Educational Technology Timeline
Early 1960s and Early 2000's
CI335 - CTER2 Assignment 8
Amy Fahey
PLATO Instructional Computing System
circa 1962
The PLATO instructional computing system can truly be identified as one of the first (if not the first) computerized teaching systems used in classroom instruction, not only in college courseware but in elementary schools. Around 1974, I was one of the children in the Champaign Unit 4 school district who participated in the PLATO experiment. I can remember the excitement of looking forward to working on the computer and playing a game called "Speedway" in which a line-drawing of a racecar sped ahead, pitting my mathematical skills and speed against a baseline programmed into the computer. We even had "touch screens" installed later that year, which as an 11-year-old I'm sure I thought were the coolest.
PLATO was the brainchild of computer and electrical engineers at the University of Illinois' Computer-based education research laboratory (CERL). PLATO was mainframe based and while it was probably years ahead of its time. Reliability suffered from the same quirks many early mainframe systems did -- resulting in lots of downtime. Even so, it was very successful in classrooms and on this campus -- and the rights to develop and market PLATO were sold to Control Data Corporation (CDC), which eventually sold its rights to the name to The Roach Organization (TRO).
Today, TRO markets PLATO as a computer assisted instruction system (www.plato.com) which according to the company is "designed to enhance the learning process and help adolescent and adult learners reach their fullest potential."
The sale of PLATO to CDC wasn't the end of instructional networks at the U of I; fortunately PLATO was the beginning of bigger and better things. A private company called University Communications, Inc. was set up to market NovaNet, a satellite transmission-enhanced education system. NovaNET is today a very successful computer-based education and communications network that offers self-paced, interactive curriculum for secondary and adult learners.
More information about PLATO, its development and evolution can be found at: http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/whatsnew/newsletter/winter93/plato.html and at http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AIM/INIinfo/virtclass.html
PLATO Instructional Satellite System
circa 2003
I can envision a new PLATO satellite system in the year 2003, in which students have small handheld devices which they carry with them to and from school. When the arrive at school, the handheld devices are "docked" into a central system at the school, homework is downloaded to the teacher's main directory for grading and new assignments are downloaded into the student's handheld device. When the student returns home, their handheld PLATO device is docked into a satellite enhanced computer device, where they can complete homework assignments using resources of the Internet, collaborate with other students at other schools, and store assignments. The handheld devices act as calendaring, e-mail, and satellite communication aids.