The Elton Model of how educational technology has evolved

One of the first people to classify teaching/learning methods in this way was Lewis Elton, Britain's first Professor of Educational Technology. In a seminal paper presented at the 1977 Annual Conference of the Association for Educational and Training Technology, he described the three classes as the dependent mode, the independent mode and the inter-dependent mode, reflecting the radically different roles of the student in each. He also contended that the entire post-war evolution of educational technology could be described in terms of the development of these three areas - see Figure 3:

Figure 3 : The Elton model of how educational technology has evolved

In essence, Elton argued that educational technology had undergone a progressive change of emphasis since the end of the Second World War, when it first emerged as a discipline in its own right. Initially, there was a concentration on the techniques of mass instruction, then a move towards individualised learning, and finally, during more recent years, a move towards group learning. In each case, he identified three broad, overlapping stages in the general development. The first is a research phase, in which the basic concepts and techniques are established. The second is a development phase, in which these basic concepts and techniques are converted into practical teaching and learning techniques together with their associated support materials. The research and development phases are eventually followed by a third phase, in which the techniques begin to achieve widespread use. Elton noted that, in each case, the combined research and development phases tended to last for roughly 25 years, after which the on-going 'use' phase continued indefinitely. When he first presented his model in 1977, mass instruction was well past the end of its research/development period, individualised learning was nearing the end, and group learning was roughly half-way through. Now, of course, all three modes of instruction are well past the end of their research/development phases, and all are taken for granted by teachers. This was certainly not always the case. All modes have been proselytised by enthusiasts, Elton himself spending the 1987 - 1997 decade advocating increasing use of interdependence in the delivery of higher education.

Let us now take a more detailed look at each of Elton's three modes of instruction, showing how each has developed over the years, reviewing the range of techniques that each encompasses, and examining their educational strengths and weaknesses.

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