Lesson 2

HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Objectives

At the end of the lesson, the student is expected to:

1. cite highlights of educational technology in history;

2. trace the history of educational technology in the Philippines; and

3.illustrate howinstructional computing, instructional media, and instructional design converged

BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Educational technology is not a concept of the 21st century. It has gone a long way since
civilization began. The following are the highlights in the history of educational technology.

 Stone Age people knew how to make a picture to represent an object. Cave dwellers painted
pictures of animals on the walls of caves. (The New Book of Knowledge)
 The Hebrews and Phoenicians were the first to use an alphabet.
 A group of Greek teachers known as Sophists, with their clever arguments and oratorical style,
were credited for the basic philosophical foundations of Western thought.
 In the 15th century, Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press.
 Technological innovations, including the development of textbooks, blackboards, and
improvement of pen and ink, were seen in the 19th century. In medieval Europe, monks made
books, called manuscript books, by writing on parchment with pens made from quills.
 Johann Amos Comenius achieved fame as a reformer and writer of innovative textbooks and
other educational works. He wrote Janus Linguarium Reserata ("The Gate of Language
Unlocked"), a Latin language textbook that taught basic vocabulary of eight thousand words and
Latin grammar. He was recognized as the pioneer of modern instructional technology with his
publication in 1657 of Orbis Sensualium Pictus ("The Visible World Pictured"), the first illustrated
textbook specifically designed for use by children in an instructional setting.
 Well-known educators exerted great influence on the educative process over the years. Johann
Friedrich Herbart came with five formal steps to teaching now known as the Herbartian method
of teaching. The five steps consist Of preparation, presentation, comparison and abstraction,
generalization, and application. Johann Heinrich Peztallozi believed that teaching is more
effective if it proceeds from concrete to abstract, hence the use of real and actual Objects
involving more senses. Friedrich Froebel, known as the Father of the Kindergarten, emphasized
the use of actual objects, which could be manipulated by learners. Maria Montessori devised
the Montessori method of learning which emphasized sensory training. Edward Lee Thorndike
 conducted scientific investigation of learning, resulting to the development of the first scientific
theory of learning. Edward Thorndike is often regarded as the father of instructional technology.
John Dewey, advanced the ideas of pragmatism.
 Visual education began in the late 19th century. Photography was invented, but became widely
accepted not until the 1920s. Public lectures were illustrated through the use of magic lanterns
that projected slides and stereopticons, the earliest visual display devices.
 The first visual instruction department which collected and distributed lantern slides to schools
was organized in New York in 1904. This began the audiovisual and media science departments.
 The first school museum to open in the United States was the St. Louis Educational Museum in
1905. The museum, which housed collections of art objects, models, photographs, charts, real
objects, and other instructional materials gathered around the world, was the forerunner of the
present-day media center. It was renamed the Division of Audiovisual Education for the St. Louis
Schools in 1943.
 Films came into classrooms in the early 20th century. A series of historical and scientific films for
school use was developed by Thomas Edison. Theatrical films were also used as educational
tools. The first educational film catalog was published in 1910 in the United States. Films for
regular instructional use was adopted by the first public school system of Rochester, New York.
 Dr. Sidney Pressey published his earliest paper on programmed learning about a machine which
tested and confirmed a learning task.
 The Ohio State University and a Cincinnati radio station launched the Ohio ±hool of the Air in
1929.
 The first instructional television program was launched by Iowa State University in 1932.
 The first all-electronic digital computer, ABC, was invented by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry
at Iowa State University in 1939.
 By the 1940s, the first practical tape recorders were developed.
 Edgar Dale developed the Cone of Experience, a hierarchy of learning experiences in 1946.
 John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert invented the first large-scale, general purpose electronic
digital computer, ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. This first generation computer
is based on vacuum tube technology
 During the World War Il years, the US government produced more than 800 training films and
filmstrips, purchased tens of thousands of projectors, and spent about 1 billion dollars in
training films.
 The invention of the videotape in the 1950s made it possible to record pictures as well as
sounds.
 Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues published the Taxonomy of Educationa Objectives, a scheme
for categorizing educational objectives, in 1956.
 In the 1950s and 60s, systematic studies were undertaken to establish how the attributes or
features of various media affected learning. The convergence of instructional media and
instructional design began with thé conceptualization of audiovisual studies as something
broader than just media.
 In the late 1950s, the second generation computers, based on transistors, were introduced.
  A computer-aided instruction project was started by Patrick Suppes and his associates in the
early 1960s in Stanford University. The project developed drill and practice and tutorial
applications.
 The third generation computers which used solid-state technology or integrated circuits (ICs)
were launched in the 1960s.
 Jerome Bruner, working from a different perspective, devised a descriptive scheme for labeling
instructional activities parallel to that of Edgar Dale's in 1966.
 The fourth generation of computers which introduced personal computers were developed in
the 1970s. One significant highlight is the invention of the microprocessor, a single silicon chip
that contains all the functions of a computer.
 In the 1970s and 1980s, the school community recognized the role of media specialists.
 In the 1980s, the video cassette recorder enabled people to record and playback television
shows. In the same decade, compact discs became popular.
 By the end of the 1990s, the Internet had connected many millions of computers around the
world.
 In the Philippines, the impact of educational technology was felt decades behind the
abovementioned highlights.
 Educational television in the Philippines began with Channel Ys Education on TV produced by Fr.
James Reuter, SJ.
 In 1961, a college course in physics was telecast over one of the commercial channels.
 The ETV program of the Bureau of Elementary Education of the Department of Education,
Culture and Sports was produced and presented jointly with the Bureau of Broadcast of the
former Ministry of Public Information. Among the ETV series produced were Aliwan ng mga Bata
and Tayo'y Magpalakas.
 The University of the Air program offered by the University of Mindanao in the early seventies
was among the early innovations in the use of radio for instruction.
 A major breakthrough in the development of educational technology was the establishment of
the Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (INNOTECH) to serve as research arm of
the Southeast Asian Ministers Of Education Organization (SEAMEO).
 The television network, ABS-CBN, came out with a sister station, Knowledge Channel, which
aired curriculum-based ETV programs like Sine'skwela' Mathtinik, and EpoVApple. It also came
out with an Adopt-a-School program which distributed ETV packages to different elementary
and high schools in the country.

Educational technology came a long way as a history of three separate fields: instructional
design (which focused on the theories and pHnciples in teaching by noted educators); instructional
media (which focused on the material used to facilitate instruction); and instructional computing (which
focused on the use of computers in instruction). The increasing scope of educational technology brings
about the convergence of these three fields as interrelated concepts. This is shown in Figure 1.
 Past Present

Instructional Instructional
Design Computing Instructional
Design

Instructional Instructional
Instructional Media Computing
Media

Fig. 1. The Past and present of Educational Technology

Assessing What You Have Learned

Guide Questions

1. Through the use of a timeline, how would you relate the overlapping history of instructional media
with instructional design and instructional computing?

2. By giving examples, how would you explain the difference and convergence of instructional media
with instructional design and instructional computing?

Activity

1. Through the use of comparative charts, explain the contributions of the following educators:

a. John Dewey

b.Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

c. Maria Montessori

d. Johann Friedrich Herbart

f. Edward Lee Thorndike

g. Jerome Bruner

h. Burrus Frederick Skinner

i. Benjamin Bloom

j. Sidney Presney

2. Research on the charter and profile of the Southeast Asian Minister of Education, Organization,
Innovation and Technology-Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO-INNOTECH),
Explain the current programs and projects of the institution in the development of educational
technology in the Philippines.