Tracing the History of

Educational Technology
 The history of “Educational
Technology … can be traced back of
the time when tribal priests
systemized bodies of knowledge,
and early cultures invented
pictographs or sign writing to record
and transmit information.”
( Paul Saetler, 1990)
 “ Technology is commonly thought of in
terms of gadgets, instruments, machines
and devices … most (educators) will
defer to technology as computers”
(Muffoletto, 1994)
DURING THE ANCIENT TIMES
- Man started to use pointed sticks to in script signs and
symbol on the leaves of trees and knives for the bark of tree.
- At about 3100 B.C. the Egyptians devised a system for picture
writing called “heiroglyphics”
- Paidonomus, a military commander in the public barracks.
They promote activities for the boys which includes bodily
strength, endurance and vitality.
- Music school with the Kitharist
- Grammar schools with the Grammatist and
- Gymnastics with the Paedotibe
DURING THE ANCIENT TIMES
389-399 B.C.

INQUIRY & THE SOCRARIC METHOD

Through the use of questioning, Socrates (and his
students Plato and Zenophon) guide the learner to
their inborn knowledge. AVID, a national program for
college readiness, still emphasizes the Socratic Method
as an integral part of the curriculum as students work
in small groups with a tutor to use questioning to guide
their peers to solve their homework questions.
ABACUS
- The invention of the abacus in 3,000 B.C. marked the
beginning of computers.
SAUN-PAN and SOROBAN
- The earliest surviving counting board is the Salamis
Tablet which dates to 400 B.C. China ( Saun-Pan) and
Japan (Soroban) inroduced computer trays at about the
same point in history (200 A.D.). The Soroban ( a type
of abacus), in particular, is still used today for
calculating.
 Around 2,300 BC the creators of
Stonehenge first began work on what is
now known as an astronomic calculator.
This miraculous complex took over 2,000
years to complete.
The beginnings – Stone Age
Technology (to c. 3000 BCE)
The identification of the history of technology with the history
of humanlike species does not help in fixing a precise point for
its origin, because the estimates of prehistorians and
anthropologists concerning the emergence of human species
vary so widely.

Animals occasionally use natural tools such as sticks or stones,

and the creatures that became human doubtless did the same
for hundreds of millennia before the first giant step of
fashioning their own tools.
DURING THE MEDIEVAL ERA
• The establishment of the Medieval University.
• Emperor Frederick I of Bologna in 1158 chartered the first Universtiy
degrees.
• Saracens aimed to search for knowledge and the application of
scientific facts. They originated the scientific method of teaching.
• Pierre Abelard introduced a technology of instructions which was
really a new method of structuring and presenting materials that
helped set the style of scholastic education.
• John Amos Comenius was recognized as the pioneer of modern
instructural technology by reason of his book Orbis Pictus ( The World
in Picture) which was illustrated textbooks for children studying Latin
& Sciences.
• Their curriculum was the most organized and complete in
the elementary, secondary and collegiate levels. Their
universities and libraries were the models in the entire
Europe because they invented the printing press.
• Charles Martel was the first ruler who sought to educate
the population.
- he appointed several priests to educate the sons of
important men.
- he changed education from being purely to God to
including more practical knowledge such as mathematics
and Latin.
DURING THE RENAISSANCE
PERIOD
Authorities agree that modern times began with the movement know as age of
Renaissance or Reawakening. The period has three main lines of concern:
Intellectual to which education belongs
Aesthetic
Scientific
• Along the intellectual development
- Humanism
- Reformation
- Realism
- Disciplinism
- Rationalism
All these contributed to the development of educational technology especially
along theories and practices.
• Most peasants were never allowed to study as the fees
required by the church were beyond their reach. Study books
were extremely expensive so the only viable way to learn
was with the help of a teacher.
• Most elite fighting troops were educated. The knights, with
their famous Code of Chivalry are a perfect example. They
were educated from a very early age and excelled in reading,
writing and other practical skills.
• Women had been virtually ignored up to this point. Even
though only a small minority of them began to study in
universities, this was a changing point towards a more equal
society. However, women were still required to do
everything his husbnad or lord pleased.
DURING THE RENAISSANCE
PERIOD
• Leonardo da Vinci Calculator
- in 1452 AD it is believed tat Leonardo da
Vinci conceived of a calculation device.
• Johannes Gutenberg (Germany)
. - developed the printing press, sometime
considered the greatest invention of all time.
• Between 1452 and 1456, Gutenberg printed the first
book ever, The Bible.
DURING THE AGE OF
NATURALISM
• Jean Jacques Roussea’s educational views were
contained in a book titled Emile, which he authored.
• The aim of education was the preservation of the
natural goodness of the individual and the formation of
society based upon the recognition of natural individual
rights.
• Froebel who was know as the Father of Kindergarten
emphasized the use of actual objects, which could be
manipulated by the learners.
• John Napier, then inventor of logarithms, created an
aid to calculation known as ‘Napier’s Bones’ in 1617.
• He described a method of multiplication using
“numbering rods” with numbers marked off on
them. Napier’s nimbering rods were made of ivory,
so that they looked like bones. This explains why
they are now known as Napier’s Bones. To multiply
numbers, the bones were placed side by side and the
appropriate products read off.
NAPIER’S BONE
•1635 – founding of the first public school.
•1650 – The Horn-Book – Wooden paddles
lessons were popular in the colonial era. On
the paper there was usually the alphabet
and a religious verse which children would
copy to help them learn how to write.
•Robert Bissaker forst created the slide rule
in1654, an instrument used by engineers
and scientist until 1970s
THE HORN-BOOK SLIDE RULE
• Magin Cataoprica magic lantern invented in
1646, led to the eventual zoetrope.
• In 1725, Joseph-Marie Jacquard (French)
invented a way to weave silk using punched
cards. These punched cards would become the
predecessors of those used in the firat
computer.
• Benjamjn Franklin discovered Electricity.
Punched Card
Movements in the 19th Century
• The 19th century paved in the advent of effective
technological development including the
production of textbooks, use of blackboards and
improvements in writing implements like pen
and ink. Photography was invented, giving a way
to a movement called “Visual Instruction”
• 1801 – chalk board was invented
• Charles Babbage’s calculating engines (1822) are among the
celebrated icons in the prehitory of computing.
• Babbage is often considered as the “Grandfather of Modern Digital
Computing”
• Peter Mark Roget, 1824, first envisioned motion pictures.
• In 1912 the Victor Animatograph Company produced the first
portable lanter-slide projector and 16 mm projector.
• In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the electrical speech
machine which we now call the telephone.
• Hollerith, in 1884, applied for a patent for his automatic punch-card
tabulaing machine to help with the US census.