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Comenius (Orbus Pictus)
The principles of Comenius' instructional method are very similar to the principles of today's educational technology.
His book "Orbus Pictus" was the first illustrated book. -
Thorndike's Theory of Connectionism
He developed first scientific theory of learning. So we can regar him as a starting point of any study of instrucional technology. His explantion of human learning was very comprehensive. He made studies about mental tests, scales of achievement and textbooks. (Anglin, 1995; Januszewski, 2001: Saettler, 1968) -
School Museums
There were slides, films, charts, stereographs and study prints in the school museums. Among many school museums, there are three most important ones which were St. Louis Missouri, Reading, Pennsylvania; and Cleveland, Ohio because of their highly related work to the school curriculum (Reiser,2001; Saettler, 1968) -
Individualized Instructional Plans
Helen Parkhurst's Dalton Plan and Washnurne's Winnetka Plan were important because they provided for individual differences while teaching for specific objectives. They made the learners progress on their own rate. They also made a contribution to instructional technology with its emphasis on careful organization of the assignments.It can be said that they anticipated the self-pacing and task analysis concepts of modern educational technology (Anglin, 1995; Januszewski, 2001: Saettler, 1968) -
Sidney L. Pressey' Teaching Machine
Sidney L. Pressey which was a psychologist at Ohio State University developed one of the first mechanical instructional product. This device was based on Thorndike's law of effect principle. This was a multiple choice testing device in which the new questions appeared after students' correct answer to the previous questions. It provides an immediate feedback to the students. (Januzewski, 2001; Saettler, 1968; Skinner, 1958) -
Cone of Experience
Edgar Dale developed a visual model that is also called as "Cone of Learning". Dale categorized the learning activities accordong to their concereteness. (Dale, 1946) -
Skinner's Programmed Instruction
Skinner Programmed Instruction vs. Blended Learning
According to Morgan (1978), educational technology is originated from Skinner's and other's programmed instruction. By programmed instruction, the focus of education was shifted to outcome behavior of the learners. In it, there are clear behavioral objectives, small frames of instruction, self-pacing, active learning and immediate feedback. (Anglin,1995: Morgan, 1978; Saettler, 1968; Skinner, 1958) -
Internet
Even though Internet was designed 1960s, its boom occured after 1980s. It made many changes in education era. Access to knowledge and resources, sharing of knowledge and communication became easier. It also helped distance education (Anglin ,1995: National Research Council, 1995) -
Microcomputers in schools
Although first miccrocomputer were released in 1960s, entrance of computers in to schools were in 1980s. It was a great change in the schools, on the other hand, it didn't really work especially in 1990s because many teachers didn't use them for instructional purposes mainly (Reiser, 2001; Younie&Leask, 2013) -
WEB 2.0
Web 2.0 (you can click)
It provided a two-way interaction with computers. It helps collaboration, interaction adn communication between learners. (An, Aworuwa & Williams, 2009)
