This timeline has been created by students at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, who were enrolled in graduate-level courses in Learning Technologies or Computer Assisted Instruction. An earlier version of the site was known as the Educational Technology Timeline.
Year |
Events |
| 40,000 BCE | Writing develops as a means of communication when people try to convey messages to others by cave paintings (Ruchira Bajaj) |
| 4000 BCE | The Ancient Egyptians develop the first known paper-like substance. (Susan Williams) |
| 1400 BCE | First writing in China, on bones (Zan Brixey) |
| 650 BCE | Ashurbanipal's Royal Library at Nineveh comprising cuneiform tablets is developed as the world's largest collection for reference and research (Susan Lugo) |
| 387 BCE | The Academy, the first university, is established in the city of Athens. (Mark Williams) |
| 196 BCE | The Rosetta Stone represents a simple but very effective technology, which revolutionized the knowledge about Egypt after its discovery in 1799. (Ulrike Gretzel) |
| 600 | "Arabic" Numerals developed by the Hindus. (Mary Oberlander) |
| 1453 | The printing of the Bible with moveable type by Gutenberg transforms society. (Marilyn Hudson-Tremayne) |
| 1564 | Graphite is discovered (Kristin Zage) |
| 1608 | Hans Lipperhey's patent application for the telescope to the governement of Zeeland (Robbin Garber-Slaght) |
| 1635 | Founding of the first public school in the US. (Shamus Regan) |
| 1651 | John Dury invents the modern library. (Jennifer Robins) |
| 1795 | Nicholas-Jacques Conte of France discovers the process of mixing graphite with clay. (Kristin Zage) |
| 1800 | Blackboard chalk becomes common in the classroom as class size increases. (Linda Keys) |
| 1816 | Rene T.H. Laennec invents the stethoscope so he can listen to the sound of a female patient's heart without placing his head directly upon her chest. (Jeanne Link) |
| 1872 | QWERTY: Christopher Sholes develops a machine to print the alphabet. (Elizabeth Sanford) |
| 1878 | Sales take off after the Remington No. 2 hits the shelf. (Elizabeth Sanford) |
| 1900 | The first spoken words using radio are heard. (Eric Larson) |
| 1901 | Marconi sends a radio signal across the Atlantic. (Zan Brixey) |
| 1922 | Electronic video (aka television) is invented by a farm boy (maybe). (Pamela Galion) |
| 1932 | August Dvorak creates a keyboard that is easier to learn. (Elizabeth Sanford) |
| 1943 | Spring into Action with SLINKY! (CJ Underside) |
| 1944 | Grace Hopper is responsible for the term 'bug' for a computer fault. (Marty Sierra-Perry) |
| 1944 | Mass production of calculators begins. (Lydia Harris) |
| 1946 | The Library School teaches about audio-visual materials and equipment (Gwladys Spencer) |
| 1960 | An early CAI system, PLATO, was initiated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later developed by Control Data Corporation. (Mihye Won) |
| 1962 | The PLATO instructional computing system is widely used in college and K-12 classrooms. (Amy Fahey) |
| 1964 | IBM brings out the MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter). (Khitam Alghazo) |
| 1966 | The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is established as a national information system (Jamyce Punch) |
| 1967 | Logo is developed. (Sara Barnett)
Texas Instruments develops the first hand-held calculator (Gloria Henke) |
| 1968 | Douglas Engelbart introduces a prototype of the computer mouse, the "x-y position indicator for a display system." (Ava Jamshidi) |
| 1969 | The Arpanet is constructed (Paulette Sallas). See also the Timetable of Internet Events.
Scholar is developed by Jaime Carbonell, as the first Intelligent Tutoring System, or ITS (Junghyun An) |
| 1970 | Through the invention of the continuous wave helium-neon laser and enhancements to optical fiber, researchers develop 20dB/km fiber optics cable that is tested successfully in Britain. (Jared Berrett)
The Arpanet goes online. (Mike Sennert) |
| 1971 | First e-mail program is written (Mike Sennert) |
| 1973 | LEXIS, the first commercial, full-text legal information service, is introduced (Michelle RIgual) |
| 1975 (more) | The Altair 8800 leads the way for personal computers (Tamara Barcalow)
Ray Kurzweil and company create the Kurzweil Reading Machine and the first omni-font OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. (Linda Burke) |
| 1977 | Apple introduces the Apple II. View 1 (George Gerrietts). View 2 (Jesse Guessford).
Japan Victor Company (JVC) introduces the VHS format video cassette recorder (Marie Marassa) Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 (Martin Gray) |
| 1978 | HyperStudio, a multimedia authoring tool that allows people to communicate ideas on diskette, CD-ROM or Internet. |
| 1984 | Apple introduces the Macintosh (Jennifer Haberkorn)
Commodore introduces the Commodore 64 (Diane Fulton) CD-ROM players for computers (Bryan Weinert) |
| 1985 | Aldus PageMaker is released for the Macintosh and desktop publishing is born (Melissa Creech) |
| 1987 | Apple begins shipping Hypercard, a programming system and multimedia authoring tool (Susan Cooper) |
| 1989 | The World-Wide Web begins at the Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire (Khitam Alghazo) |
| 1990 | Texas Instruments creates the popular TI-81 graphing calculator. (Jennifer McNeilly) |
| 1993 | Mosaic Alpha 4.0 comes to Champaign Centennial High School |
| 1994 | NJSTAR is created making it convenient to those who use Chinese, Japanese and Korean to surf the internet (Meng-Lung Lai)
Netscape offers a beta version of its Navigator browser on the Internet. (Julie Veazie) |
| 1995 | Classroom Connect offers educational WebQuests for classrooms all over the world.
Agreement on a single standard format called Digital Versatile Disc. (Rae Ann Montague) |
| 1997 | First public release of SMIL (Amy Fahey) |
| 1999 | The CI 335/CS 317 classes at the University of Illinois create the Educational Technology Timeline.
The Advanced Cluster Computing Consortium introduces a super computer built with off the shelf parts. Electronic course management and online courses come to the elementary school. (Elizabeth Kickham) IBM introduces a prototype of the world's smallest computer with "full screen" capability. (Gary Jones) |
| 2000 | NEATscape version 5.0 is released. Under the "decrypting wizard" button anyone can use any computer to read their native language.
Technology developed for superior quality, large size electronic maps. (Jane Harper) |
| 2001 | Every museum and historical site sponsors its own online field trip. |
| 2002 | Apple releases its third generation iMac in teal with a built-in microphone. Sudents take it to class, and it records the lecture so that the student can organize the lecture to meet his/her learning style. |
| 2003 | PaperGraderXPress, a wand-like, wireless device, which reads and analyzes any type of student composition, typed or hand-written.
A new PLATO satellite system, in which students have small handheld devices which they carry with them to and from school. Refrigerator with a memory |
| 2004 | Thanks to advances in Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) techniques, multilingual text searches and displays are now widely available to international users of Internet resources. (Susan Lugo)
Virtual reality training now a requirement for all healthcare professionals. (Mary Oberlander) |
| 2005 | Prometheus, the first virtual World University, opens.
The laptop computer merges with the student's notebook and textbooks to create the Interactive Textbook. Books are published in a dual format: Opti-books, which can be read as print books, but also have a CD-ROM embedded in the back. (Linda Burke) the first three-dimensional online university is established. (Mark Williams) |
| 2006 | A tactile learning interface is assembled to aid individuals studying the pulses. (Jeanne Link) |
| 2007 | DTTWWR announces full production of the Wrist Pilot. (Susan Williams) |
| 2009 | Personal Access and Display Device appears. (Ruchira Bajaj)
Introduction of the first fully automated classroom. (Shamus Regan) |
| 2010 |
The e-Trapper is introduced as the "all-in-one school tool." (Susan Cooper)
The Internet is accessed entirely through wireless, handheld, pocket computers. (Paulette Sallas) The first widespread use of electronic textbooks in US schools. (Jennifer McNeilly) HouseCo. starts production on the fully automated house for the consumer market. (Mike Sennert) Children's Interactive Easy Reader Series Debuts in book format. (Jane Harper) 625 million homes now own DVD players. (Rae Ann Montague) |
| 2015 | Trieger Industries announces TalkTech,
a revolutionary, voice-activated technical assistant that can troubleshoot
any technology-related problem.
Using BK3 Technology at speeds of 2.0 megs/second, consumers now purchase and rent digital films and music solely through the web. |
| 2013 | Learning communities replace the traditional classroom. (Elizabeth Kickham) |
| 2017 | Macrohard releases Real
Life, a combination wall-sized touch-screen LCD display unit and wall-mounted
DVD player to recreate your home or classroom into any environment you
choose.
Houston ISD Opens Distance Education & Development Centers (Jamyce Punch) |
| 2020 | Lamplighter School students use Logo to program a robotic teacher's aide (Sara Barnett)
AT&T introduces Desktop Learning. The Individual Student Computer Automated Desk is introduced. Virtual reality is the phase of the Internet. Students learn history via virtual reality (Gloria Henke) |
| 2024 | Most business and learning takes place in homes. The only large gatherings are for arts, sports, travel, and vacations. |
| 2030 | Quantum computers become common in schools and on corporate desktops (Amy Fahey) |
| 2033 | Apple introduces the Granny Smith III, which is worn on the head. |
| 2035 | Station to Donate Arms to Smithsonian (CJ Underside) |
| 2036 | Virtual Classroom, an artificial teaching environment developed by the Korean Artificial Intelligence System Research Institute, is displayed in a public middle school for the first time (Junghyun An) |
| 2039 | Jacking In becomes common and controlled. It is the act of leaving regular conscious activity to join the Global Neural Network to access or control data. |
| 2040 | Students use the Power
Pencil, which stores the information that is written with it.
Downloadable Consciousness Tutor |
| 2045 | Jan 1 heralds the world-wide ban on the printing of books. (Eric Larson) |
| 2050 | Keyboards are now obsolete; the long-living QWERTY is extinct. |
| 2054 | Biofeedback controlled computers available to public. (Julie Veazie). |
| 2056 | Congress announces the importance of computers in education (Robbin Garber-Slaght) |
| 2057 | The first successful case of virtual mind loading is realized. (Gary Jones) |
| 2065 | Holographic teaching. |
| 2077 | A determination of the DNA Intelligence Potential is conducted before birth. |
| 2084 | Children are taught by robots (Ava Jamshidi) |
| 2095 | The radical group, once known as the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA), now called PAPA, Populace Against Pornography Advocates, has reaped a benefit from its multi-million dollar project to develop computer filters designed to completely block out all inappropriate sites for children. (Lydia Harris) |
| 2112 | Virtual reality field trips are introduced to schools |
| 2199 | Using tissue from the brain and taking advantage of the speed of neuron firing computers are now capable of thinking. |
| 2203 | Holographic Teaching Aids are introduced into classrooms. (Tamara Barcalow) |
| 3000 | The invention of knowledge transmitters for human brains redefines the concept of learning. (Ulrike Gretzel) |
| 3922 | Remembering the days when humans had bodies. (Pamela Galion) |