History of Educational Technology

  • 30,000 BCE

    Cave Drawings

    Cave Drawings
    In Asia and Europe, people used this technique to communicate.
  • 510 BCE

    Pythagoras Academy

    Pythagoras Academy
    Pythagoras academy was the first formal education academy in the history. It was founded by the philosopher Pythagoras. Students were taught in an open classroom setting where they learned philosophy, science and mathematics.
  • Period: 400 BCE to

    Oral Communication Era

    People communicate with verbal communication since the fifth century.
  • 105

    Paper made in China

    Paper made in China
    The invention of paper, which can be considered one of the biggest steps in education, has been one of the technological developments affecting education.
  • 382

    Manuscript Transcription

    Manuscript Transcription
    Manuscript transcription was developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Latin alphabet could be easily recognized by the literate class from different regions.
  • 1450

    Gutenberg Printing Press

    Gutenberg Printing Press
    Gutenberg greatly improved the process by treating typesetting and printing as two separate work steps. The Latin alphabet proved to be an enormous advantage in the process because, in contrast to logographic writing systems, it allowed the type-setter to represent any text with a theoretical minimum of only around two dozen different letters.
  • Period: 1450 to

    Written Communication Era

    The invention of the printing press in Europe in the 15th century was a truly disruptive technology, making written knowledge much more freely available, very much in the same way as the Internet has done today.
  • Public Education

    Public Education
    Public education and blackboard became part of our life.
  • Period: to

    Audiovisual Age

    Some technological devices are used in education.
  • Audiovisual Age (Radio)

    Audiovisual Age (Radio)
    Radio got involved in education.
  • Period: to

    Broadcasting and Video Era

    The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began broadcasting educational radio programs for schools in the 1920s. In 1969, the British government established the Open University, which worked in partnership with the BBC to develop university programs open to all, using a combination originally of printed materials designed by OU staff, and television and radio programs but integrated with the courses. The use of television for education quickly spread around the world in the 1970s.
  • Audiovisual Age (Film Strip Projector)

    Audiovisual Age (Film Strip Projector)
    Film strip projector got involved in education.
  • Audiovisual Age (Overhead Projector)

    Audiovisual Age (Overhead Projector)
    Overhead projector got involved in education.
  • Period: to

    Computer Based Learning Era

    B.F. Skinner started experimenting with teaching machines that made use of programmed learning in 1954, based on the theory of behaviourism. Skinner’s teaching machines were one of the first forms of computer-based learning.
  • Information Age (TV)

    Information Age (TV)
    Television was used for education.
  • Period: to

    Information Age

    Television, VCR, VHS tape and audio tape started to be used.
  • Period: to

    Computer Networking Era

    Arpanet in the U.S.A was the first network to use the Internet protocol in 1982. The Word Wide Web was formally launched in 1991. The World Wide Web is basically an application running on the Internet that enables ‘end-users’ to create and link documents, videos or other digital media, without the need for the end-user to transcribe everything into some form of computer code. The first web browser, Mosaic, was made available in 1993.
  • Computer Age

    Computer Age
    Computers and smart boards became a part of the public education
  • The Digital Age

    The Digital Age
    People started to share information from distance thanks to the technological devices.
  • Online Learning Environment

    Online Learning Environment
    In 1995, the Web enabled the development of the first learning management systems (LMSs), such as WebCT (which later became Blackboard). LMSs provide an online teaching environment, where content can be loaded and organized, as well as providing ‘spaces’ for learning objectives, student activities, assignment questions, and discussion forums.
  • The Interactive Age

    The Interactive Age
    Smart Response PE, laptops, document camera, Smart Response XE were used.
  • Period: to

    Application Age

    The 2010's include MOOCs(Massive open online courses), a consolidation of rapid elearning in business, a return of a type of simulations through serious gaming and a technical trend towards delivery with HTML5 (as opposed to proprietary solutions). Non-educational on-line applications are main-stream now, e.g. shared office applications, note pads, ang various instant messaging applications.