School Technology in Education

History of Educational Technology

Marcela PerezMariano Zanetti

The history of educational technology is marked by the increasing complexity and sophistication of devices

technology proponents have from time to time claimed that technology will replace teachers, this has not occurred

the idea of educators is that technology can be used effectively to supplement instruction by providing instructional variety,

visual education and visual instruction were used originally to refer to media available to teachers, such as three-dimensional objects, photographs, and silent films.Later, sound was added to film and audio recordings which allowed audiovisual education, audiovisual instruction to become popular.

The first organizations in schools to manage instructional media were school museums.

In 1913 many people thought that books would become obsolete ant that things would change drastically in the following 10 years. This was not so.

In the 1910 teachers used films only sparingly. Some of the reasons cited for infrequent use were teachers' lack of skill in using equipment and film; the cost of films, equipment, and upkeep; inaccessibility of equipment when it was needed; and the time involved in finding the right film for each class.

Radio was the next technology to gain attention. Soon schools, colleges, departments of education, and commercial stations were providing radio programming to schools

Efforts to promote radio instruction in schools were abandoned when television became available.

World war two provided a boost for audiovisual education.The U.S. government alone spent $1 billion on military training films .

Experience gained from the wartime use of these media fueled their subsequent use in schools in the decades to follow.

Instructional television was the focus of attention during the 1950s and the 1960s.

This attention was stimulated by two factors: First, the 1952 decision by

the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set aside 242 television channels for educational purposes led to a rapid development of educational (now called public) television stations.

The second factor was the substantial investment by the Ford Foundation. One of the most innovative efforts at this time was the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI) which employed airplanes to transmit televised lessons over a six-state area.

• By the 1970’s the enthusiasm for instructional television had decreased.

• Congress and some school systems provided funds to support instruction via satellite TV transmission in an effort to help rural schools

• However, instructional TV appeared to prosper only where there was substancial public, corporate and commercial support.

• In general schools had difficulties to deal with the costs of program development and purchase and maintenance of equipment.

The next technology to capture the interst of educators was the computer.

In the 50’s and 60’s the were some computer instructional applications with little impact on schools.

In the 1980’s, with the advent of microcomputers, many teachers and educators became more engaged and saw the value of computers for instructional purposes at all levels of school.

At this time, however, students had limited access to computers, generally related to one computer laboratory and only for one hour weekly.

By the year 2000, the average of computer per student improved significantly and more than 90% of the schools had internet connections.

School Technology in Education

B a l d w i n , R . ( n . d . ) S c h o o l T e c h n o l o g y i n E d u c a t i o n . h t t p : / / w w w . a n s w e r s . c o m / t o p i c / s c h o o l - t e c h n o l o g y - i n - e d u c a t i o n