Advocates of visual education emphasize the use of visual teaching materials as an auxiliary means to make learning activities more concrete, and advocate combining various visual teaching materials in school curriculum to present abstract concepts concretely. Thus, the names of visual AIDS and visual AIDS also appeared. 1937, C.F. Hoban and others put forward the classification mode and selection principle of visual teaching materials in the book "Course Visualization". As shown in figure 1- 1, the author puts forward a model for classifying visual teaching materials.
The model is mainly based on teaching AIDS, and arranged into schematic diagrams according to the concrete-abstract degree of the teaching materials it provides: from the field practice, the teaching materials it provides are the most concrete; The more upward, the concreteness gradually decreases and the abstraction gradually increases; Relatively speaking, words are the most abstract. In the second half of 1930s, radio, sound movies and tape recorders were used in education one after another. People feel that the name of intuitive education can't sum up the existing practices, and begin to use the terminology of audio-visual education in their articles. From 65438 to 0947, the Visual Education Branch of the American Education Association was renamed the Audio-visual Teaching Branch.
Among many researches on audio-visual education, E. Dell's book Audio-visual Education.
Audio-visual methods in teaching. The "tower of experience" theory put forward in this book became the main theoretical basis of audio-visual education at that time and later (Figure 1-2). The theoretical points of "tower of experience" are:
1. The bottom experience is the most concrete. The more abstract it is, the various teaching activities can be arranged in order according to the concrete-abstract degree of its experience.
2. Teaching activities should start from concrete experience and gradually enter abstract experience;
3. The use of various media in school teaching can make teaching activities more concrete and create conditions for abstract generalization;
4. The audio-visual teaching materials and audio-visual experience located in the middle of the "tower" are more concrete and vivid than the characters and visual symbols on the upper level, which can break through the limitation of time and space and make up for the shortcomings of various direct experience methods on the lower level.
Generally speaking, there is not much difference between the concept of audio-visual education and visual education, and there is no qualitative leap. It mainly expands the original visual teaching aid into an audio-visual auxiliary tool. However, in the early 1950s, two parallel new theoretical viewpoints began to penetrate into the field of audio-visual education, namely, communication theory and early systematic view, which gradually triggered a qualitative leap in the field of educational technology. After 1950s, the audio-visual equipment and teaching materials in western schools increased sharply, educational television moved from experimental stage to practical stage, program teaching and teaching machines became all the rage, and computer-aided education began experimental research. The development and popularization of these new media means have injected new blood into audio-visual education. At the same time, communication, founded by H.D. Lasswell and others in the 1940s, began to penetrate into related fields, and some people have studied the teaching process as a process of information dissemination.
From 65438 to 0960, the American Audiovisual Education Association formed a special committee to discuss what audiovisual education is. 1963 In February, the Committee submitted a report, suggesting that the name of audio-visual education be changed to audio-visual communication, and gave a detailed explanation. In addition, many articles and works about audio-visual education tend to use communication as the theoretical basis of audio-visual education.
After the concept and principle of communication were introduced into the field of audio-visual teaching, the majority of professional workers were inspired and turned their eyes from one-dimensional material means to dynamic multi-dimensional teaching process. This has fundamentally changed the practical category and theoretical framework in the audio-visual field, that is, from focusing only on the use of teaching AIDS to paying full attention to the whole dissemination process of teaching information from senders (teachers, etc.) to users. ) through various channels (media, etc.) to the recipient (students). Because the dissemination of teaching information is a complicated process of multi-factor interaction, the communication theory will inevitably converge with the concept of system library formed at the same time, thus affecting the process from "audio-visual education" to "audio-visual communication".
At this point, the education sector has replaced the original audio-visual auxiliary name with audio-visual media terms, and there is a distinction between hardware and software; Audio-visual teaching materials are regarded as a medium to convey teaching information, not just a tool to assist teaching. At this time, terminology teaching resources that are more inclusive than audio-visual media terminology appear. Scholars gradually shift their research focus from the initial audio-visual AIDS to the macro level of the whole teaching communication process and teaching system. This updated view is embodied in a model proposed by D. P. Ely in 1963. As shown in figure 1-3. Due to the development of media technology and the innovation of theoretical concepts, the international education community deeply feels that the original name of audio-visual education can no longer represent the practice and research category in this field. Therefore, at the suggestion of J.D. Finn, then president of the American Audio-visual Education Association, Yili led the establishment of the "Definition and Terminology Committee" to define the category, name and definition of the field. In a related special report published by 1963, the Committee admitted: "The name of audio-visual communication is used for convenience, and if there is a more suitable name in the future, it will definitely be."
On the contrary "Sure enough, in the Audio-visual magazine published by 1965 Association, audio-visual education, educational communication, learning resources, teaching media, audio-visual communication, teaching technology, educational technology and other names were used at the same time. On June 25th, 1970, the American Audio-visual Education Association decided to call it AECT for short according to the opinions of most representatives. 1972, the association officially named its practice and research field as educational technology.
After the name of educational technology was determined, people began to explore its definition. 1970 in its report to the editor-in-chief and Congress, the Education Technology Committee, a professional advisory body of the US government, pointed out:
"Educational technology can be defined from two aspects. In the more familiar sense of educational technology, it refers to the media produced in the communication revolution, which can serve teaching purposes together with teachers, textbooks and blackboards ... The components of educational technology include television, movies, projectors, computers and other "hardware" and "software" projects. ...
The definition of the second less well-known educational technology transcends any particular media or device. In this sense, educational technology exceeds the sum of its components. It is a systematic method to design, implement and evaluate the whole learning and teaching process based on the study of human learning and communication and the combination of human and non-human resources. "
In 1994, the American Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT) gave a brand-new definition to educational technology:
Teaching technology is the theory and practice about the design, development, use, management and evaluation of learning resources and learning process.
We use figure 1-4 to describe the structure defined by AECT'94, which clearly defines the research form, research object and research task of educational technology as a discipline. There is no direct description of media in the definition, which shows that educational technology has developed from hard technology to soft technology, that is, a subject with technical methods and methodology as the main body. Of course, this does not rule out the role of media in modern educational technology, which is actually the supporting technology of learning resources and learning process.
We notice that this definition changes the original "educational technology" to "teaching technology", because some people think that educational technology only cares about the application of technology in school education, and teaching technology can include the application of technology in teaching and training; Others think that the concept of educational technology is too broad, while teaching technology focuses on teaching problems. But on the whole, these two terms are regarded as synonyms internationally. And China is used to the name of educational technology. Therefore, this book does not intend to deliberately discuss their differences.
This definition expresses the research object of educational technology as a series of theoretical and practical problems about "learning process" and "learning resources", which changes the previous formulation of "teaching process" and embodies the great change of modern teaching concept from teaching-centered to learning-centered, from imparting knowledge to developing students' learning ability. Learning process is a cognitive process in which learners acquire knowledge and skills through interaction with information and environment. Learning resources are all kinds of information and environmental conditions to be used in the learning process. The new teaching theory requires students to change from passive recipients of external stimuli to active learners who can actively process information. Teachers should provide and create information resources and learning environment that can help and promote students' learning. Starting from the needs of social development and human development in the 2/kloc-0 century, we should build a social education system that can support comprehensive learning, autonomous learning, collaborative learning, creative learning and lifelong learning.
Combined with the new definition of AECT 94, we can understand the concept of educational technology as the theory and practice of applying modern information technology to design, develop, utilize, manage and evaluate learning resources and learning process, including the theoretical basis of educational technology, media and teaching, the development and application of teaching resources, the theory and practice of teaching process, teaching design and development, distance teaching technology and teaching evaluation technology.