-
The forerunners of Ed Tech are the animal paintings on cave walls. These tribal arts and oral traditions emphasized memory and training, and were the primary method of instruction even after the invention of a flexible writing system.
-
These traveling teachers were the first instructional technologists. They also also combined two cultures (culture of science and culture of letters) into a single concept "Techne" - what is now known as technology.
-
Though no writings from Socrates exist, his most important educational contribution was the Socratic Method of teaching. We know this as 'inquiry', and is predicated on the principle that knowledge is inborn and can be brought out by guided questioning. While knowledge being inborn has been refuted, his teaching method still remains relevant today.
-
This textbook is the most renowned and widely circulated. It was also the first successful application of illustrations to enhance the work of teaching. This textbook was comprised of 150 visual aids written specifically for children who were studying Latin and sciences. Comenius also recommended the establishment of a college of scientific research.
-
German born Froebel created a place where children explore the environment through play with peers in their age group. This establishment came to be known as kindergarten, and included play, games, song, stories, and crafts to widen their physical and motor skills while expanding their imagination.
-
Joseph Lancaster implemented instructional media and effective grouping in schools. This changed the structure of schools by providing the first mass education, but lacked learning theory to support it.
-
The use of media for instructional purposes can be traced back to 1905, when school museums came into existence. These museums provided visual instruction through different technology mediums available at the time (stereographs, slides, films, etc. The first school museum opened in 1905 in St. Louis.
-
In the US, the first catalog of instructional films was published, and then adopted later that year for use in the public school system in Rochester, NY. This was the first school system to adopt films for regular instructional use.
-
In 1952, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set aside 242 television channels for educational purposes, which led to the rapid development of a large number of educational television stations. This type of educational broadcast was seen as a quick, efficient, and inexpensive way to satisfy instructional needs.
-
Starting in the mid-1950's, researchers at IBM designed a Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) program to be used in public schools. Though widespread adoption of computers didn't happen until much later, this was the first use of CAI in education.
-
Benjamin Bloom and colleagues publish his foundational work that organizes knowledge and skills into six categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Each category builds upon the previous one and represents a more abstract cognitive domain. [https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/]
-
The University of Illinois had linked computer terminals where students were able to access class information.
-
In 1965, Robert M. Gagne published 'The Conditions of Instruction,' that discussed five types of learning outcomes and the conditions to promote learning, events of instruction (teaching activities), and learning hierarchies. This work has had a significant impact on the field of instructional design.
-
Apple develops and researches the use of computers in K-12 classrooms to inform the development of educational technology going forward. By 1989, 99% of all school districts had computers, and most of them were playing educational games like Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand.
-
SoftArc launched FirstClass, the first learning management system that ran on an Apple Macintosh computer. The United Kingdom's Open University uses FirstClass to deliver online learning across Europe.
-
In 1992, Congress passed the Scientific and Advanced-Technology Act that removed government control from the internet, allowing commercial access. The National Science Foundation then relaxed all regulations on the usage of institutional networks, ushering in the commercial internet age.
-
Though the term had been used prior to 1999, eLearning became mainstream at this point. This was due in part because the belief was that eLearning would be cheaper than traditional distance education courses. eLearning set the framework for the next decade in terms of technology, standards, and approaches.
-
With the foundations of modern edtech laid, MIT announced an Open courseware initiative, making all the learning materials used in its courses available via the internet free of charge. This was the beginning of the OER movement.
-
In 2005, after internet access began to improve along with compression techniques, the viability of streaming video reached a point where video sharing services could capitalize.
-
Tim O'Reilly used this term in 2004, but it didn't take hold in education until 2006. This term gathered together user-generated content services and captured a new mindset in our relation to the internet.
-
Constructivism was very popular in eLearning but gave way to Connectivism as proposed by George Siemens and Stephen Downs. Connectivism represented an attempt to rethink how learning is best realized given the new realizes of a digital, networked, open environment instead of forcing technology into the service of existing practices.
-
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools and businesses worldwide to shut down and pivot from face to face to virtual. In person classes were transformed overnight into remote environments, as were offices and warehouses across the globe. Videoconferencing tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Cicso Webex were used to establish the day to day of remote teaching and learning.
