ET: HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

History of Educational Technology

The usual practice in an attempt to narrate the history of educational technology is to divide the entire gamut into two. The first aspect is the global and general worldwide historical development, while the second aspect relates to the peculiarity of the historical development at the local level. The first is usually the same all over the globe. Thus, the term – “global history” will discuss the worldwide trends, while variations are noticed in the local aspect of the history. Here, the style of narration will follow the tradition, i.e., the “global” aspect will be treated first while the “local” one will follow later.

Global Historical Development of Educational Technology

Stone Age Period

You must have been told the history of the early men at the elementary school. It is the same early men that we are referring to here. You would recall that he was reputed to have lived inside the cave.

He was described as a wanderer and that he lived a “crude” life. History had it that he ate his food raw until he was able to discover fire.

 The Age of Book and Chalkboard

In 1456, Johann Guttenberg developed the printing machine with which he was reputed to have printed the first Bible.

With this invention, the art of printing spread widely and other books were produced. With information explosion, there was wider spread of awareness and knowledge acquisition. Many people were interested in learning thus it became obvious that “one and one” teacher-pupil interaction as was the situation prior to the invention of the printing machine was no longer workable.

This paved way for the assemblage of students at a place for the teacher to attend to simultaneously. The resultant effect of this group communication was the invention of the chalkboard which was popularly known by then as blackboard. The board served as a central point of focus for all the students.

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It also provided the teacher a place to write down important points, diagrams and symbols. Now, we have different kinds of board in circulation. Mention could be made of wall boards, portable boards, easel board, and magnetic board etc.

 The Mass Communication Age

The invention of the radio and the television marked another landmark in the development of educational technology worldwide. Prior to these developments, the scope of educational provision was quite limited and very narrow. However, with the invention of the radio and television, the world entered into the scenario of mass communication and by implication, mass education.

The two media became two good sources to reach the unreachable and the less privileged in the society. Indeed, the radio served this purpose better than the television.

The Information Communication Age/Computer Age

The invention of the computer has remarkably changed the educational practice the world over. With computer technology comes the information age. As succinctly put by Akindoju (2002), the computer technology has achieved a wondrous feat unifying all communication media available to man. With the advent of the computer technology comes the following developments (Conway, 1990): (i) Electronic board akin to the white boards with special pens capable to transferring data written on it to the system;

(ii) Multimedia system equipped with a sound blaster and speakers;

(iii) CD-ROM player / DVD-ROM player (on which audio, images and video files are recorded);

(iv) Video disk player and a videotape player controlled by the personal computer PC);

(v) PC – PC conferencing mode;

(vi) The touch screen and voice recognition/communication devices for the special education students;

(vii) The digital camera that combines very well with computer where images can be shown and be manipulated / printed;

(viii) Advances in virtual reality – virtual libraries, virtual universities, etc.

Computers are now used to package instructions either in a mediated form or in non-mediated form using any or a combination of the styles of drill and practice, tutorials, games, simulations, and/or interactive knowledge-based system.

CONCLUSION

The history of educational technology is a vital aspect of the discipline. Any serious minded teacher education student is expected to be able to trace the historical development of educational technology at the global level. The history of educational technology is closely linked with the technological trends and the ever-increasing link with the development in the sphere of science and communication technology.