History of Instructional Technology

  • First School Museum Opened in St. Louis

    First School Museum Opened in St. Louis
    School Museums served as the central administrative unit(s) for visual instruction by (their) distribution of portable museum exhibits, stereographs (3D), slides, films, study prints, charts, etc.
  • Visual Education

    Visual Education
    Keystone View Company published "Visual Education", a teachers guide to lantern slides & stereographs.
  • Instructional Films

    Instructional Films
    The first catalog of Instructional film was published and later that year the public school system of Rochester, New York, became the first to adopt films for regular instructional use.
  • Thomas Edison

    Thomas Edison
    Thomas Edison said "Books will soon be obsolete in the schools...It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed in the next ten years."
  • The Department of Visual Instruction (DVI)

    The Department of Visual Instruction (DVI)
    In 1932, there was a merging of three existing national professional organizations for visual instruction.
  • Cone of Experience

    Cone of Experience
    In 1946, Edgar Dale developed his famous "Cone of Experience" to explain the relationships of the different types of visual and audio media and their roles in the learning process.
  • Television for Instruction

    Television for Instruction
    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designates 242 channels for educational use. This led to the rapid development of a large number of public television stations.
  • Bloom's Taxonomy

    Bloom's Taxonomy
    Bloom's Taxonomy was introduced under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom to promote higher forms of thinking in education instead of just role learning and/or memorizing.
  • Shifting Terminology

    Shifting Terminology
    By the early 1970s, the terms educational technology and instructional technology began to replace audiovisual instruction to describe the application of media for instructional purposes.
  • IBM

    IBM
    IBM introduced its first personal computer. Time magazine then named this computer its "Man of the Year" in 1982.
  • Computers for Instruction

    Computers for Instruction
    There was an increased interest in using computers for instruction by the early 1980s. In January 1983, computers were being used for instructional purposes in more than 40% of all elementary schools and more than 75% of all secondary schools.
  • Apple

    Apple
    Apple's MAC becomes available.
  • Toshiba

    Toshiba
    Toshiba released its first mass-market consumer laptop.
  • Personal Digital Assistants

    Personal Digital Assistants
    Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) were released by Apple Computer Inc.