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Early 1900s Definition of visual instruction
One of the first textbooks on viausl instruction as, "The enrichment of education through through the seeing experience involving the use of all types of visual aids such as excursion, flat pictures, models, exhibits, charts, maps, graphs, stereopticon slides and motion pictures.: -
First School Museum Opens
The existence of school museums marked the beginning of the use of media for instructional purposes. The first to open was in St. Louis followed by museums in Reading, PA and Cleveland, OH. -
Rise of Instructional Films in US
In 1910, the US saw its first catalog of instructional films and later that year public schools began to to use these motion pictures for instructional use. -
Department of Visual Instruction
The merging of three existing national professional organizations for visual instruction is seen as one of the most important events in the evolution of the audiovisual instruction movement. As a result of this merger, the Department of Visual Instruction was created. At the time, this was known as the National Education Association. -
Behavioral Learning Theory
Around 1938, B.F. Skinner's and many other behaviorist's work in studying the effects of behavior on learning became popularized. His findings and theories would prove to be an important foundation in many instructional designers work for years to follow. -
Origins of Instructional Design
At the beginning of the war, psychologists and educators with experience in experimental research were called upon to begin developing training materials for military services. This marked the beginning of the creation of instructional design procedures. -
Division of Visual Aids for War Training
In 1941, the federal government created the Division of Visual Aids for War Training which was responsible for the production of 457 training videos to help civilians prepare to work in industry from 1941-1945. -
WWII and Film
World War II marked a period where the audiovisual movement in schools slowed but their use in military training increased dramatically. There were over 4 million viewings of military training films from 1943 - 1945 -
Early years of Computer-Assisted Instruction - IBM
Researchers at IBM are resposible for designing one of the first CAI programs to be used in the public schools. -
Instructional Television Growth
The Federal Communications Commision decided to set aside 242 television channels for educational purposes. This proved to a factor that really sparked the growth of instructional television. By 1955 there were 17 stations created and by 1960 there were over 50. -
Programmed Instruction Movement
B.F. Skinner released an article in 1954 entitled "The Science of Learning and Art of Teaching" which sparked a revolution in the field of education. The article focused on his ideas regarding the requirements for increasing human laerning and the desired characteristics of effective instructional materials. -
Criterion-Referenced Testing
In the early 1960s, the criterion-referenced testing movement proved to be another important factor in the development of instructional design. These tests would measure how well the test taker can perform a behavior irrespective of how well others perform. -
Popularization of Behavioral Objectives
In 1962, Robert Mager recognized the need to teach educators how to write objectives and released his book titled "Preparing Objectives for Programmed Instruction." The book outlines for educators how to write objectives that include a description of desired learner behaviors, the conditions under which the behaviors are expected to be performed, and the criteria by which the behaviors are to be judged. -
Evolving Definition of the Field
in 1963 the Department of Audiovisual Instruction formulated a definition that focused more on the design and use of messages to control learning. This marked an important period as the focus of equating instructional technology with media shifted more towards the process of learning. -
"The Conditions of Learning"
In 1965, Robert Gagne wrote "The Conditions of Learning" which outlined the 5 domains of learning outcomes. These domains included - verbal information, itellectual skills, psychomotor skills, attitudes, and cognitive strategies. In the same book, he also describes nine events of instruction that he considered important for the attainment of any type of learning outcome. This book proved to be an important tool in the history of instructional design. -
Formative Evaluation
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 causing the US, surprised by the Soviet Union's success, to put millions of dollars into science and math education. With the immediate instructional materials produced by professionals, they were found to not all be particlarly effective. This led Michael Scriven, in 1967, to point out the neccesity of trying instructional materials before they were in their final form. This would prove to have a tremendous impact on the instructional design process. -
Increase in Number of Instructional Design Models
In the 1970s, there was a huge increase in the number of instructional design modelsas new professionals built on older models. This led to a dramatic increase in the interest of the instructional design process in the US military, academia, and in business and industry. The Journal of Instructional Development was first published in the 1970s and chronicled many of these developments. -
Cognitive Information Processing Theory
In the 1970s, the cognitive information processing theory gained popularity as it aimed to describe the internal processes that allow learning to occur. This theory would also shape instructional designer methods in the future. -
1977 Definition of the Field
The Association for Educational Communication and Technology formulated a new definition of the field in 1977. This stated. "Educational technology is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organzition, for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating, and managind solutions to those problems, involved in all aspects of human learning." The full definition included 16 lengthy points placing emphasis on the systemic design process -
Instructional Design in 1980s
While Instructional Design in the 1980s continued to improve for business and industry and the international community, it had little impact in public schools and higher education. Many instructional improvement centers in higher education were disbanded during this time period. -
Computers for Instructional Use
By the beginnning of 1983, shortly after personal computers became available to the general public, computers were being utilized for instrutional uses in 40 percent of elementary school and 70 percent of secondary schools. -
Instructional Design in 1990s
In the 1990s, a trend evolved that had a major impact of the field was the emphasis on human performance improvement in the workplace. There was also a growing interest in constructivist views that emphasized learning tasks that reflect the complexity of the real world environment. Computers were also utilized more to enhance learning and improve on the job performance. -
Constructivism Learning Theory
The 1990s gave rise to another important learning theory that would shape instructional designers methods. The constructivist viewpoint places emphasis on complex learning environments that allow learners to engage in knowledge construction through testing their understanding and prompting reflection on the knowledge generation process itself. -
21st Century Instructional Design - The Internet
The widespread use of the internet has proven to be one of the biggest influences on the instructional design field in the 21st century. There was a significant growth in online learning in business, the military, K-12 and higher educational programs. This created new job opportunities for instructional designers as online courses are created and new interesting and effective means of delivering online instruction are needed. -
Current Definition of the Field
The current definition of the field put out by the AECT Definition and Terminology Committee in 2008 states' "Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technololgical process and resources."
