 4 - Thorndike's Theory of Connectivism

Aug 5, 1901

Thorndike’s theory of “connectionism” explains the concept of learning without considering unobservable internal states. According to connectionism theory, “learning is the result of associations forming between stimuli and responses. Thorndike’s theory includes three primary laws: the law of effect, the law of readiness, the law of exercise, and the spread effect.

Strand 3 - First issue of a US postage stamp

Aug 5, 1901

The cost of an American postage stamp was 2 cents.

Strand 6 - President McKinley assassinated

Sep 14, 1901

In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated and Roosevelt became President at the age of 42; he remains the youngest president.

Strand 3 - First movie theater opens

Apr 2, 1902

Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.

Strand 5 - First World Series

Oct 1, 1903

The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball. It matched the Boston Americans of the American League against the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League in a best-of-nine series, with Boston prevailing five games to three, winning the last four.

Strand 2 - The first successful flight - the Wrightflyer

Dec 7, 1903

The Wrightflyer is the first successful airplane flight by the Wright Brothers.

Strand 4 - Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

Jan 1, 1906

One of the best-known aspects of behavioral learning theory is classical conditioning. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

Strand 2 - Henry Ford invents the Model T

Jan 1, 1908

The model T was invented by Henry Ford in 1908. This was the start of mass production and production line work.

Strand 3 - The panic of 1910-11

Jan 1, 1910

The Panic of 1910-1911 was a slight economic depression that followed the enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It mostly affected the stock market and business traders who were smarting from the activities of trust busters, especially with the breakup of the Standard Oil Company.

Strand 2 - Harry Brearley invents stainless steel

Jan 1, 1911

Harry Brearley invents stainless steel. This revolutionized the ability to use metal in making and designing things without it rusting. This is used in computers, desks, pencils, and many other things that we use every day.

Strand 4 - Behaviorist Revolution

Aug 5, 1913

Behaviorism was the primary paradigm in psychology between 1920s to 1950 and is based on a number of underlying assumptions regarding methodology and behavioral analysis and that behavior is an observable feature. In 1913, John B. Watson aunches the behavioral school of psychology (classical conditioning), publishing an article, "Psychology as the behaviorist Views It".

Strand 3 - Improved assembly line

Aug 5, 1913

American car manufacturer, Henry Ford nvented an improved assembly line and installed the first conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory in Ford's Highland Park, Michigan plant, around 1913-14. The assembly line reduced production costs for cars by reducing assembly time.

Strand 6 - Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Jun 1, 1914

Two bullets fired on a Sarajevo street on a sunny June morning in 1914 set in motion a series of events that shaped the world we live in today. World War One, World War Two, the Cold War and its conclusion all trace their origins to the gunshots that interrupted that summer day.

Strand 5 - World War 1 begins

Jul 28, 1914

World War 1, also known as the First World War or the Great War and the War to End All Wars, was a world conflict lasting from 1914 to 1919, with the fighting lasting until 1918. The war was fought by the Allies on one side, and the Central Powers on the other. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers or involved so many in the field of battle. By its end, the war had become the second bloodiest conflict in recorded history.

Strand 2 - Gideon Sundback invents the zipper

Jan 1, 1917

Gideon Sundack invents what we think of the zipper today. This revolutionized the ability to close things and brought on a new way of thinking about clothing and other things that need to be open and closed.

Strand 4 - Kilpatrick's Project

Aug 1, 1918

Kilpatrick's theory of learning emphasized what he called "purposeful activity" engaged in by pupils as they worked on a variety of projects. His methodological views were set forth in "The Project Method," an essay that appeared in the Teachers College Record in 1918 and was later expanded into a book entitled Foundations of Method (1925).

Strand 5 - 18th Amendment (Prohibition)

Jan 16, 1919

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol - the beginning of prohibition. It was ratified on January 16, 1919 and repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. In the over 200 years of the U.S. Constitution, the 18th Amendment remains the only Amendment to ever have been repealed.

Strand 5 - The Treaty of Versailles

Jun 28, 1919

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Strand 6 - The Treaty of Versailles

Jun 28, 1919

The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty that officially ended World War I between the Allied and Associated Powers and the German Empire. After six months of negotiations, which took place at the Paris Peace Conference (1919), the treaty formalized the armistice signed with Germany in November 1918 in the Compiègne Forest. Although there were many provisions in the treaty, one of the more important and recognized ones required that Germany accept full responsibility.

Strand 4 - Lewin's Cognitive Field Theory of Learning

Jan 1, 1920

Lewin proposed that human behavior is a function of both the person and the environment in which the behavior takes place, including the social parameters. He postulated that needs organize perception of the field and acting within the field. He understood a dynamic interaction of elements in the field. He believed behavior was purposeful and visualized the individual as existing in a field of forces which included +valence forces which attract people, and -valence forces which repel people.

Strand 5 - U.S. women's right to vote

Aug 18, 1920

Nineteenth Amendment passed by Congress June 4, 1919 and ratified August 18, 1920. Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Section 2: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Strand 3 - Walt Disney signs first contract

Oct 16, 1923

Walt signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies — this date is considered the start of the Disney company first known as The Disney Brothers Studio.

Strand 6 - The Immigration Act of 1924

Jan 1, 1924

The 1924 Immigration Act set quotas that limited annual immigration from particular countries. The legislation identified who could enter as a "non-quota" immigrant; this category included wives and unmarried children (under 18 years of age) of US citizens, residents of the Western hemisphere, religious or academic professionals, and “bona-fide students” under 15 years of age. Those not in any of these categories were referred to as a “quota immigrant” and were subject to annual numerical limita

Strand 6 - The Butler Act

Mar 22, 1925

It was on this date, March 22, 1925, that Tennessee passed the Butler Act, making it unlawful in public schools “to teach any theory that denies the story of divine creation as taught by the Bible and to teach instead that man was descended from a lower order of animals.”

Strand 2 - Charles Francis Jenkins transmits pictures of a moving object.

Jan 1, 1927

The first American to transmit pictures of a moving object was Charles Francis Jenkins. He accomplished this feat in 1927. This was the beginning of the television. The use of multimedia in education stems from this invention.

Strand 2 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.

Jan 1, 1928

In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming made a chance discovery from an already discarded, contaminated Petri dish. The mold that had contaminated the experiment turned out to contain a powerful antibiotic, penicillin. However, though Fleming was credited with the discovery, it was over a decade before someone else turned penicillin into the miracle drug for the 20th century.

Strand 4 - Piaget and the Child's Conception of the World

Aug 5, 1929

The Child's Conception of the World explores the ways in which the reasoning powers of young children differ from those of adults. What conceptions of the world does the child naturally form at the different stages of its development? To what extent does the child distinguish the external world from an internal or subjective world and what limits does he or she draw between the self and objective reality?

Strand 3 - Black Tuesday

Oct 29, 1929

Economic boom ended by "Black Tuesday" (October 29, 1929); the stock market crashes, leading to the Great Depression. The market actually began to drop on Thursday October 24, 1929 and the fall continued until the huge crash on Tuesday October 29, 1929.

Strand 5 - The beginning of the Great Depression

Oct 29, 1929

The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off workers.

Strand 6 - Nazi party wins control and Adolf Hitler becomes chancellow of Germany

Jul 1, 1932

Although Adolf Hitler had the support of certain sections of the German population he never gained an elected majority. The best the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) could do in a election was 37.3 per cent of the vote they gained in July 1932. When Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, the Nazis only had a third of the seats in the Reichstag.

Strand 6 - Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president and "The New Deal"

Nov 12, 1932

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States in November 1932. Roosevelt initiates a widespread social welfare strategy called the "New Deal" to combat the economic and social devastation of the Great Depression. The economic agenda of the "New Deal" was a radical departure from previous laissez-faire economics.

Strand 2 - Scotch tape invented and marketed

Jan 1, 1933

In 1933, the 3M company marketed Scotch Tape. Our classrooms wouldn't be the same without Scotch tape!

Strand 5 - The New Deal

Jan 1, 1933

By 1932, one of the bleakest years of the Great Depression, at least one-quarter of the American workforce was unemployed. When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, that aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans

Strand 4 - The Eight Year Study

Aug 5, 1933

The Eight Year Study, considered by many educational researchers to be one of the best program evaluation studies ever conducted, followed the students from more than 30 experimental high schools during the 1930's. The most effect schools used an approach which was very different, using content from the disciplines of knowledge, but instead of organizing it by subjects, organizing it around themes of significance to their students. This approach was called Core Curriculum.

Strand 3 - the Work Progress Administration instituted

Apr 5, 1935

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was instituted by presidential executive order under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 1935, to generate public jobs for the unemployed. The WPA was restructured in 1939 when it was reassigned to the Federal Works Agency.

Strand 2 - Kodachrome color film invented

Aug 5, 1935

In 1935, Kodachrome is invented, being the first color film made by Eastman Kodak.

Strand 3 - Opening of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC

Aug 5, 1939

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world.

Strand 5 - World War 1

Sep 1, 1939

World War 2, also known as the Second World War, was a war fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and, during much of the 1930s and 1940s, in Asia.

Strand 3 - Average teacher salary is $1440 per year.

Aug 1, 1940

The average teacher salary of a teacher in 1940 is $1441.00 per year.

Strand 3 - American business in the 1940s was dominated by preparation for World War II

Aug 5, 1940

The 1940s were one of the pivotal decades in the development of American business. During the decade the economy rebounded from depression; big business recovered its tarnished public reputation; wages and earnings reached new heights; and powerful new sectors of the economy developed, especially in the production of consumer goods and military hardware.

Strand 5 - Pearl Harbor

Dec 7, 1941

Just before 8 on the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes.

Strand 4 - Ralph W. Tyler's Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Aug 1, 1942

Ralph W. Tyler publishes the Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. It deals with ways of formulating, organizing, and evaluating the educational objectives that have been chosen for the curriculum. Tyler emphasizes the fact that curriculum planning is a continuous cyclical process, involving constand replanning, redevelopment, and reappraisal.

Strand 2 - the first electronic digital computing device invented

Aug 5, 1942

The Atanasoff-Berry computer is considered the first electronic digital computing device built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University during 1937–1942.

Strand 6 - Charter of the United Nations signed

Jun 26, 1945

The Charter of the United Nations was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on 24 October 1945. The Statute of the International Court of Justice is an integral part of the Charter.

Strand 5 - Hiroshima bombing

Aug 6, 1945

On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.

Strand 4 - Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience

Jan 1, 1946

The Cone of experience was originally developed by Edgar Dale in 1946 and was intended as a way to describe various learning experiences. Essentially, the Cone shows the progression of experiences from the most concrete (at the bottom of the cone) to the most abstract (at the top of the cone).

Strand 2 - Velcro invented

Jan 1, 1948

Velcro is a company that produces the first commercially marketed fabric hook-and-loop fastener,[1] invented in 1948 by the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral. De Mestral patented Velcro in 1955, subsequently refining and developing its practical manufacture until its commercial introduction in the late 1950s.

Strand 6 - NATO established

Apr 4, 1949

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established by 12 Western nations: the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Canada, and Portugal. The military alliance, which provided for a collective self-defense against Soviet aggression, greatly increased American influence in Europe.

Strand 3 - Beginning of fast food

Jan 1, 1950

The National Restaurant Association endorsed a new type of dinner called the “take home” meal. This is the beginning of the TV dinner and fast food.

Strand 5 - The start of the Korean War

Jun 25, 1950

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War.

Strand 2 - Transcontinental television first broadcast

Sep 4, 1951

President Harry S. Truman inaugurated transcontinental television service on September 4, 1951 when he made a speech to the nation. AT&T carried his address from San Francisco and it was viewed from the west coast to the east coast at the same time.

Strand 4 - Programmed Instruction

Jul 1, 1955

Programmed instruction is an educational technique influenced by B. F. Skinnercharacterized by self-paced, self-administered instruction presented in logical sequence and with much repetition of concepts.

Strand 4 - Bloom's Taxonomy

Jan 1, 1956

In 1956, a committee of colleges, led by Benjamin Bloom identified three domains of educational activities: Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge), Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude), and Psychomotor: manual or physical skills.

Strand 3 - women in the workforce

Aug 5, 1956

35 percent of all adult women were members of the labor force, and nearly a quarter of all married women were working.

Strand 2 - Sputnik launches, the first artificial satellite

Oct 4, 1957

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth on October 4, 1957.

Strand 5 - Sputnik

Oct 4, 1957

History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.

Strand 6 - NORAD signed

May 12, 1958

Although NORAD originally stood up at Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs on Sept. 12, 1957, the official NORAD agreement between the governments of Canada and the United States was signed on May 12, 1958. On that date, the governments of Canada and the United States formally acknowledged their mutual commitment to defending their citizens from air attacks.

Strand 6 - Fidel Castro become leader of Cuba

Jul 1, 1959

In 1959, Fidel Castro took control of Cuba by force and remained its dictatorial leader for nearly five decades. As the leader of the only communist country in the Western Hemisphere, Castro has been the focus of international controversy.

Strand 3 - Exploding new residential construction market

Jan 1, 1961

In 1961, the air conditioning and refrigeration industry had its best year to date, in terms of unitary equipment sales -- most of which went into the exploding residential new construction market.

Strand 5 - Man walks on moon

May 25, 1961

The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth.

Strand 2 - The first computer video game, Spacewar!, is invented.

Jan 1, 1962

In 1962, Steve Russell invented SpaceWar!. Spacewar! was the first game intended for computer use. Russell used a MIT PDP-1 mainframe computer to design his game.

Strand 3 - First Walmart

Aug 5, 1962

The Walmart story began in 1962, when Sam Walton, our founder opened the company’s first discount store in Rogers, Ark.

Strand 6 - JFK assassinated

Nov 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 while riding through the city in a motorcade. Though there has been much controversy and discussion about the events that day, it is commonly believed that John F. Kennedy was shot by radical activist Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.

Strand 6 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Jul 2, 1964

In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing. The word "sex" was added at the last moment.

Strand 4 - Robert Gagne's Conditions of Learning and the Theory of Instruction

Aug 5, 1965

The Conditions of Learning and the Theory of Instruction was published by Robert Gagne and extended his thinking to include nine instructional events that detail the conditions necessary for learning to occur. These events are still important for the basis for the design of instruction and the selection of appropriate media.

Strand 4 - Bruner's Process of Education and Discovery Learning

Aug 1, 1967

Discovery learning is an active process of inquiry-based instruction that encourages learners to build on prior knowledge through experience and to search for new information and relationships based on their interests. Psychologist and cognitive learning theorist Jerome Bruner in 1967 first outlined the principles of discovery learning in a book about how people construct knowledge based on prior experiences.

Strand 2 - The first public demonstration of the computer mouse

Jan 1, 1968

At the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco in 1968, Engelbart astonished his colleagues by demonstrating the prototype of the computer "mouse" whose convenience has revolutionized personal computing.

Strand 3 - Congress bans cigarette advertising on radio.

Apr 1, 1970

President Richard Nixon signed legislation banning cigarette ads from airing on television and radio.

Strand 4 - Criterion Referenced Instruction (CRI)

Aug 5, 1970

The Criterion Referenced Instruction (CRI) framework developed by Robert Mager is a comprehensive set of methods for the design and delivery of training programs.

Strand 2 - Invention of the miniature "pocket" calculator

Jan 1, 1971

The introduction by TI in 1971 of the "calculator-on-a-chip" MOS/LSI circuit which became the heart of modern, miniature calculators.

Strand 2 - The first e-mail transmission in 1971

Aug 5, 1971

The first e-mail transmission in 1971. Computer engineer, Ray Tomlinson invented internet based email in late 1971. Under ARPAnet several major innovations occurred: email (or electronic mail), the ability to send simple messages to another person across the network (1971).

Strand 5 - Munich Massace at the Summer Olympics

Sep 5, 1972

The Munich Massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympic Games. Eight Palestinian terrorists killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and then took nine others hostage. The situation was ended by a huge gunfight that left five of the terrorists and all of the nine hostages dead.

Strand 5 - End of Vietnam War

Jan 27, 1973

The Paris Peace Accords ending the Vietnam War conflict were signed January 27, 1973, and were followed by the withdrawal of the remaining American troops. The terms of the accords called for a complete ceasefire in South Vietnam, allowed North Vietnamese forces to retain the territory they had captured, released US prisoners of war, and called for both sides to find a political solution to the conflict. As an enticement to Thieu, Nixon offered US airpower to enforce the peace terms.

Strand 3 - Beginning of the oil crisis

Nov 1, 1973

The 1970s oil crisis really began in 1973. What we see in this crisis is the fact that prices of commodities like oil play a much more vital role in our economy than most think. The world needs so much oil every day to run, and will literally need to pay whatever it costs, or it will cease to run.

Strand 6 - President Nixon resigns

Aug 9, 1974

For the first time in over a hundred years, Congress moved to impeach the President of the United States, a move forestalled only by the resignation of President Nixon on August 9, 1974.

Strand 4 - Vygotsky's Mind in Society

Aug 5, 1978

Vygotsky's book Mind in Society is published. It was arefully edited by a group of outstanding Vygotsky scholars, the book presents a unique selection of Vygotsky's important essays, most of which have previously been unavailable in English.

Strand 6 - Margaret Thatcher become Prime Minister of Great Britain

Aug 12, 1979

After the Conservatives were defeated in 1974, Thatcher challenged Heath for the leadership of the party and, to the surprise of many, won. In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives came to power and Thatcher became prime minister.

Strand 3 - Global economic recession

Jan 1, 1980

The early 1980s marked a severe global economic recession that affected much of the developed world.

Strand 3 - Whole Foods opens and starts a health food store market

Aug 5, 1980

The original Whole Foods Market opened in 1980 with a staff of only 19 people. It was an immediate success. At the time, there were less than half a dozen natural food supermarkets in the United States.

Strand 2 - The first model of the IBM PC

Jan 1, 1981

IBM 5150, the first model of the IBM PC, was released in 1981. The IBM PCs and compatible models from other vendors would become the most widely used computer systems in the world.

Strand 4 - Howard Gardner Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Jan 1, 1983

In his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner proposed that intelligence is not just a single intellectual capacity. Instead, he suggested, there are multiple kinds of intelligence that people can possess.

Strand 4 - David Merill's Component Display Theory

Mar 1, 1983

M. David Merrill's Component Display Theory describes the micro elements of instruction (single ideas and methods for teaching them). It is designed to work in conjunction with Reigeluth's theory. CDT is comprised of three parts: A performance/content dimension comprised of the desired level of student performance and type of content, four primary presentation forms, and a set of prescriptions relating the level of performance and type of content to the presentation forms.

Strand 2 - The first Macintosh computer used a graphical interface.

Jan 24, 1984

The Macintosh 128K, the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface, was introduced to the public in 1984.[2]

Strand 5 - Space Shuttle Challenger

Jan 28, 1986

The first Space Shuttle Disaster was Challenger which was lost during an explosion as it took off from Cape Canaveral on January 28, 1986, killing all seven people on board. NASA suspended shuttle flights for two years.

Strand 5 - Chernobyl

Apr 26, 1986

In 1986, a reactor exploded at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union, and the environmental, health and social consequences are still being felt almost 20 years later.

Strand 6 - Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union

May 25, 1989

Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev introduced policies with the intention of establishing a market economy by encouraging the private ownership of Soviet industry and agriculture. However, the Soviet authoritarian structures ensured these reforms were ineffective and there were shortages of goods available in shops.

Strand 6 - The fall of the Berlin Wall

Nov 9, 1989

The Berlin Wall, an iconic symbol of the Cold War, was initially constructed starting on August 13, 1961, and dismantled in the weeks following November 9, 1989. Part of the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall was the most prominent part of the German Democratic Republic’s border system.

Strand 3 - Americans become workaholics

Jan 1, 1990

During the 1990s, Americans became the workaholics of the world. Between 1977 and 1997 the average workweek among salaried employees working at least twenty hours lengthened from forty-three to forty-seven hours. During that same twenty-year period, according to James T. Bond, vice president of the Families and Work Institute, the number of workers putting in fifty or more hours per week increased from 24 percent to 37 percent.

Strand 3 - Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1990

Aug 1, 1990

The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1990 requires you certify that you will provide a drug-free workplace.

Strant 4 - Electronic Performance Support Systems - Gloria Gerry

Aug 4, 1990

Electronic Performance Support System definition tool. (EPSS) is a system that provides electronic task guidance and support to the user at the moment of need. EPSS can provide application help, reference information, guided instructions and/or tutorials, subject matter expert advice and hints on how to perform a task more efficiently.

Strand 5 - The Gulf War oil spill

Jan 21, 1991

The Persian Gulf War of 1991 brought serious environmental damage to major portions of the Middle East. On January 21, 1991, a few days after the Coalition Forces launched an air campaign against Iraq, the Iraqi military forces in Kuwait opened valves at the Sea Island oil terminal near Kuwait City and released large quantities of crude oil into the Gulf, an act of environmental warfare.

Strand 2 - First public view of the WWW

Aug 6, 1991

On 6 August 1991, CERN, a pan European organization for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project.[9] Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost two decades, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s.

Strand 6 - Nelson Mandela is elected President of South Africa

Jan 1, 1994

[Nelson Mandela is elected President of South Africa in 1994, becoming the first black President in South African history ending a long legacy of apartheid white-rule in the country.](Nelson Mandela is elected President of South Africa in 1994, becoming the first black President in South African history ending a long legacy of apartheid white-rule in the country.)

Strand 5 - The Northridge Earthquake

Jan 17, 1994

At 4:31 A.M. local time, Monday, January 17, 1994 the Northridge earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley region of Southern California with a moment magnitude measured at 6.7 and focal depth of 19 km. The earthquake was centered 32 km west-northwest of Los Angeles along a south-dipping, blind thrust fault.

Strand 1: The Information Age (The 3rd Wave)

Period: Jan 1, 1995 to Jan 1, 2010

The information age is characterized by collaboration and teamwork, flexible hours, one or two parent and/or blended families, the used of the Internet and computers, instant communication, and fliexible work hours.

Strand 6 - The Monica Lewinsky scandal

Nov 12, 1995

November 1995 Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton begin a sexual relationship, according to audiotapes secretly recorded later by Linda Tripp. This is the beginning of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that rocked the Clinton adminstration in the 1990s.

Strand 4 - the Fourth Wave - Siemen's Connectivism

Aug 5, 1997

Connectivism integrates principles explored by chaos, network,complexity and self-organisation theories into a coherent learning theory for the digital age.Not only is connectivism an apposite response to the advent of the information society andknowledge economy, it embodies the core attributes of heutagogy’s self-determinedlearning and navigationism’s skills and competencies.

Strand 2 - First MP3 player.

Jan 1, 1998

The first MP3 Player, the MPMan, is released in late spring of 1998. It came with 32Mb of flash memory expandable to 64Mb. By the mid 2000s, the Mp3 player would overtake the CD player in popularity.

Strand 5 - September 11th attack on the World Trade Center in NYC

Sep 11, 2001

The seven-building complex comprising the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan was totally destroyed in the 9/11/01 attack. News reports emphasized the impacts of the 767 jetliners with the Twin Towers and the ensuing fires. Yet these events, spectacular and deadly, produced far less loss of life, and relatively little destruction compared to the total collapses of the towers and Building 7 that followed.

Strand 6 - President Bush declares War on Terror

Sep 20, 2001

On Sept. 20, 2001, President Bush delivered an inspirational speech to America that rallied support for the “War on Terror,” which would eventually lead to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Strand 2 - Mars Rover lands on Mars

Jan 24, 2004

The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars in 2004, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth. Opportunity discovers evidence that an area of Mars was once covered in water. Both rovers were each expected to last only 90 days, however both completely exceeded expectations and continued to explore through the end of the decade and beyond.

Strand 3 - Facebook is formed

Feb 1, 2004

The popular social networking site Facebook began at Harvard as an online version of a print compendium listing the faces of freshmen, their majors and hometowns. Founded by Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg, along with Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, the site launched from a Harvard dorm room as thefacebook.com on Feb. 4, 2004. As of February 2010, it had 400 million active users, according to the Facebook Company Timeline website.

Strand 2 - YouTube invented

Feb 5, 2005

YouTube was founded in February 2005, as a destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through the Web. Users can upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and YouTube enables video embedding that allows YouTube videos to be placed on non-YouTube pages.

Strand 4 - George Siemens, the Connectedness of the Worlf

Aug 1, 2006

George Siemens theory suggests that we are all connected in this world. This affects edcuation technology because we can use computers and the internet to connect students, experts, and professionals regardless of location or distance.

Strand 4 - Richard Meyer's graphic orientation theory

Jul 5, 2007

Richard Meyer's theory states that there are Multiple Representation Principle: Its is better to present an explanation in words and pictures than solely in words.

Strand 3 - Start of the global financial crisis

Aug 9, 2007

August 9, 2007. September 15, 2008. 2 April 2009. 9 May 2010. 5 August 2011. From sub-prime to downgrade, the five stages of the most serious crisis to hit the global economy since the Great Depression can be found in those dates.

Strand 6 - Barack Obama becomes first black president of the United States.

Nov 4, 2008

Barack Obama was elected President of the United States on November 4th, 2008, and sworn in on January 20th, 2009. He is the first black leader of the United States.

Strand 5 - The Swine Flu Pandemic

Apr 1, 2009

The 2009 flu pandemic or swine flu was an influenza pandemic, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the first of them was the 1918 flu pandemic), albeit in a new version. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1 which resulted when a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, leading to the term "swine flu" to be used for this pandemic.

Strand 1: The Social Networking Age (The 4th Wave)

Period: Jan 1, 2010 to Sep 1, 2012

The social networking age is characterized by the use of the Internet as a social tool, people can live and interact with others almost 100% online, work can be done at any time and any place an Internet connection is available, and societies are formed and managed within a virtual environment.

Strand 5 - "The Sixties"

Aug 11, 2012

In the United States, "the Sixties", as they are known in popular culture, is a term used by historians, journalists, and other objective academics; in some cases nostalgically to describe the counterculture and social revolution near the end of the decade; and pejoratively to describe the era as one of irresponsible excess and flamboyance. The decade was also labeled the Swinging Sixties because of the fall or relaxation of some social taboos.