(A) A brief history of foreign educational technology development

The development of educational technology abroad has roughly gone through three stages:

1. Primary stage (17th century-19th century)-intuitive technology and philosophical epistemology (sensory theory)

Theoretically, intuitive technology is based on philosophical epistemology (sensory theory). British materialist philosopher Bacon once said that feeling is the source of all knowledge. Marx said in 1844's Economics-Philosophy Manuscript: "Any personal relationship between man and the world-vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, thinking, intuition, feeling, desire, activity and love-in short, all his personal functions ... are through his own objective relationship. Intuitive technology was gradually formed from the17th century, taking classroom teaching as the cognitive form and books, chalk, blackboards, pictures, models and oral English as the media, which is a relatively simple and primitive educational technology.

2. Development stage (19-the end of 1960s)-the rise of media technology and educational psychology theory.

Some people abroad call this stage of educational technology "technology in education". This stage is characterized by visual education or auditory education. Theoretically, it is also divorced from the philosophical matrix, no longer just described from epistemology, but has conducted extensive theoretical discussions with many representatives and schools. But all kinds of theories belong to the category of educational psychology, and there is no theoretical system of educational technology.

From the end of 19 to the 20th century, the world's science and technology developed rapidly, especially the development of electronic technology. 1822, photography invented by Frenchman Nicofort and Nipps was widely used at the end of 19, Edison invented the film projector in 1884, the Lumiere brothers of France released the film in Paris in 1885, and a German missionary invented the slide projector. 1900, the experiment of radio transmission of human voice was successful, and then these inventions made great progress, became new teaching media, provided vivid audio-visual images for students, and made great achievements in teaching different from the past. 1906, the United States published a book called Visual Education, and in 19 10, Klein published the first educational film catalogue in new york. However, as a formal educational reform movement, visual teaching has changed from 19 18 to 1928. This movement is called the visual teaching movement, which marks the beginning of educational technology.

At the same time, broadcast education came into being. Radio Marconi Sword Buddha broadcasts educational programs twice a day in Britain from 65438 to 0920. 1923, "Educational Broadcasting Advisory Committee" was established. 1929 "Central Council for School Broadcasting" was established, and educational programs were reviewed 1 4 times a year. Ohio Broadcasting School was founded in 1929. 193 1, Japan, 1932, Australia and New Zealand also started school broadcasting. Simple visual education and auditory education are gradually replaced by audio-visual education.

The main representative of audio-visual teaching theory is Edgar Dale. He put forward the theory of "tower of experience" in the book "Theory of Audio-visual Teaching Method" (1946). Dell believes that people are more likely to acquire knowledge and skills when learning, from direct to indirect, from concrete to abstract. He used a pyramid diagram of learning experience to show the learning effect of different learning methods.

On the other hand, plessy, a psychologist at Ohio State University, designed several automatic teaching machines and conducted experiments in the 1920s and early 1930s. However, due to the design problems of teaching machines and immature objective conditions, the automatic teaching machines in plessy have little influence on the development of educational technology. It was not until the mid-1950s that Skinner launched a new teaching campaign, and plessy's early contribution was truly recognized.

During this period, psychologist Skinner put forward the new behaviorism learning theory. In the article entitled "The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching" published by 1954, he redesigned the teaching machine according to his own operational conditioning and active reinforcement theory, which led to the climax of the program teaching movement in the United States from the 1950s to the early 1960s, and later developed into "program teaching" with only program textbooks but no teaching machine. Later, his theory was applied to electronic computers, and computer-aided instruction (CAI) began, which became one of the important symbols of educational technology.

3. Formation stage (1960s to present)-system technology and educational technology.

In the early 1960s, a new trend appeared in the field of audio-visual teaching, which was influenced by two aspects at the same time, one was communication theory, and the other was early system theory.

Shannon's information theory was introduced into the field of education and teaching, resulting in audio-visual communication. Audio-visual communication mainly involves the design and use of information in the learning process. The emergence of communication makes people's attention shift from "things" to the process of information transmission from the source (teachers or audio-visual materials) to the receiver (learners).

With the penetration of communication into audio-visual teaching, system theory has also begun to play a role and influence on education and teaching. Education is a complex system. It is an organic whole composed of educational purpose, educational content, educational media, educational methods, educational facilities, teachers, students and administrators. The optimal development of the overall function of the education system requires not only the full development of all components in the system, but also the optimal cooperation and coordination of all elements in the system. Therefore, the fundamental way to realize the optimization of education is to consider all parts of education (including media) comprehensively and design the teaching process systematically, so media application gradually turns to system design, and media technology enters the stage of system technology.

In the period of the rise of information theory, cybernetics and system theory, communication science, behavioral science and system design penetrated into education, and "educational technology" gradually formed into an independent scientific concept and technical term. In the early 1960s, the term "educational technology" first appeared in some American books and magazines, and soon spread internationally.

The United States began to discuss the definition of educational technology in the 1960s, and the opinions were relatively concentrated in the 1970s. 1970, the American Presidential Advisory Committee put forward two definitions in its work report. [1] 1972 AECT proposed a more authoritative definition [2], and AECT formalized its definition in 1977 [3]. At the same time, the theoretical system of educational technology is also taking shape. 65438-0987 The book Fundamentals of Educational Technology, edited by the famous psychologist Robert M Gagne, is the most representative.

During this period, other countries also carried out research on educational technology theory.

(B) the development of educational technology in China

With the development of audio-visual education abroad, the concept of audio-visual was introduced into China in 1930s. However, it was after 1980s that China really discussed educational technology comprehensively, and educational technology was founded.

1. Audio-visual education stage (before 1978)

At the beginning of the 20th century, slides were introduced into China, and the earliest silent film and slide show education methods began. 1936, the Ministry of Education established the Film Education Committee and the Broadcasting Education Committee in Nanjing, which was the earliest audio-visual education institution in China. Up to now, the State Education Commission also has an audio-visual education department. 1936, the name of "audio-visual education" was determined through the discussion of educators. In the same year, the Commercial Press published the book Theory and Practice of School Broadcasting, and published 32 books in Japan, translated by Jin Yiruo. From 65438 to 0937, the Commercial Press also published the first audio-visual education monograph "Audio-visual Education Film" written by China scholar Chen Yousong. 1938 Jinling university offers audio-visual education courses, 1945 Suzhou national institute of education establishes audio-visual education department. 1947, Beiping Normal University established the Visual Education Museum. From 65438 to 0949, Zhonghua Book Company published Du's translation of Dale's masterpiece On Audio-visual Pedagogy.

After the founding of New China, the Audio-visual Education Department was established in the Science Bureau of the Ministry of Culture on June 5438+065438+ 10, and Xiao Shuzi, an audio-visual education expert studying in the United States, served as the management director. 195 1 The Department of Education of Fu Jen Catholic University in Beijing offers an audio-visual education course with Xiao Shuzi as the keynote speaker. 65438-0957 The Department of Education of Northwest Normal University offers audio-visual education courses. 1958, Beijing established "Beijing Audio-visual Education Museum". After three years of economic difficulties and ten years of "Cultural Revolution" from 65438 to 0966, due to well-known reasons, audio-visual education failed to develop rapidly.

2. Definition and connotation discussion stage (1978- 1987)

(1) Discussion on whether audio-visual education is renamed as educational technology. In China, the real discussion of audio-visual education began with 1982. 1984- 1986 This discussion reached its peak. The topic of discussion is: Do you want to change your name? For what? There are roughly the following propositions: first, it is considered unnecessary to use the name "audio-visual education"; Second, it should be changed to "educational technology". After discussion, some consensus has been reached: the audio-visual education in China is essentially the same as that in foreign countries, and the purpose of both is to exploit new learning resources by using scientific and technological achievements, and to control the education process by adopting new teaching theories and methods, so as to achieve the best educational effect and realize teaching optimization.

After this discussion, the State Education Commission issued the Catalogue of Undergraduate Majors in Normal Universities in 1987, which formally defined the name of "audio-visual education". 1986, the National Academic Degrees Committee approved the establishment of a master's degree in educational technology, and educational technology was formally established in China. At the same time, there has been a pattern of simultaneous development of educational communication, educational technology and audio-visual education.

(2) Discussion on the definition and connotation of educational technology. When discussing whether audio-visual education is renamed as educational technology, it is also intertwined with the discussion on the definition and connotation of educational technology. Of course, this discussion is mostly compared with audio-visual education [5]. This paper discusses the definition and connotation of educational technology from its definition, research object, research field and research method. When it comes to the definition of educational technology, most of them introduce western countries.

(3) The dispute about the nature of educational technology. The essence of educational technology is a problem involving the connotation of educational technology and its position and ownership in educational science. What is the essence of educational technology? There are roughly the following viewpoints:

The first is instrumental theory. People who hold this view believe that educational technology is essentially a means and tool to achieve the established educational goals and optimize the teaching process, and it is only an auxiliary role. The second is the way of speaking. It is believed that educational technology is a new type of education in essence. It involves a certain part of education, not the whole field of education. It does not have its own educational purpose and content, but only uses new forms to convey educational content. The third is the theory of elements. People who hold this view are mainly based on the "3p" (product, process and plan) structure theory of American educational technology expert Heineken. Educational technology is an important factor in the following three aspects: means and tools; In the process of solving practical teaching tasks; In the human-object-human relationship system composed of media factors and human factors.

3. Formation stage of discipline system (1987 till now)

The formation of the subject system of educational technology in China is based on three reasons: the introduction and reference of foreign educational technology; In the mid-1980s, China systematically discussed the related theories of educational technology. 1986 formal determination of educational technology disciplines in China.

Educational technology makes full use of many modern scientific and technological achievements, absorbs the methodological essence of cutting-edge science, makes educational technology systematic and scientific, and thus improves its theoretical system.