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The Hornbook
The hornbook was one of the first forms of educational technology used to aid in teaching reading in American school. Johannes Gutenberg began building a primitive version of the printing press in 1436 and the first Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1455. Nearly two centuries later Stephen Dayne brought the first printing press used in the United States. However, since they were expensive and were not readily available, books were not commonly used in the early years of American schooling. -
First Public School
The first public school started to education in 1635 which still stands and operates now. However, the school changed some locations until today -
Printed Books
Perhaps the most popular early printed book was the New England Primer: Introduced to schools in 1690, the New England Primer was intended to make learning to read more interesting for children. -
The Sandbox
In 1806, the Lancastrian methodology of schooling was introduced in New York City and with this new method of teaching came a new form of educational technology. Lancaster’s method of education was appealing because a large number of students could be educated for a low cost. -
The Blackboard
It was not until 1841 that the classroom chalkboard was first introduced. Shortly thereafter, Horace Mann began encouraging communities to buy chalkboards for their classrooms. By the late 1800s, the chalkboard had become a permanent fixture in most classrooms. -
Magic Lantern
The height of its popularity was around 1870. The predecessor to the slide machine, the magic lantern projected images on glass plates. By the end of World War I, Chicago’s public school system had a collection of some 8,000 lantern slides. -
Film
The price of producing paper and printing books also dropped to levels that enabled paper to replace slates and allowed each child to have his or her own books. But just as books were becoming widely available to students, a new form of educational technology began to emerge, namely film. In 1910, enthusiasm for educational films led Rochester New York’s Board of Education to adopt education films for instructional use. -
Lead Pencil
Around the turn of the 20th century mass produced pencils and paper become readily available, gradually replacing the school slate. -
Radio
Radio entered the educational system in the early 1920s. Like the early days of film, radio was heralded as a tool that would revolutionize classroom teaching. -
Television
Although it wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s that instructional television reached its peak, the first documented use of closed circuit television was in Los Angeles public schools and at the State University of Iowa in 1939. While the popularity of instructional television was rising between 1939 and the 1950s, the overall United States educational system was facing harsh criticism. -
Teaching Machines And Programmed Insturction
In the 1960s, behavioral psychology contributed to the educational technology field by introducing “teaching machines.” Reminiscent of Tiu! Turk, an 18th century “computer” that wore a turban and played chess (Standage, 2002), teaching machines were intended to teach students through thoughtfully programmed instruction. -
Computer
The research in the 1950s and 1960s on programmed instruction laid the foundation for the development of more advanced learning systems. Computers were first used in education in the 1960s in a way that was intended to individualize instruction. This method became known as computer assisted instruction (CAI). -
The Internet
Today, the Internet is one of the more popular forms of educational technology used in classrooms. Although some college level courses can be taken online, often without any student-teacher interaction, this type of use is just beginning to penetrate K-12 public schools, particularly at the high school level. -
Tablets
Tablets ,which basically the smaller and simpler version of computers, started to be used for the educational purposes for first time in 2006. Since then it is developed and efficiently used till today
