for the Technological Development Project of the National Education Association of the United States Principal Investigator: JAMES D. FINN (Los Angeles) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Office of Education The material in this publication was prepared under a contract First published by National Education Association as Occasional Paper No. 1, History of Instructional Technology, I: Technology in American Education: 1650-1900, July 1961 Reprinted at U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., December 1962 Superintendent of Documents Catalog No. FS 5.234:34018 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1962 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D.C.-Price 25 cents. Foreword This study, one of several which are examining the history and background of instructional technology in American education, was done by Mr. Charnel Anderson, a graduate student in the Department of History, George Washington University, Washington, D. C. Mr. Anderson's assignment was to examine the history of technological developments in instruction to the end of the 19th century and with emphasis upon the 19th century period. This period was chosen rather arbitrarily to cover technological developments other than conventional audio-visual devices involving photography and sound techniques. While it is true that photography, sound recording, etc., have an extensive history even antedating the 19th century, their application in education in America has been most marked in the last sixty years. These developments will be the subject of another paper to be published. In developing this brief report Mr. Anderson used the facilities of the Library of Congress, the library of the U. S. Office of Education, the NEA archive collection, and several university libraries. Because of the scope of coverage required in a short time, he was requested to use secondary sources where they would prove useful. However, as will be noted from the report, he was able to delve extensively into first-hand materials. Material developed from these primary sources proves to be some of the most interesting in this report. No claim is made that we have produced a definitive history of instructional technology in American education. Rather, we present here the skeleton of that portion of this history which deals with (with some minor exceptions) technological developments other than projection and recording. Such an historical analysis, however, has its uses in connection with the primary purpose of the Technological Development Project, which is to detect trends in the confused technological present and attempt to do some forecasting so that American education may have some guidelines for the future. Without involving the various theories of history, it still remains obvious that the past has some relation to the present and future. A reading of Mr. Anderson's report should make this abundantly clear. Los Angeles July, 1961 JAMES D. FINN |