This document provides a summary of the history and theories of educational technology: - It outlines the evolution of educational technology from early 20th century teaching machines to modern mobile learning. Key developments discussed include computer-assisted instruction, online learning environments, and the rise of mobile devices for learning. - Theories of learning with technology discussed include Dewey's instrumental inquiry, Engeström's activity theory, and Pask's conversation theory. These emphasize learning as an active, social, tool-mediated process. - Evaluating learning is discussed, highlighting John Hattie's meta-analyses of influences on student achievement and the importance of feedback. - The document concludes by noting new perspectives from learning sciences and

1. A Very Short
Introduction to
Educational Technology
Mike Sharples
Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University

2. Definitions
Pedagogy
“The theory and practice of teaching, learning and assessment”
Sharples, M., McAndrew, P., Weller, M., Ferguson, R., FitzGerald, E., Hirst, T., Mor, Y., Gaved, M. and
Whitelock, D. (2012). Innovating Pedagogy 2012: Open University Innovation Report 1. Milton Keynes:
The Open University.
Educational technology
Interactive technology to enable effective learning (may include fixed,
desktop, mobile and wearable devices and their software - and
combinations of these)
Technology Enhanced Learning
Learning supported by individual or multiple technologies. In Europe, now
used in preference to e-learning, or computer-assisted learning

3. Contents
A short history of educational technology
Theories of learning with technologies
Evaluation of learning with technologies
3

4. 1920s: Pressey’s Self-testing machine
4
Image copyright OSU photo archives
“There must be an ‘industrial revolution’ in
education, in which educational science
and the ingenuity of educational
technology combine to modernize the
grossly inefficient and clumsy procedures
of conventional education. Work in the
schools of the future will be marvelously
though simply organized, so as to adjust
almost automatically to individual
differences and the characteristics of the
learning process. There will be many
laborsaving schemes and devices, and
even machines – not at all for the
mechanizing of education, but for the
freeing of teacher and pupil from
educational drudgery and incompetence.”
Sidney Pressey (1933) Psychology and the New Education

5. 1950s Linear programming and teaching machines
● Based on scientific theory of ‘operant
conditioning’ (changing behaviour by use of
reinforcement after a desired response)
● Presentation of a linear sequence of frames of
information, in small steps
● Immediate reinforcement of student
responses, but the same response for each
student
● Gradual progression to establish complex
repertoires
● Fading or gradual withdrawal of stimulus
support
● Issues: finding reinforcers that are effective
and ethical; matching individual students;
incorrect responses
5
In B.F. Skinner (1958) Teaching
Machines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH3ob
1IRFo

6. Emerging themes
● Educational technology
● Self-paced learning
● Interactive learning
● Learning design
● Formative assessment
● Motivation for learning
6

7. 1950s: Branching programs
●Based on theories from
cybernetics (adaptive systems,
feedback control)
●Using information from errors to
eliminate incorrect responses
(vs. ensuring correct responses
and reinforcing them)
●Student is presented with
multiple choice response
●Feedback depends on the
student’s response
●Move towards adaptive and
personalised teaching 7
Adaptive teaching machine

8. Multiple choice branching
8

9. 1960s: Computer-assisted instruction
● Computer-based teaching
● Adaptive teaching systems
● Programming languages for
education (BASIC: Beginner’s All
Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)
● “Computers and computer-managed
instruction systems can be expected
to play a major role in transforming
the educational process by giving the
teacher a sophisticated aid to allow
for flexible, multimedia, individualized
education at a relatively small
increase in cost.”
H.J. Bruder, Computer-Managed Instruction, Science,
1968
9
Multi-media adaptive teaching system,
with ‘light-pen’ touch screen, 1968

10. Instructivist pedagogy
●Learning as
information transfer
●Instructor-led
●Sequenced
learning elements
●Inform – test –
explain
●Adaptivity &
personalisation
10

11. 1970s: Large scale teaching systems
● Large scale projects
● Networked teaching
systems
● Logo and microworlds
● Computers as coaches
● AI-based intelligent
tutoring systems
11
‘Hangman’ software on
Commodore PET computer

12. 1970s: PLATO IV
● 950 networked terminals in 140 sites
● 8000 hours of instructional material by 3000 authors
● Aim to provide ubiquitous computer-based teaching
(proposal for 1-million terminal PLATO V)
● High resolution flicker-free plasma display screen
(transparent so that colour slides can be overlaid on it);
touch panel; audio and slide; music synthesisers
● TUTOR authoring language
● First use of graphic simulations for teaching
● Evaluation: “no compelling statistical evidence that
PLATO had either a positive or negative effect on
student achievement”; no significant effect on student
drop-out rates; PLATO students showed much more
favourable attitude towards computers.
● In 1992 the company NovaNET was formed with the
rights to PLATO technology. Changed name to
Edmentum in 2012.
12
PLATO IV touch-screen networked
learning terminal

13. 1970s: Logo programming for children
● Seymour Papert - student of the
psychologist Jean Piaget
● Learning through programming computers
● Logo programming language and
computer-controlled robotic ‘turtle’ for
children
● Claims that programming,
proceduralisation and debugging are
valuable problem-solving skills
● “In many schools today the phrase
“computer aided instruction” means
making the computer teach the child. One
might say the computer is being used to
program the child. In my vision the child
programs the computer”
Papert, Mindstorms, 1980
13
Children using a ‘button box’
to control and programme a turtle

14. 1980s: Microcomputers in education
● Multimedia personal computers
● Videodisks
● Networked-based teaching and
computer-supported
collaborative learning
● Educational simulations
● Commercial teaching and
training packages
14
Children using educational software on
a BBC microcomputer

15. 1990s: online learning
●Edutainment
●Integration of video, animation,
hypermedia
●Notebook computers
●Web-based learning
environments (VLEs, MLEs)
●Integrated learning systems
●Intelligent agents
15
‘Smart Operator’ adaptive simulation-based
training package with ‘intelligent agent’
feedback on learner errors

16. 2000s: mobile learning
●Web-based virtual learning
environments in universities
and colleges
●Mobile and contextual
learning
●Seamless learning
●Multimedia learning spaces
●Spoken language
interaction with tutoring
systems
16
HandLeR mobile learning technology

17. Old and new learning (1990s – 2010s)
17
E-learning in the 1990s Technology-enhanced learning
in the 2010s
Constructivist learning Social-constructivist learning
Online learning Blended learning
VLEs and MLEs Personal Learning Environments
Media-equipped teaching rooms Flexible learning spaces
Desktop computer rooms Support for students with multiple
personal technologies
Creating re-usable learning objects Open learning and student-created
media
Collaborative learning Social networked learning
Evaluation of learning gains Evaluation of learning
transformations
Effective learning technology Effective, scalable and sustainable
learningtechnology

18. The new science of learning
● Computational learning
● Infer structural models from the environment
● Learn from probabilistic input
● Social learning
● Learning by imitation
● Shared attention
● Intersubjectivity
● Neural learning
● Learning supported by brain circuits that link
perception and action
● Developmental learning
● Behavioural and cognitive development
● Neural plasticity
● Teaching and learning
● Principles of effective teaching
● Contextual and temporal learning
● Learning within and across contexts
● Cycle of engagement and reflection
● Technology-enabled learning
● Learning as a distributed socio-technical system
● Orchestration of learning
18
A.N. Meltzoff, P. K. Kuhl, J. Movellan, & T. J.
Sejnowski (2009) Foundations for a New Science
of Learning, Science 325 (5938), 284.

19. The new sciences of learning
“Insights from many different
fields are converging to create a
new science of learning that may
transform educational practice”
“A key component is the role of
‘the social’ in learning. What
makes social interaction such a
powerful catalyst for learning?”
19
A.N. Meltzoff, P. K. Kuhl, J. Movellan, & T. J.
Sejnowski (2009) Foundations for a New Science
of Learning, Science 325 (5938), 284.

20. Types of learning
Learning as… Learning sciences…
Changing behaviour Neuroscience
Behavioural science
Enhancing skills Cognitive development
Storing information Information sciences
Gaining knowledge Cognitive sciences
Epistemology
Making sense of the world Social sciences
Socio-cultural and activity theory
Interpreting the world in a new way Phenomenology
Personal change Psychoanalysis
20

21. A theory of learning for the mobile age
21

22. What is distinctive about learning in a mobile age?
22
●Mobility as a central concern
●Learners are continually on
the move
●Need to understand learning
as a mobile and contextual
activity
●Involves a blend of portable,
wearable and fixed
technologies
●Embraces learning in both
formal and informal settings
●Scalable and sustainable

23. Theories of learning with technology
John Dewey’s Instrumental inquiry
● Knowing is activity in the world, involving a combination of thoughts and
external artefacts as tools for inquiry
● Every reflective experience is an instrument for production of meaning
● Inquiry-led learning
Yrjö Engeström’s Expansive Activity Theory
● Learning is a cultural-historical activity mediated by tools, including
technology and language
● Activity systems contain the possibility for expansive transformation, as
contradictions are internalised and resolved
● Social-constructivist learning
Gordon Pask’s Conversation Theory
● Conversation is the fundamental process of learning
● Learning is a cybernetic process of “coming to know” through mutual
adjustment and negotiation
● Conversational learning 23

24. Dewey’s instrumental inquiry
●Education should be based upon the quality of experience
●For an experience to be educational, there must be continuity
and interaction
●Continuity: experience comes from and leads to other
experiences
●Interaction: when the experience meets the internal needs or
goals of a person
●Pragmatic instrumentalism: Knowing is activity in the world,
involving a combination of thoughts and external artefacts as
tools for inquiry
24

25. Dewey and social learning
“The principle that development of experience comes about
through interaction means that education is essentially a social
process. This quality is realized in the degree in which
individuals form a community group. … It is absurd to exclude
the teacher from membership in the group. As the most mature
member of the group he has a peculiar responsibility for the
conduct of the interactions and inter-communications which are
the very life of the group as a community.”
Dewey, “Experience and Education” (1938)
25

26. Dewey and reflective learning
Learning comes when a person strives to overcome a problem
or breakdown in everyday activity, or recognises part of the
continual flow of activity and conversation as worth
remembering
Every reflective experience is an instrument for the
production of meaning
A mis-educative experience is one that stops or distorts growth
for future experiences
A non-educative experience is when a person has not done any
reflection and so has not obtained lasting mental growth
26

27. Engeström’s expansive activity theory
● Learning is a cultural-historical activity mediated by tools,
including technology and language
● Activity is the focus of analysis
● Activity systems are multi-voiced, with many perspectives,
transitions and interests in continual interaction
● Activity systems are shaped over time
● Activity systems contain the possibility for expansive
transformation: they go though extended periods of qualitative
change, as the contradictions are internalised and resolved,
leading to the emergence of new structure, tools and activity.
Learning as cultural historical activity
27

28. Example
● Learning at university is an activity system shaped by the
history of higher education and mediated by tools, including
technology and academic language
● Teaching and learning activity is the focus of analysis
● Teaching and learning activity systems are multi-voiced: many
teaching methods, learning strategies, cultures
● Teaching and learning systems in universities are shaped
over time
● University systems contain the possibility for expansive
transformation. For example, students bringing their own
devices into lectures initially caused tensions and disruptions
- but also possibilities for radical transformation to a more
student-centred learning activity.
University as an activity system
28

29. Pask and learning as conversation
● A theory of how we come to
know
● Derived from cybernetics
● A conversation is the
minimum necessary
structure to enable learning
- Multiple conversations within one
mind
- One conversation across multiple
minds
● Can involve technology as a
conversational partner
29
● Conversations about the how
and why of a topic
● Conversations about the how
of learning (for example
discussing study skills and
reflecting on experiences as a
learner)
● Conversations about purposes,
the why of learning, where the
emphasis is on encouraging
personal autonomy and
accepting responsibility for
one’s own learning

30. Conversational framework
Adapted from Laurillard (2002) Rethinking University Teaching.
A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. London: Routledge)
30

31. Evaluating learning
● John Hattie - synthesis of
over 800 meta-studies of
what influences learning
success
● All the meta-studies used a
standard measure of ‘effect
size’
● Important influences on
learning success:
- make learning expectations
and progress visible
- provide rapid feedback
Visible Learning – John Hattie
31
Each possible influence on learning is measured in
terms of positive or negative ‘effect size’
J. Hattie. Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800
meta-analyses relating to achievement

32. Where next?
http://hotel-project.eu/content/learning-theories-map-richard-millwood
32

33. Open University Innovating Pedagogy
● Annual report
● Explores new forms of
teaching, learning and
assessment for an
interactive world
● To guide teachers and
policy makers in productive
innovation
● www.open.ac.uk/innovating
Weak signals