No written evidence can tell us exactly who has coined the phrase educational technology. Different educationists, scientists, and philosophers have put forwarded different definitions of Educational Technology at different time intervals. Educational technology is a multifaceted and integrated process involving people, procedure, ideas, devices, and organization, where technology from different fields of science is borrowed as per the need and requirement of education for implementing, evaluating, and managing solutions to those problems involved in all aspects of human learning.
Educational technology, broadly speaking, has passed through five stages.
The first stage of educational technology is coupled with aids like charts, maps, symbols, models, specimens, and concrete materials. The term educational technology was used as synonyms for audio-visual aids.
The second stage of educational technology is associated with the ‘electronic revolution’ with introducing sophisticated hardware and software. Various audio-visual aids like the projector, magic lanterns, tape-recorder, radio, and television brought a revolutionary change in the educational scenario. Accordingly, the educational technology concept was taken in terms of these sophisticated instruments and equipment for effective instructional materials presentation.
The third stage of educational technology is linked with the development of mass media, which led to the ‘communication revolution’ for instructional purposes. Computer-assisted Instruction (CAI) used for education since the 1950s also became popular during this era.
The fourth stage of educational technology is discernible by the individualized process of instruction. The invention of programmed learning and programmed instruction provided a new dimension to educational technology. A system of self-learning based on self-instructional materials and teaching machines emerged.
The latest educational technology concept is influenced by the concept of system engineering or system approach, which focuses on language laboratories, teaching machines, programmed instruction, multimedia technologies, and the use of the computer in instruction. Educational technology is a systematic way of designing, carrying out, and evaluating the total process of teaching and learning in terms of specific objectives based on research.
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Educational technology during the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age
Despite the uncertainty of the origin of the term, educational technology can be traced back to the time of the three-age system periodization of human prehistory, namely the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.
Despite the uncertainty of the origin of the term, educational technology can be traced back to the time of the three-age system periodization of human prehistory, namely the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.
During the Stone Age, the ignition of fire by rubbing stones, manufacturing various handmade weapons and utensils from stones, and clothing practice were some of the simple technological developments of utmost importance. A fraction of Stone Age people developed ocean-worthy outrigger canoe ship technology to migrate from one place to another across the Ocean. They developed their first informal education of ocean currents, weather conditions, sailing practice, astronavigation, and star maps. During the later Stone Age period (Neolithic period), for agricultural practice, polished stone tools were made from a variety of hard rocks largely by digging underground tunnels, which can be considered as the first steps in mining technology. The polished axes were so effective that even after the bronze and iron appearance, people used them to clear forests and establish crop farming.
Although Stone Age cultures left no written records, archaeological evidence proved their shift from nomadic life to agricultural settlement. Ancient tools conserved in different museums, cave paintings like Altamira Cave in Spain, and other prehistoric art, such as the Venus of Willendorf, Mother Goddess from Laussel, France, etc., the evidence in favor of their cultures.
Neolithic Revolution of Stone Age resulted in the Bronze Age’s appearance with the development of agriculture, animal domestication, and the adoption of permanent settlements. For these practices, Bronze Age people further developed metal smelting, with copper and later bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, and their chosen materials.
The Iron Age people replaced bronze and developed iron smelting technology to lower the cost of living since iron utensils were stronger and cheaper than bronze equivalents. In many Eurasian cultures, the Iron Age was the last period before the development of written scripts.
Educational technology during the period of Ancient civilizations
According to Paul Saettler, 2004, Educational technology can be traced back to when tribal priests systematized bodies of knowledge and ancient cultures invented pictographs or sign writing to record and transmit information. In every human civilization stage, one can find an instructional technique or set of procedures intended to implement a particular culture, supported by several investigations and evidence. The more advanced the culture, the more complex the technology of instruction was designed to reflect particular ways of individual and social behavior intended to run an educated society. Over centuries, each significant shift in educational values, goals, or objectives led to diverse instruction technologies.
The greatest advances in technology and engineering came with the rise of ancient civilizations. These advances stimulated and educated other societies in the world to adopt new ways of living and governance.
The Indus Valley Civilization was an early Bronze Age civilization located in the northwestern region of the Indian Subcontinent. The civilization was primarily flourished around the Indus River basin of the Indus and the Punjab region, extending up to the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley and the Ganges-Yamuna Doab (most of the part is under today’s Pakistan and the western states of modern-day India as well as some part of the civilization extending up to southeastern Afghanistan, and the easternmost part of Balochistan, Iran).
There is a long-term controversy, to be sure, about the language that the Harappan people spoke. It is assumed that their writing was at least seems to be or a pictographic script. The script appears to have had about 400 basic signs, with lots of variations. People write their script with the direction generally from right to left. Most of the writing was found on seals and sealings, which were probably used in trade and official & administrative work.
Harappan people knew the measuring tools of length, mass, and time. They were the first in the world to develop a system of uniform weights and measures.
In a study carried out by P. N. Rao et al. in 2009, published in Science, computer scientists found that the Indus script’s pattern is closer to spoken words, which supported the proposed hypothesis that it codes for an as-yet-unknown language.
According to the Chinese Civilization, some of the major techno-offerings from China include paper, early seismological detectors, toilet paper, matches, iron plow, the multi-tube seed drill, the suspension bridge, the wheelbarrow, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the magnetic compass, the raised-relief map, the blast furnace, the propeller, the crossbow, the South Pointing Chariot, and gun powder. With the invention of paper, they have given their first step towards educational technology developments by further culturing different handmade products of paper as means of visual aids.
Ancient Egyptian language was at one point one of the longest surviving and used languages in the world. Their script was made up of pictures of real things like birds, animals, different tools, etc. These pictures are popularly called hieroglyphs. Their language was made up of above 500 hieroglyphs, which are known as hieroglyphics. The stone monuments or tombs that were discovered and rescued later on provide evidence of many forms of artistic hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt.
Educational technology during Medieval and Modern Period
Paper and the pulp papermaking process developed in China during the early 2nd century AD, was carried to the Middle East and spread to the Mediterranean by the Muslim conquests. Evidence support that a paper mill was also established in Sicily in the 12th century. The discovery of the spinning wheel increased the productivity of thread making process to a great extent. When Lynn White added the spinning wheel with an increasing supply of rags, this led to cheap paper production, which was a prime factor in the development of printing technology.
The invention of the printing press was taken place in approximately 1450 AD by Johannes Gutenburg, a German inventor. The invention of the printing press was a prime developmental factor in educational technology’s history to convey the instruction as per the need of the complex and advanced-technology cultured society.
In the pre-industrial phases, while the industry was simply the handwork at the artisan level, the instructional processes relied heavily upon simple things like the slate, the hornbook, the blackboard, and chalk. It was limited to a single textbook with a few illustrations. Educational technology was considered synonymous with simple aids like charts and pictures.
The year 1873 may be considered a landmark in the early history of technology of education or audio-visual education. An exhibition was held in Vienna at the international level. An American school won the educators’ admiration for the exhibition of maps, charts, textbooks, and other equipment.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952), an internationally renowned child educator and the Montessori Method originator, exerted a dynamic impact on educational technology by developing graded materials designed to provide for the proper sequencing of subject matter for each learner. Modern educational technology suggests many extensions of Montessori’s idea of a prepared child-centered environment.
In1833, Charles Babbage’s design of a general-purpose computing device laid the foundation of the modern computer. In 1943, the first computing machine as per hit design was constructed by International Business Machines Corporation in the USA. The Computer-Assisted instruction (CAI), in which the computer functions essentially as a tutor and the Talking Typewriter, was developed by O.K. Moore in 1966. Since 1974, computers are interestingly used in education in schools, colleges, and universities.
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were noteworthy changes in the field of education. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), right from its start of school broadcasts in 1920, had maintained a rapid pace in making sound contributions to formal education. In the USA, by 1952, 20 states had the provision for educational broadcasting. Parallel to this time, about 98% of the United Kingdom schools were equipped with radios, and there were regular daily programs.
Sidney L. Pressey, a psychologist at Ohio state university, developed a self-teaching machine called ‘Drum Tutor’ in 1920. In his famous article ‘Science of Learning and art of Teaching’ published in 1945, Professor Skinner pleaded for the application of the knowledge derived from behavioral psychology to classroom procedures and suggested automated teaching devices as means of doing so.
Although the first practical use of Regular television broadcasts was in Germany in 1929 and 1936, the Olympic Games in Berlin were broadcasted through television stations in Berlin. Open circuit television began to be used primarily for broadcasting programs for entertainment in 1950. Since 1960, television is used for educational purposes.
In 1950, Brynmor, in England, used educational, technological steps for the first time. In 1960, as a result of an industrial revolution in America and Russia, other countries also started progressing in the field of educational technology. In this way, the beginning of educational technology took place in 1960 from America and Russia, and now it has reached England, Europe, and India.
During the 1950s, the new technocracy was turning its attraction to education when there was a steep shortage of teachers in America. Therefore an urgent need for educational technology was felt. Dr. Alvin C. Eurich and a little later his associate, Dr. Alexander J. Stoddard, introduced mass production technology in America.
Team teaching had its origin in America in the mid of 1950s and was first started in 1955 at Harvard University as a part of internship plan.
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom from the USA introduced the taxonomy of educational objectives through his publication, “The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, The Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain.”
In 1961, the Micro teaching technique was first adopted by Dwight W. Allen and his co-workers at Stanford University in the USA.
Electronics is the main technology being developed at the beginning of the 21st century. Broadband Internet access became popular and occupied almost all the important offices and educational places and even in common places in developed countries with the advantage of connecting home computers with music libraries and mobile phones.
Today’s classroom is more likely to be a technology lab, a room with rows of students using internet connected or Wi-Fi enabled laptops, palmtops, notepad, or perhaps students are attending a video conferencing or virtual classroom or may have been listening to a podcast or taking in a video lecture. Rapid technological changes in the field of education have created new ways to teach and to learn. Technological changes also motivated the teachers to access a variety of information on a global scale via the Internet, enhance their lessons, and make them competent professionals in their area of concern. At the same time, students can utilize the Internet’s vast resources to enrich their learning experience to cope with the changing trend in society. Nowadays, students and teachers are attending seminars, conferences, and workshops at the national and international level by using the multimedia techno-resources like PowerPoint, and even they pursue a variety of important courses of their choice in distance mode via online learning ways. Online learning facilities have opened an infinite number of doors of opportunities for today’s learners to make their lives happier than ever before.