Posted: August 27th, 2022

Educational technology

Educational technology is currently defined as the utilization of computers and the internet in studying processes. However, before the inception of broadband, schools in the United States implemented technology to produce scholarly, reliable, and fruitful members of a democratic community (Esin, 2011). Remarkably, the American settlers improvised the primitive version of the printing press with a technology referred to as hornbook, which was adopted from England. The hornbook was the initial nature of the educational technology applied in teaching reading in American schools. Subsequently, the printed books known as New England Primer were invented for schools in 1690 to make learning more fascinating for children in schools (Tatnall, 2010). Benjamin Harris introduced the New England Primer. Moreover, James Pillans, headmaster and teacher of geography in Edinburgh, Scotland, introduced slate tablets in the early 1800s, which gave room for introducing classroom chalkboards in 1841.
After that, Horace Mann started encouraging the public to purchase chalkboards for their classrooms. And in the subsequent several decades, the United States’ educational system extended and became more advanced. Besides, the cost of producing paper and printing books also declined to extents that facilitated paper to substitute slates and permitted each student to have his or her books (Whiteside, Dikkers & Swan, 2017). Therefore, the availability of books among the students led to the introduction of the kinetoscope in 1889. After that, Charles Urban of London invented the initial educational film in 1902. Moreover, Thomas Edison also influenced film in classrooms through the generation of series on the American Revolution.
On the other hand, in the 1920s, radios were invented for teaching in the classrooms. Like the declarations of Thomas Edison regarding the film, William Levenson, “the writer of Teaching through radio,” forecasted that a time would reach when the mobile radio receivers will be available and standard in the classroom as is the chalkboard (Wright, Miller & Marsh, 1999). Furthermore, the United States Military’s overhead projectors used to train forces during World War II in the 1930s found its way into the educational sector.
The first recorded application of closed-circuit television was in Los Angeles public schools in 1939. However, instructional televisions were famously adopted between 1939 and the 1950s. The general educational system of the United States experienced harsh criticism of lagging in terms of the technology with the allegations that Russia had invented Sputnik in 1957 (Hokanson, 2014).
And, in the 1960s, the television sector undertook vital reforms. Notably, in 1965, a Carnegie Corporation Commission suggested that “the federal administration create autonomous, nonprofit Corporation for the public television that would get funding from the government, and remit these funds to individual stations and production centers (Nata, 2017). All these events were set to achieve the success of instructional television. However, some opponents of the improvement in the public television sector, such as Bronson, believed that the result was not good for instructional television since Corporation for Public Broadcasting focused on pointing social change in place of facilitating the advancement of educational broadcasting (Waks, 2016).
Moreover, Computers were introduced in classrooms for the first time in the 1960s for teaching the students (Hokanson, 2014). The computer was adopted in classroom teaching due to the desire to individualize instructions. The strategy was commonly referred to as the Computer Assisted Instructions. However, the internet is the most modern technology used in classrooms. Most of the United States schools have introduced online courses, which are instructed through the internet.

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Tags: Educational Technology