HORNBOOKS
To understand the history of technology and its eventual integration into education, we might consider traveling back to the 1450s through the 1890s. During this period, many children learned through the innovation of the hornbook. Looking like a wooden shaped paddle, it was adorned with letters of the alphabet, vowel combinations or short verses. It was called a hornbook because of a thin transparent layer of animal horn placed on top for protection. Eventually hornbooks transformed into battledores, palm-sized booklets made from paper or cardboard which allowed for multiple pages, and eventually led to mass-printed books. This early example of ed tech illustrated the continual need for more printed information contained in the available media of the time.
THE MAGIC LANTERN
Another innovation which came to prominence in the 17th century was the magic lantern, initially used for entertainment. Although the image quality was dim due to the candlelight and oil lamp, the magic lantern provided black-and-white and hand-painted imagery to an entire group. By the 1890s, the magic lantern was found in many educational institutions and eventually was modernized by electric bulb illumination. Images of landscapes, paintings and people could be projected on a screen and brought the world into the classroom. This preceded the evolution of text-only digital communications like ARPANET, which connected universities and research labs, to instant messaging, HTML, and eventually the multimedia Internet environment of today.
MULTIMEDIA TRANSFORMATION
Another significant transformation of ed tech can be traced back to the introduction of the radio, film, fax and television. While the first radio waves were actually transmitted in 1906, Guglielmo Marconi formally introduced the technology in 1920. Older technologies based solely on text and still imagery quickly evolved to sound and motion. Talking movies made their appearance in 1927 with the release of the film "The Jazz Singer." The same year, Philo Farnsworth successfully demonstrated the television.
It wasn't long before innovators in education began using these tools in teaching. In fact, in 1935, according to Smithsonian Magazine, “New York University professor C. C. Clark conducted a class using a shortwave radio transceiver from his home.” Interestingly, because of the two-way capability of shortwave, Clark took questions from the class, which was an early example of distance education. In 1939, the first TV set was installed in a classroom in California. Not everyone had the foresight to see the potential of TV. The New York Times editorial board wrote at the time, “The problem with television is that people must sit and keep their eyes glued to the screen; the average American family hasn’t time for it.” Groucho Marx added, “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” Still, electronic companies continued to innovate for potential future use cases of their technological breakthroughs. In a 1940 advertisement by RCA, the company heralded the ability to have newspapers delivered by radio. The ad read, “New Miracle of Radio Facsimile broadcasts newspaper and automatically prints it in the home.”
These innovations were impressive, but the cost to the public, and to educational institutions, was challenging. In 1949, an RCA Victor ad featured a king-size TV with 126 square inches of viewing for $495. Adjusted for inflation, it amounts to $6,300 today. Since the average yearly income back then was $3,100, owning a TV was out of reach for most U.S. families. In the 1950s, black-and-white TVs could be “updated” with a colored filter — blue at the top, red, and green at the bottom — in an attempt to mimic real “living color.” More innovations were right around the corner.
COMPUTER REVOLUTION
From 1950 to 1970, the global space race helped push the boundaries of the computer revolution. In 1972, handheld calculators found their way into classrooms, and the growth of Apple computers in schools had a significant impact. Three years later, Microsoft was established by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and MS-DOS was introduced. By 1986, the utilization of PCs in high schools reached about 25 percent, and the pace only accelerated from there. As computer technology continued to be miniaturized and costs declined, higher education and K-12 embraced ed tech to provide innovative teaching and learning resources.
COLLABORATION AND CONNECTIVITY
During the 1990s and 2000s, educators found ways for students to collaborate and connect, not only in classrooms but with the entire world. Education began investigating effective ways to tailor lessons to individual student learning styles, leading the way to self-paced learning. Today, online and remote learning has grown to a crescendo, particularly during the pandemic. The entire educational ecosphere has shifted to anytime, anywhere learning, and the appetite for faster connectivity to more resources, larger storage, mixed with hyper-rich multimedia experiences are the norm.
STAY OPEN TO INNOVATION
To best understand our technological future, we should look at the past. Each innovation has created an audience yearning for more technology at a faster pace, and at a lower cost. Educational institutions have looked at corporate research and development for potential ed-tech innovations, and some campuses have partnered with companies to collaborate on products with excellent results. Still, higher ed faces significant challenges. In a January 2023 blog titled "Priorities in Higher Ed: Affordability and Advanced Tech," the financial services company Meadow singled out declining enrollment, college affordability and campus competition as trends of particular concern: “As technology evolves, colleges and universities must harness it to improve the quality of their educational offerings. This includes the use of online learning platforms, as well as the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve student experience.”
As educational funding decreases and hiring and retaining qualified IT staff becomes more difficult, the future may appear as dim as the early days of the candle-lit magic lantern. That doesn’t have to be the case. The key for higher education today is to be laser-focused on clear and precise missions, controlling costs, maintaining affordability, and embracing innovations which can be effectively and efficiently implemented and sustained. While many ed-tech innovations have blazed a trail for teaching and learning, they also had to overcome significant obstacles. Our challenge is to find the next generation of innovations which can turn the light up even brighter for our collective future.
