Frequently, a document that shows a history tells more about the society that created it than the societies it encompasses. The Learning Technologies Timeline has been created and updated over the last few years, and as a result, it tells interesting things about what has been on the minds of many people today.
A quick survey reveals that 31 of the entries were between 1990-2002, a disproportionate amount. One explanation for this is that this is the time period we all have experienced, and therefore know much about. However, this also reveals that there is an emphasis on the innovations of the '90's as being the most important learning technologies developed. There is no doubt that the technologies of this decade are important, but to emphasize the events of one decade over 40,000 years of human history is extremely biased.
Other trends in the Learning Technologies Timeline are the focuses on writing and digital technology. The development of writing technology and all that it entails-paper production, writing systems, print, book dissemination-is explained in detail. I think this exposes the tendency to equate learning with writing; at times the two are synonymous. This idea is very common now, and was perhaps even more dominant in earlier times when the definition of being educated, or "learned" was the ability to read and write. Current definitions of learning entail all of the processes that allow humans to comprehend new ideas, perform new functions, and exhibit different behaviors. Child psychologists today are just as concerned with how a child learns to pick up a toy as with how a child learns to read. Along with writing technology, digital technology is very common on the timeline. I can hypothesize that this is perhaps due to the increasing importance of digital technologies, and how it has captured the imagination of mass culture.
Overall, I find the timeline very interesting, and have spent much time going through the entries. It traces different developments, and is in itself an example of a learning technology. An idea I had to improve the Learning Technologies Timeline as a learning technology is to allow for cross referencing between entries. This would allow an observer to trace individual developments as they effected other future developments. Of course, that would be a very difficult undertaking, and is maybe more than what one would want from a quick timeline such as this.