The book begins in 1994, when educational professionals first began to pay attention to digital content. Adoption of a networking approach to teaching and learning was made easier by the Internet's ability to deliver multimedia content. Discussion forums and professional organizations with specialized areas of interest emerged as a result of the Bulletin Board System, which made it possible to connect with people from various locations. As a result of this method of e-learning delivery, words like Learning Management System (LMS) and Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) were created. The author believes that the adoption of the Bulletin Board System sowed the seeds of specialized worldwide communities. The author concentrates on the Web's use as a social networking platform and communication system connected in 1995 while tracing its history back to Berners-Lee in 1989. It was a decentralized, open system where nobody had greater importance than anybody else. As a result, the Internet evolved into a living, breathing organism that was governed by both positive and negative societal ideals. Facebook, WordPress, and Netscape went beyond being just trendy terms. All of this took place using dial-up connections, in which modems connected telephone lines to web browsers. Using FrontPage, it was simple to develop web pages on GeoCities and Angelfire and publish the information. Through the use of templates, these platforms offered their own website/page builders. Because of this, educational institutions started their own websites. On this platform, academic content was shared. The Web was then in version 1.0. (Web 1.0). Both the general public and the teaching and learning communities used email as their primary form of communication.
Following a general strategy, computer-mediated communication began to take off about 1996 as a part of the evolution of the Bulletin Board System. These technologies were effectively utilized by educational systems for online databases, chat rooms, instant messaging, and video chatting, among other things. The exchange of multimedia content in many formats via graphical user interfaces has replaced text-based information exchange. Both synchronous and asynchronous sharing options are available for all of this. To enable users to fulfill their tasks in the online environment, it was feasible to assign them various roles as well as numerous types of permissions. By the beginning of 1997, web-based learning had taken over, and educators had refocused their attention on a constructivist method of teaching and learning. The process of creating academic content was made more accessible, and a non-linear co-creation movement emerged that placed more of an emphasis on the theoretical aspects of education than on the technology itself. This movement put an emphasis on student-centered education using a variety of resources, including those with a social and experiential component.
Wikis, which eventually led to the creation of Wikipedia, were the open Web's first foray into the subject of education in 1998. A sizable user base of contributors could work together to develop the material on wiki sites. The formerly commercial and proprietary worldview was able to be challenged as a result of the organic corpus of ever-growing information that was produced. Blogs on specialized subjects were created as a result of the read-write nature of the Web. During this period, student-generated content also gained popularity since other students might utilize it as a learning tool. Even if the notion of e-learning was not new, the author claims that the year 1999 saw the combination of the various elements that made it popular. This sparked a discussion contrasting online learning with in-person instruction. Some academic institutions even began experimenting with the introduction of online courses. Since it laid the groundwork for e-mainstreaming, learning's the author views this time as the industry's golden age. The idea of learning objects was first proposed to the e-learning industry in 2000. The fact that these learning materials could be utilized, reused, and referred to in various ways helped e-learning. Although their formats were standardized to enable wider use, the search for a common definition persisted. Their potential for reuse in the pursuit of pedagogical efficiency dissuaded their utilization. In this chapter, the author has made an effort to pinpoint the causes.
E-learning and learning objects are once again the subject of the chapter on E-Learning Standards. As e-learning gained popularity, the community was compelled to develop new standards that could be applied to elevate the industry. This made it easier for material to work together across contexts and settings. A standard for producing digital content for e-learning platforms is called the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). The complexity of standards, as the author puts it, outweighed the expenses of implementation. According to the author, the learning management system (LMS) was created in 2002. These systems aided educational institutions in developing the virtual learning environments (VLE) that are presently utilized for blended learning, online courses, and MOOCs. The LMS became essential to the e-learning environment since it was considered as an integrated entrepreneurial solution for educational institutions. Online courses now frequently use virtual conferencing and classrooms. A network of educational bloggers emerged in 2003, marking the beginning of the usage of blogs in education. The blogs became well-known because to the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, which gave subscribers a convenient way to get updates. Today, social media and networking include blogs. Racism, misogyny, deceptive material, data capitalism, data misuse, etc. are only a few of the unfavorable features of these advances that the author has emphasized.
The OpenCourseWare effort, which was announced in 2001, planted the seeds for today's discussion about Open Educational Resources (OER), which the author also touches on. The open content movement began in 2004 as a result of the large number of educational institutions that entered the OER industry. As open content licensing became necessary, other organizations developed their own open licensing models. Creative Commons stood out among them. YouTube first launched in 2005. The platform gained popularity for its ability to upload and stream videos. The movement also benefited from the use of other channels for sharing video content. Because of this, educators found it simple to create video content and share it with a bigger group. The idea of a flipped classroom was thus made a reality. Despite continued worries about cultural value systems, the action fostered participatory culture on a global scale, cutting across all geographical barriers. In 2006, the idea of the Web 2.0 gained popularity, and the suffix 2.0 could be found on practically anything. Users could create their own material and share it with the rest of the world using open data tools on this new version of the Web, which supported interactive content. The author attributes Web 2.0 to the granularity of learning content. Social media platforms have grown and taken over in public social life as a result of this.
Despite Linden Labs' 2003 launch, there was a surge in educators' interest in online virtual worlds in 2007. One of the most widely used platforms for the creation of 3D items, including virtual characters in the form of avatars, was Second Life. These could work nicely when combined with an LMS in a school. Along with other innovative uses, these avatars could be used to offer lectures digitally. The author explains how in 2008, e-portfolios became more popular. For demonstrating technical and professional knowledge and for evaluating it, the creation of e-portfolios was crucial. These are useful resources for vocational programs. The author notes that in 2009, social media began to shift in favor of education. Global connections were made easier by social media, which also offered a democratic forum for debate among experts in various fields. Social media became a feasible and efficient tool for marketing and research as a result of this. But the author points out some of the primary issues with unrestrained social media use. By the year 2010, a dispersed method to learning in a networked way had been established due to the simplicity of establishing connections, communities of practice, and an abundance of content provided by users over social media.
Personal learning environments (PLEs), which were more learner-friendly and accommodating than Learning Management Systems, were popularized as a result of Web 2.0's interactive capabilities. PLEs allowed for individualized learning by transferring control to the students. Despite the fact that MOOCs have been there since 2008, the year 2012 is often referred to as the year of the MOOC. However, it wasn't until 2012 that educators from around the world started to take notice of the MOOC concept. This cleared the path for specialized online learning programs, and it was through them that the idea of openness was tested. Numerous academic institutions are prepared to provide SOOCs for their on-campus students and MOOCs to a global community of learners. Open textbooks are digital versions of books made possible by the expansion of openness through OER and MOOCs. Most frequently, these were offered without charge, however occasionally a small fee was required to obtain the open license. The effectiveness of open textbooks was the subject of numerous research studies. The technical community became interested in the application of analytics because of the production of vast amounts of student metadata on demography, internet activity, learning methods, content utilization, etc. Learning analytics was recognized as a separate discipline in 2014 and is currently being researched. This made it easier for teachers to concentrate on the content's quality. Teachers could monitor the development of their students and carry out suitable instructional actions.
Digital badges were developed as a result of advancements in the use of technology in education to authenticate student achievement. While badges may serve as a motivator for students during formative evaluation, educational institutions may also issue these badges to students upon successful completion of a program for presentation to outside organizations looking for evidence of accomplishment. The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in education has received more attention recently than learning analytics, as the author notes. The author promotes the focused application of AI to manage particular tasks inside the ecosystem of education. A significant debate on the use of blockchain technology in education took place in 2017. The application of technology in education was highlighted in a few areas, including certification, verification, data ownership, and payment. The purpose of these technological experiments was to give students access to digital certification. However, the author believes that this technology's complexity and current problems have discouraged its wider usage. The author concentrates on trends in the usage of technology rather than technology itself in the last chapter, "Ed Tech's Dystopian Turn." He brings up issues such as data breaches, polarization, border surveillance, and privacy violations.
A few of the book's chapters are based on the author's own experiences, which elevates the topic above simple historical recitation. Many of the chapters cover themes relating to technologies and procedures that were in use much before the year the author specifies in the chapter. As a result, it might not be appropriate to attribute their creation or use to a certain year. For instance, before the dates listed in the book, learning management systems, virtual learning environments, OER, MOOCs, ePortfolios, etc. were already in use. The fact that a chapter is given a year's worth of time in these situations, however, arguably speaks more to how commonplace it has become in high-income countries' teaching and learning. Overall, the author has concentrated on emerging technology usage trends.
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