"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." John Dewey
History of Educational Technology
Technology has always been closely linked with education. Particularly in recent years, technology has changed from being a peripheral factor to becoming more central in all forms of teaching. It actually, plays a very important role in facilitating the process of teaching and learning and making it more motivational and enjoyable for the learners. However, educational technology has been constantly evolving and developing over the past 100 years. In the first decade of the twentieth century, educators began making use of episcope as a manifestation of early opaque projection or early film projection, in order to draw students' attention as well as keeping them on track.
During the 1920s, the importance of motion picture emerged in facilitating instruction. Even more, some people viewed motion pictures as revolutionary invention and predicted a scenario in which textbooks will largely be replaced by motion pictures. In 1923, The National Education Association (NEA) established the Division of Visual Instruction (DVI), whose fundamental purpose was to include visual instruction movement in teaching, and to make it indispensable part in the teacher's instructional materials. In 1930s, thanks to The National Advisory Council on Radio in Education (NACRE) that encouraged the use of the radio, university students could stay home and listen to lectures via radio. During the 1940s, the U. S. government produced hundreds of instructional training films and bought thousands of film projectors to enrich the learning and teaching experiences and improve the quality of education. During the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century, there was huge advancement and development of computers, which are, evidently, the most widely used means of technology worldwide; that provided a variety of materials used in the field of education (Video disks, CD-ROMs, Multimedia, DVD, Teleconferencing, software). At present there are limitless technological resources and materials used in education, mainly with Virtual reality, online life, mobile computer lab, wireless internet access, online courses etc.
All in all, the innovations in educational technology have grown in number, quality and type. Hence, what distinguishes the digital age from all previous ages is the rapid pace of technology development and our immersion in technology-based activities in our daily lives. Thus it is fair to describe the impact of technology on education as a paradigm shift; and since education is multidisciplinary, it has changed all the aspects of human life as a whole.
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