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Welcome to the Evolution of Educational Technology! As a leader in educational technology, your understanding of the history and interrelationships of technology within education and the larger society will better enable you to effect changes today, and equally important, to anticipate how educational technology may evolve in the future.

You know that technology does not exist separate from social, cultural, religious, military, educational, and political considerations. This course will challenge you to explore ways that these different strands within society have influenced and continue to have an impact on technological changes, and, conversely, how developments in technology affect different areas of society. Your understanding will be reflected in the major projects for the quarter, a multi-strand timeline you will create over eight weeks and an analysis of the completed timeline.The writings of two scholars provide a framework for the course. Paul Saettler produced a definitive history of the evolution of educational technology that includes an analysis of the field from the 5th century BCE through the 1990s. This solid grounding in the past will provide a pedestal from which to project the future. Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave presents a structure for the course as we explore the three paradigms of history he described—the Agricultural Age, the Industrial Age, and the Information Age—and speculate about the fourth wave. Two futurists and educational technologists, Drs. Chris Dede and David Thornburg, offer insights throughout the course with Videos on a variety of topics.

Education takes place everywhere, so the term learner is used in this course to mean learners in an educational setting, along with learners in business, government, military, or other venues. Since one goal of education is to develop life-long learners, we are using this broader definition of the term as we discuss the evolution of educational technology. We encourage you to apply the course principles and information you learn each week to your own world of work.

I have created this workspace to help everyone with this exercise that

Some resources:

Dipity:

http://www.dipity.com/

Easy Timeline Creator:

http://www.timelinecreator.com/samples.htm

Timeline Maker:

http://www.timelinemaker.com/

TimeGlider:

http://timeglider.com/

http://www.xtimeline.com

http://randyrodgers.wikispaces.com/The_Third_Wave