https://pixabay.com/photos/typewriter-vintage-old-1248088/

Looking at the history of technology from both Bates (2015) and Watters (2014) perspective, we can see the progression of technology described from two different viewpoints. Both Bates and Watters agree that technology is advancing at a rapid pace and that technology-based activities are now imbedded in our daily lives. However, Bates describes the history of technology from the perspective of a positivist that believes the development of technology has advanced our abilities to communicate with each other and learn in new ways that were once not possible. He also states that new technology does not replace old technology, that old technology simply operates in a different, specialized way. Watters, on the other hand, looks at the history of technology from a pessimistic point of view and believes that technology today is not used in ways in which it was once intended. Watter’s states that “developing new technologies is easy; changing human behaviours, changing institutions, challenging tradition and power is hard”. In saying this, she alludes to the fact that we can and will continue to develop technology at a rapid pace, but that it will continue to be used for the consumption of information rather than its creation, unless society opens itself up to different ways of using technology.

In thinking about how education and educational technology have developed throughout history, it’s easy to see that the way we provide education and what we believe is pedagogical best practice, is intricately linked with the way technology has developed. With the creation of the printing press, postal system and satellite broadcasting, students were able to gain access to education at schools and universities across the globe (Bates, 2015). The learning management system technology has allowed for computer-based learning to provide information and feedback to learners, similar to that of the factory model of education during the time. In today’s education system, we have gone away from thinking of students as needing to be filled with knowledge and instead are looking at ways to make them active participants in their learning. I think technology has started to adapt to that and we are now seeing more interactive programs and platforms where students can start to create their own knowledge instead of just consuming it, as Watters (2014) alludes to.

As technology changes over time, it is important for educators to remain aware of what the best practices are in teaching and what types of technology can achieve that. If we continue to use technology for just the dissemination of knowledge and not for students to learn how to create their own content, discover their own information, and learn the technology skills that are necessary for 21st century learners, then we will be doing a disservice to them. In part, it is up to teachers to provide computer aided inspiration instead of computer-aided instruction (Watters), which is too often the default for technology use in the classroom.

References

Bates, A. W. (2015). A short history of educational technology. In Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Vancouver, BC: Tony Bates Associates Ltd. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/section-8-1-a-short-history-of-educational-technology/

Watters, A. (2014). The hidden history of ed-tech. In The monsters of educational technology (pp. 7-31). Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/audreywatters/the-monsters-of-education-technology.pdf#page=7