Launch of 25 Years of Ed Tech

A book which traces trends over the past 25 years of educational technology by an Open University  (OU) academic and blogger on the future of education comes out this month (February 2020).

25 Years of Ed Tech is a book based on a popular blog series by OU Professor Martin Weller, which demonstrates a rich history of innovation and effective implementation of ed tech across higher education.

Professor Weller is the director of The Open Education Research Hub and the director of the GO-GN network. He chaired The Open University’s first major online e-learning course in 1999, which attracted 15,000 students.

The conclusions he makes in his book are:

• • Although the tech part of ed tech still “walks taller”, there has been a shift where people are interested in the education aspect and the social impact, as technology becomes more commonplace.
  • There are patterns of recurring ideas and cycles of interest; for instance artificial intelligence has recurred several times, and ideas around unbundling education.
  • The role of humans in education is highlighted when we think about technology. Some technologies seek to replace people in the system and others seek to aid them.
  • Innovation happens in higher education, it may be slow or cautious at times, but for good reason. But it does occur and there is a rich history of it, which is counter to the “disruption” narrative that it comes from tech companies outside of education.

Commenting on his reasons for writing this book, Professor Weller said:

“I wanted to highlight the necessity of a critical approach in ed tech. As ed tech has developed it has shifted from optimism to pessimism, for example around social media. My view is that if we can draw out themes and lessons from the application of different educational technologies over an extended time period that can helpfully shape future implementation.”