Bulletin Board Systems 

“These were really the forerunner for much of what we know as social media and developed the structures and processes (or lack of them) for discussion forums. The BBS operated in a world of dial-up modem connections.” (Weller, 2020) 

The Web

"Much of ed tech is essentially a variant on the question: what does the web mean for us?" (Weller, 2020)

" . . . academics began to share teaching resources in this way, which as with publications, would plant the seeds of the open education movement." (Weller, 2020)

Computer-Mediated Communication

“The types of CMC technologies back in 1996 included instant messaging, email, BBS, early Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video systems (precursors to the likes of Skype), online databases, discussion forums, and even online multi-user games (the Multi-User Dungeon [MUD] being an early form of distributed online gaming).” (Weller, 2020) 

Wikis

"The potential of wikis for education was immediately obvious. Students could work collaboratively on a document, not limited by space or time." (Weller, 2020)

" . . . the approach to ed tech (Wikis) represent — cooperative and participatory — has been replaced by a broadcast, commercial publisher model." (Weller, 2020)

"...e-learning was poised to become part of the mainstream of higher education. How this promise played out over the ensuing decade is one of the themes of the following chapters, and it is a tale of both success and of missed opportunity"

• Higher education did not like the concept of E-Learning because they thought it would be commercialized and take education away from academics. (Textbook companies teaching the masses).

• Academics had the assumption that face to face is the only valid form of learning. This benefited the academics. What was not considered is the social functions like distance, open, and flexible learning.

• E-Learning is more so "online learning"

• E-Learning led to Blended Learning (term we still use today) which can be argued that each class now a days is blended.

• E-Learning has increased variable costs and decreased fixed cost so ultimately it costs the same as traditional learning which has decreased variable costs and increased fixed costs.

“a digitized entity which can be used, reused or referenced during technology supported learning”

• They were a thing, standards were made, they were reusable, platforms were built, content was produced in this style, and even papers were written.

  • But it failed

• Why did it fail?

  • Overengineering - Needed to be tightly standardized to be machine friendly. Too complicated so no one created them.

  • Definition Debates - There was no clear definition. Specific definition excluded too much and general definitions were too broad.

  • Reusability Paradox - Learners desire context, machines do not.

  • An Unfamiliarity Threshold - It looked less like an educational concept and more like a technical one - programming language.

  • World Wasn't Ready

  • Education is too Messy - Lived experiences impact how something is described changing the definition of a concept. The boundaries of an object are not well defined.

  • Reluctance From Educators - Educators didn't want to share their material.

• The fail led to success such as increased standardization around platforms, assessment, and content transfer. Led to success in subscribing methods for e-learning content.

• Why did it fail? 1) People want to share only with some people 2) Too many tools being used and not standardized 3) Copyright issues

• Wanted to fix the big problem of platforms and content developers using different formats.

  • Content and tools needed to work together to exchange and make use of the information

  • Specifying standards for tools allowed educators to pass information through them. (~apps)

  • Tool was created for content to be added and then used in any platform that was compatible with this tool.

• Metadata was important for content - used to describe a piece of content so that it could be discovered and used easily.

  • Educators filled the fields on the materials they were using online

  • Metadata fields increased to include education fields - this caused people to create a resources but then spend a lot of time filing out this Metadata describing their work.

• For Educational resources to be useful online, the complexity is needed in the metadata. Fewer people then used this. Therefore making it not beneficial.

• Most of the standards are in the background, but the idea of this concept failed. Other tools came forward for more open ended resource description rather than the formal one.

• This idea led to future ideas.

• A place where people could publish their journals (personal) and people would subscribe to get updates.

• Blogs help find a community of like minded people that could share experiences and ideas across large distances - and was external to other academic systems.

• There would be two worlds at play for academics who were bloggers. One of which publications and grant income was important and another were identity and attention was.

• Positive: Identity online would increase visibility in the physical world

• Negative: Online gives way to misogyny, racism, and harassment.

• Benefits of blogging:

  • Online reputation leading to recognition traditionally. (Guest speaker, etc.)

  • Informal debates with like minded people

  • Language used was more layman than in an academic setting

  • Developing relationships

• Blogging would be an open environment where as LMS are more safe

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are defined by UNESCO as: “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions” - UNESCO 2012a

 there is more to education than just the content

Created the open publication license (OPL), then later the Creative Commons license.

Spearheaded by MIT - operating form a privileged position with budgets and students to spare

Overall, Open Educational resources had groundbreaking impacts on the sharing and licensing of educational and other types of content. It opened many avenues for people to create media and resources and make them publicly available. Unfortunately, it did not revolutionize education the way that the creators and MIT hoped it would.

The popularizing of video was groundbreaking in 2005. This was spearheaded by the creation of YouTube, which was quickly popularized and eventually purchased by google within 1 year. 

The primary impact that it had was the ways that is make creating video content and sharing it more accessible to the average person. Along with the accessibility of video recording technology, suddenly anyone could make a video.

In Education it allowed for and promoted the flipped classroom model. Different learning (videos) could be given to students and then class time could be re-prioritized to group work

Tech advances since then have made quality cameras and microphones viable. This has enabled educators to create open educational video content, or even to record lectures. This has not always been positive, as not everyone wants a 40 minute talking head video. But its invention laid lots of foundational groundwork for future innovations within education

Web 2.0

In 2006, 2.0 was an overused suffix to signify that something was new and interactive

Web 1.0 sites were static and creator driven. 2.0 sites were dynamic, participatory, and characterized by social interaction and user-generated content. Web 2..0 was a catch-all term to group together user-generated content sites like YouTube, Flickr, and other blogs.

Web 2.0 started to utilized the use of metadata for sorting and sifting information and connecting like people.

Laid the groundwork for more collaborative tools like google docs.

Its rise was short-lived and its fall was unremarkable. Most of the tools that were revolutionary in 2006 are no longer in use today.

The principles of Web 2.0 were helpful, but its ethos was at odds with formal education. It was too free, bottom up, and agile for educators to really know what to do with.

Second Life and Virtual Worlds

The pre curser to the meta verse- custom money, services, networks etc. It also had strong roots in RPGs

It was expected to rival brick and mortar schools in accessibility and impact on students. It even integrated with moodle to create sloodle. Rather than thinking about accessibility and solving problems, they focused on making education fit within their idea.

This technology was the pre-curser to the meta verse, and other open world interactive programs like pokemon go.

An additional a challenge was that this technology was expensive, and exclusive. There were no competitors to second life, and had many people that were against it, or extremely for it. This didn’t create a stable middle ground

Overall, this technology was quirky, innovative, and different. It didn’t gain much traction with the majority of education, likely because of the preference that educators have towards face to face brick and mortar teaching, but it had a foundational effect in helping us conceptualize of virtual spaces which are more commonplace now.

E- Portfolios

Lorenzo and Ittelson(2005) defined them as A digitized collection of artifacts, including demonstrations, resources, and accomplishments that represent an individual, group, community, organization, or institution”

A way to share student work with others, or to map out a persons own learning. This encompasses all learning, not just formal classroom assignments

It was thought that this would revolutionize learning and provide educators with a fundamental change in their assessment practices. - it was hoped that this would inspire students to take control and ownership of their own learning.

It was expected to have 4 main uses:

• Reflective learning

• Employee marketing

• Program assessment

• Showcasing professional standards

Most institutions using e-portfolios aimed to fulfill more than one of these functions

Yet these were inaccessible and complex for students to use. Of higher education students in Ireland, many found that they were time consuming, and therefore not as effective in preparing students for future employment

It is also not clear if recruiters actually value e-portfolios

• E-portfolios have a number of issues:

• Overcomplicated and time consuming

• Institutional - not user focused

• Users focus on the tool, not the skills

• Lack of ownership - students do not use e-portfolios after graduation

Overall, for students, it is easier and more effective for them to own their own domain and create their own blog.

"If the Learning Management System (LMS) represents the dominant educational technology, then Twitter is the behemoth of third-party tech that has been adopted in education"

Twitter and social media have played a crucial role in advancing educational technology by leveling the playing field in academic discourse and fostering global connections among scholars. Despite its challenges, it remains a transformative tool for engaging in and sharing research, reflecting its significant impact on the educational landscape.

"The integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements — not entirely under the control of the individual."

Connectivism advanced educational technology by acknowledging the chaotic nature of the Internet and emphasizing the importance of networks in learning. Its principles, such as aggregation, relation, and sharing, formed the basis for innovative educational models like MOOCs, expanding learning opportunities.

"Learners and educators began to gather a set of tools to realize a number of functions. The collection of these learning-support tools, both formally and informally, began to be referred to as a Personal Learning Environments"

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) were significant in advancing educational technology by enabling learners to personalize their educational experiences and integrate various tools according to their needs. However, their impact was limited as they struggled with complexity and the challenge of creating cohesive systems, eventually giving way to more simplified approaches like Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and broader personalization strategies.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were significant for ed tech because they showed the potential for large-scale online learning and highlighted the importance of open educational resources. However, problems like low completion rates and unsustainable costs have led to a more balanced view of their impact on education.

Open textbooks have had a significant impact on the field of educational technology. They provide openly licensed versions of selected textbooks, which include lesson plans, family resources, and assessments. This model improves accessibility, enabling more students to access current, high-quality materials that support their learning. In South Africa alone, over 10 million books have been delivered to schools, demonstrating the potential of this technology to bridge the educational gap between wealthier countries and those with fewer resources.

At first, I was concerned about the cost and financial sustainability of providing open textbooks at little or no cost. However, there is now an exploration of the concept of an "open flip," which involves reallocating funds from purchasing copyrighted materials to producing openly licensed ones. In our ETAD873 class, we even developed an open textbook on AI in education. This not only deepened our understanding but also contributed to educating others. This project exemplifies how educational technology can be driven from within the education sector itself.

"a representation of an accomplishment, interest or affiliation that is visual, available online, and contains metadata including links that help explain the context, meaning, process and result of an activity".

Pros - makes it easier for organizations to verify credibility and understand the true value of an individual’s qualifications and skills.  (Like tokens, shows good reputation, trusted, a good platform to learn from.

Cons - Credibility issues, can be seen as trivial and irrelevant or a status symbol for educators and speakers 

AI has become very common place in much of our daily lives for applications such as credit assessment, technical toubleshooting, voice recognition systems such as Siri, and computer games.

Pros - These are all examples of narrow AI, which means they can perform one aspect of human functioning well, such as "language learning bots, sophisticated automatic assessment, resource recommenders, and so forth can all be deployed within an existing educational ecosystem."

Cons - So far general AI has not been successful performing intellectual tasks such as flexibility, emotional, and cognitive connections that learners make with human educators  “it is a fundamentally human experience.”  Errors and assumptions are frequent. 

“an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value”.  Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin use blockchain.

Pros - No central database. Benefit to education – student digital records decentralized, control over your own data, use of cryptocurrency, focus on the individual rather than the institution. Instant access to trusted digital certificates without the need to contact institutions, would benefit refugees whose original paper certificates may have been lost or destroyed. 

Cons: Environmental implications (energy consumption/transaction), trying to solve a problem that isn’t really there?? 

"The LMS offered a neat collection of the most popular tools, any one of which might not be as good as the best of the breed-specific tools but good enough."

• Advantage is that e-learning could progress more quickly across an entire institution.

  • Was not the case - more of a business (being locked in contracts) and vendors putting in restrictions.

• At first it was seen as a place to dump notes and replicate lectures rather then implement more engaging pedagogies.

• There are limitations to the Learning Management System used which can cause decrease in engaging pedagogies.

• A Sedimentation process - where you are stuck with what you have because you are locked into the tool being used.

• Virtual learning environments are being moved away from the traditional and include social media and e-profiles.

More of an idea rather than a technology...someone is either "stuck in the past and resistant to technology or they are forward-looking and progressive, and therefore keen to adopt their technology" vs "one can still be enthusiastic about the application of technology to benefit learners while being aware of the broader implications, questioning claims, and advocating (or conducting) research about real impacts."

Educators have an important responsibility to teach about and use technology, as well as building students' awareness of potentially harmful environments. 

4 Strong negatives – Algorithm filters, misinformation and fake news, harassment, trolling and callout culture, hacking campaigns and bot programs. 

algorithmic-driven approach transforms discovery into a passive rather than an active process. This opens up a whole new audience for racist, misogynistic, and conspiracy theory sites, and this passive presentation helps to normalize these views. 

“the dark side of ed tech.” such as issues of privacy and data intrusion, social impact, and digital polarization. 

Solution...4 approaches 

1. Responsibility – duty of care by educators by either avoiding certain technologies or educating students 

2. Appropriate skepticism – don't avoid but question everything and it’s impact 

3. Develop skills to recognize and deal with the issue such as finding the source of info 

4. Research and evaluate, counter act the dark side of tech...backlash etc. 

The term, "Distopian Turn" refers to the shift from direct advocacy for making use of new Ed tech to a more critical and mindful perspective on how to move forward cautiously.

Constructivism

“The principal concept of constructivism, then, is that learners construct their own knowledge, based on their experience and relationship with concepts, often through some form of social interaction.” (Weller, 2020) 

"the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about the progress of learners and the contexts in which learning takes place." These include learning platforms, online courses and grade/management systems. Pros - they collects data about students and how they learn best as well as improve communication with students. Cons - can reduce students to data and statistics, Seems like a very important technological advance for education IMO.

Sam (1994-1998): 

1995 – The Web  

"The web laid the foundation for nearly all the technologies that follow . . . and is the one we are still feeling the impact of most keenly.” (Weller, 2019) 

From 1994 to 1998, several technological advancements significantly impacted educational technology, each with its unique contributions and limitations. In 1994, Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) played a crucial role in the development of the web and the internet, but their reliance on dial-up modems rendered them obsolete as technology advanced. By 1996, Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) had become an integral part of most software, yet it was no longer the primary delivery method for education, diminishing its significance. Constructivism, highlighted in 1997, remained a valid teaching approach but was not new and depended heavily on the instructor’s organization, making it inconsistent. Finally, in 1998, Wikis introduced a cooperative and participatory approach to educational technology, but this model was soon overshadowed by a “broadcast, commercial publisher model.” (Weller, 2019) Despite these advancements, the web emerged as the most important innovation during this period, revolutionizing access to information, enabling global connectivity, and laying the foundation for modern educational technology.

Anna-Maria (1999-2003):

1999 - E-Learning

Between 1999 to 2003 a significant technology that transformed education was E-Learning. What is E-learning? E-learning involves online components and accompanying pedagogies that come together to provide a learning environment. Initially, it covered any use of electronic media in learning, but later it evolved into focusing on online learning. Why is e-learning important? E-learning has a disruptive impact on education. It challenges the belief that face-to-face interaction is the only valid form of learning. E-learning also paved the way in developing new standards for educational content online, known as learning objectives. Learning objects are digital resources that can be used, reused or referenced during online learning. However, these attempts to standardize learning objectives failed because the need to use reusable content was influenced by lived experiences of those creating the online content which made it difficult to create machine-friendly processes since boundaries are needed. But the idea to bring online educational content to a more structured and standardized way led to future tools like blogs and learning management systems.  

Kara (2004-2008):

2007 - Second Life & Virtual Worlds

Second Life was the original pre-curser to the meta verse, Pokemon Go, and many other digital spaces. It was designed to be a digital world where people would live, go to school, network, shop, and life a second life. Originally designed by Linden Labs in 2003, Second Life really became popular in 2007. There were properties to buy with “Linden Dollars”, and virtual buildings to rent. In education, Second Life was expected to rival brick and mortar schools in accessibility and impact on students. It even integrated with popular LMS Moodle to create sloodle. 

But, the popularity and versatility of Second Life was not seen by everyone. Their designs, while accessible, prioritised making education fit within their idea, rather than being student or pedagogy focused. An additional a challenge was that this technology was expensive, and exclusive, with no competitors or other competition to keep prices reasonable. Overall, this technology was quirky, innovative, and different. It didn’t gain much traction with the majority of education, but it had a foundational effect in helping us conceptualize of virtual spaces which are more commonplace now.

Bryony (2009-2013):

2013 - Open Textbooks

Open textbooks have had a significant impact on the field of educational technology. They provide openly licensed versions of selected textbooks, which include lesson plans, family resources, and assessments. This model improves accessibility, enabling more students to access current, high-quality materials that support their learning. In South Africa alone, over 10 million books have been delivered to schools, demonstrating the potential of this technology to bridge the educational gap between wealthier countries and those with fewer resources.

At first, I was concerned about the cost and financial sustainability of providing open textbooks at little or no cost. However, there is now an exploration of the concept of an "open flip," which involves reallocating funds from purchasing copyrighted materials to producing openly licensed ones. In our ETAD873 class, we even developed an open textbook on AI in education. This not only deepened our understanding but also contributed to educating others. This project exemplifies how educational technology can be driven from within the education sector itself.

Natalie (2014-2018):

Digital Badges (2015)

At first read, my initial thought was that “Learning Analytics” (2014), and “Return of AI” (2016), were the most important technologies for advancing education and that “Digital Badges” (2015) was least important. However, after reading chapter 25, “Ed Tech’s Dystopian Turn” (2018), it became extremely clear that with the speed and breadth of ed tech advancements along with AI and Learning Analytics’ ethical concerns, my opinion of digital badges has increased significantly. 

Because of the “dark side of ed tech” such as algorithm filters, misinformation, fake news, racism, trolling, callout culture, hacking campaigns and bot programs, perhaps the idea of digital badges is one that could be the solution and support educators in using technology with these “4 approaches” (responsibility, skepticism, sourcing skills, evaluation and countering such as backlash for dark and harmful environments). The meta data gathered for the badges could help source information, promote the use of new technologies and encourage all users to be critical and aware of the technology they are using as well as an active participant to improve the ethical credibility of that technology.