The advancement of technology, such as the advent of the computer, has lead to studies on the use of technology for instruction.  The main purpose of Instructional technologies is the promotion of learning.  Thus, a relation occurs between learning theory and the design, development and use of technology.

[ The below bibliographies have also been listed within the TIMELINE section of this site.  Therefore, in this section along with the PSYCHOLOGICAL and GAMES sections I have simply attempted to separate the readings into their most appropriate category.  Noting that many of the readings could be placed within multiple sections. ]

In his article, B.F. Skinner begins by noting how increasing enrollment and the want for education, demands that education becomes more efficient and classroom techniques improved.  He mentions how the advent of television has lead to the reexamination of audio-visual aides that lead to the technologies of that time (i.e. film projectors, television sets, and tape recorders) entering American schools.  He suggests a danger in the use of equipment which is designed simply to present material, fearing that the student is becoming a passive receiver of instruction. He continues by giving examples of Sidney L. Pressey’s teaching machines that were designed in the 1920’s for the automatic testing of intelligence and information.  Noting that Pressey might have been the first to emphasize the importance of immediate feedback in education and to propose a system in which students could move at their own pace.  Pressey envisioned an “industrial revolution in education” but it seemed the “world of education was not ready.”  Skinner then argues that introducing a new type of “teaching machine” will provide students with an active way of learning.   That this machine itself does not teach but instead is like a good tutor.   This “good tutor” unlike lectures and textbooks, induces sustained activity and moves at the students pace allowing for thorough understanding of the material before moving on.  It would guide the student with techniques of “hinting, prompting, and suggesting” and reinforce the student for correct responses with immediate feedback that will efficiently shape his/her behavior and hold the student’s interest.  Overall, it seems Skinner is proposing we explore the possibilities of technology in the educational system so as to help motive active learning and meet the demands for education.  

In this chapter of their book, Tim O’Shea and John Self evaluate eleven approaches in the history of computer-assisted learning in education.  They being by presenting the Hydraulic Theory of Education (Paul M. Davies, 1969) to which “knowledge is a kind of liquid which resides copiously in teachers and books, as in a great vessel” and the purpose of education is to transfer that “liquid” to the “smaller vessels” (i.e. students).  The theory is then said to have its most exiting advancement with the use of “the computer and multimedia console as a means of mediating Programmed Instruction.” It is suggested that this console is able to flood every channel and passage leading to the student’s brain.  They then continue by listing and describing the various approaches while discussing their advantages and limitations.  Some of the approaches mentioned include, linear programs, mathematical models of learning, simulations, games, problem-solving, and dialogue systems.  They state the “learner as a bucket” philosophy still dominates computer-assisted learning.  They mention alternative trends from a behaviouristic to cognitive approach to teaching and learning that view computers as systems that treat students as thinking, understanding and contributing individuals.  They conclude by summarizing the various approaches and state the most promising in enhancing the educational systems are “those most concerned with methodological issues: problem-solving and dialogue systems.” Both of which are said to be based on the subject of artificial intelligence.

In her book The Second Self, Sherry Turkle explores the relationships between computer users’ and their machines. She goes beyond the basic uses of technology and investigates how this technology affects ones self.  She speaks to audiences from children to university students to AI scientists to hackers.   She divides the book into three main parts: “Growing up with computers: The animation of the machine”, “The new computer cultures: The mechanization of the mind”, and “Into a new age.”  Within these parts are topics ranging from children to video games, programmers to hackers, and artificial intelligence to “the human spirit in a computer culture.”  Her book allows one to open his/her mind to deeper contemplation of issues such as emotion, memory and thought.  It raises thought on philosophy, religion, what it means to be a hacker, finding ones self in the computer, does the computer think?  She suggests that because computers are thinking tools, they offer new models of what it means to know and to understand.  That while technology changes aspects of our lives it also changes how we see ourselves and the “virtual world as context for explorations of identity.” Towards the end she states “many of us read only what we have programmed our computers to bring to us; many of us speak…only to those with whom we agree.  Many of us communicate all the time, but with greater speed and less depth.”  And she poses the question, “If our encounters with computers don’t help us deal more compassionately and carefully with one another, then what will our attitudes, formed through our relationships with them, contribute to our fragile and threatened world?”