Since 1930s, China's "educational technology" has been called "audio-visual education". ? At the end of 1990s, with the vigorous development of modern educational technology abroad, both domestic researchers and government officials thought that the name "audio-visual education" could not meet the needs of the times, which was not conducive to international exchange and discipline development.

1998 Catalogue of Teaching Specialty of Higher Education renamed "audio-visual education" as "educational technology". In 2002, China Audio-visual Education Association was officially renamed as China Educational Technology Association. At this point, the name "educational technology" was officially launched in China. In order to promote the rapid development of educational technology, the state has adopted various policies and measures.