TY - JOUR
T1 - A little history of e-learning
T2 - finding new ways to learn in the PLATO computer education system, 1959–1976
AU - Cope, Bill
AU - Kalantzis, Mary
N1 - In 1967, the PLATO research group won its first grant from the National Science Foundation. With the move away from defence funding, a new centre was created, the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory, tasked in the new grant to develop PLATO IV. Donald Bitzer was appointed its first director. For the National Science Foundation, a contemporary rhetoric of innovation was required. Writing their progress report for 1969, Alpert and Bitzer highlighted the change. ‘In the past few years’, they noted, ‘teaching strategies have been developed which are so far removed from the Skinnerian approach as to represent a totally different conception of the role of computer-based education.’ The tide against behaviourism had turned. People had become to take note of Noam Chomsky, who had as a young upstart demolished in 1959 Skinner’s behaviourist edifice 73
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The differences between computer-mediated and in-person learning are of increasing interest to educators, both with the rise of fully online education offerings and the move to ‘blended learning’ when teachers use computer-mediated learning to supplement and extend classroom activities. This paper offers a narrative history of the world’s first computer learning system, PLATO, developed at the University of Illinois between 1959 and 1976. The PLATO experience prompted discussions regarding the nature of e-learning among the developers that have since become a ubiquitous part of our educational discourse. While the technical story of PLATO and its place in the development of cyberculture has been told, the educational story has not. This paper discusses the ways in which educators using PLATO gradually discovered that their teaching and their students’ learning could be different. It analyses the implications of these insights for the emergence of e-learning pedagogies in subsequent decades.
AB - The differences between computer-mediated and in-person learning are of increasing interest to educators, both with the rise of fully online education offerings and the move to ‘blended learning’ when teachers use computer-mediated learning to supplement and extend classroom activities. This paper offers a narrative history of the world’s first computer learning system, PLATO, developed at the University of Illinois between 1959 and 1976. The PLATO experience prompted discussions regarding the nature of e-learning among the developers that have since become a ubiquitous part of our educational discourse. While the technical story of PLATO and its place in the development of cyberculture has been told, the educational story has not. This paper discusses the ways in which educators using PLATO gradually discovered that their teaching and their students’ learning could be different. It analyses the implications of these insights for the emergence of e-learning pedagogies in subsequent decades.
KW - computer-mediated learning
KW - e-learning
KW - education technology
KW - instructional design
KW - pedagogy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146396881&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85146396881&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/0046760X.2022.2141353
DO - 10.1080/0046760X.2022.2141353
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85146396881
SN - 0046-760X
VL - 52
SP - 905
EP - 936
JO - History of Education
JF - History of Education
IS - 6
ER -