Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave

Amanda L. DarlingtonTime Line

Educational Technology 7100

Toffler’s Three Waves Timeline Strands/Color Codes

Strand 1:  Toffler's three waves, and the fourth wave if you believe we have entered one

Strand 2:  Technology:  Key advances and innovations for each decade

Strand 3:  Work:  Business and corporate philosophies by decade

Strand 4:  Education:  Important Theories of learning and instruction by decade

Strand 5:  Society and culture:  Events that determined the thinking of each decade

Strand 6: Literature: Great books from each decade

*Hyperlinks to additional resources are in light blue

Toffler’s Three Waves

The First Wave: The Agricultural Age

Time Frame: 1600 - 1700 Families:  extended Business/Work: family business; agriculture Transportation:  foot/horse Communication:  face to face Education:  Oral, limited books; multiage groups; or home schooling

The Second Wave: The Industrial Age

Time frame: 1700 - 1950 Family: nuclear Business/Work: top down bureaucracies; factories Transportation:  automobiles, planes Communication: face to face Education:  books, videos, filmstrips; grouped by ages and grades

The Third Wave: The Information Age

Time frame: 1950-Present Family:  one parent; two working parents Business/Work:  collaborative teamwork; flexible hours and locations Transportation:  automobile, planes Communication:  computers, cell phones, computer to computer Education:  digital, hyper kids, internet

1900-1910

1900 John Dewey believed that humans use truth to solve problems and learning is active.

1901: Steel: J.P. Morgan merged the Carnegie Steel Company and several other steel and iron businesses to form the first billion dollar corporation in America.

1902: The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

1903: The Wright Brothers flew the first controlled airplane near Kitty Hawk, N.C.

1903: The Call of the Wild by Jack London

1904: Classical Conditioning: The first type of learning to be discovered in the early 1900's. Ivan Pavlov played a key role in the development of classical conditioning.

1908: Mass Production: Henry Ford built the automobile using a method of mass production called the assembly line. Assembly Line

1910: Dewey published How We Think

1910: Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in the United States. It is the largest youth organization in the world.

1911-1920

1911: A factory in New York caught fire killing an estimated 500 workers. The led to the beginning of strikes and labor unions.

1911: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

1911: Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie

1912: The Titanic sank

1912: The first Montessori school was opened in the U.S., in 1912 by Maria Montessori.

1913: Edison created first films for classroom use.

1913 U.S. Department of Labor formed.

1913: Henry Ford brought down the price of the Ford Model T with the use of the assembly line. The assembly increased the speed of the production of cars.

1916: Terman developed the American version of the Binet-Simon scale of Intelligence (IQ).

1917: U.S. enters WWI

1920:19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.

1920: KDKA: The first radio broadcast by a radio station.

1921-1930

1922: Thorndike began his connectionism theory.

1923: Widespread Ku Klux Klan violence erupted in the United States.

1927: Television: America's new form of entertainment is invented.

1929: Piaget developed the stages of cognitive development for children ages birth to eleven and up.

1929: Stock Market Crash: This day is known as Black Tuesday.

1929: The Stock Market Crash and The Great Depression hits society.

1925: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1929: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

1931-1940

1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly.

1932: Tolman developed sign language.

1932: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1933: Wagner Act enacted to protect the rights of workers.

1933: Franklin Roosevelt creates New Deal Programs to put Americans back to work.

1935: The Social Security Act

1938: Fair Labor Standards Act

1938: Skinner introduces his theory of operant conditioning.

1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback

1941-1950

1945: Atomic bomb: The atomic bomb development was known as the Manhattan Project. It was used during World War II to make Japan surrender.

1945: Peter Drucker published first concept of the corporation.

1945: Animal Farm by George Orwell

1946: Visual Materials: Edgar Dale created the Cone of Experience. Its purpose was for educators to provide a visual learning experience using materials.

1948: Alex Osborne developed the concept of brainstorming.

1949: Ralph Tyler published the Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction.

1951-1960

1951: UNIVAC I: First computer made available for purchase.

1951: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

1952: Dr. Jonas Salk invented a successful vaccine for polio.

1953: DNA discovered by Watson and Crick.

1954: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

1954: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Brown vs. The Board of Education case in favor of Brown. The court rules that separate but equal is unconstitutional.

1955: Martin Luther King, Jr. leads the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Birmingham, Alabama. This was after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man.

1956: Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives includes six levels of knowledge.

1958: Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) was developed to complete complex projects.

1960: Laser: Theodore Maiman invented the first working laser.

1960: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

1961-1970

1962: The idea of the internet was developed by Carl Robnett Licklider of MIT

1962: Vygotsky published his work on social development theory.

1962: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

1963: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

1963: Equal Pay Act

1963: The Keller Plan

1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his famous "I Have a Dream Speech."

1964: The Beatles make their debut on the Ed Sullivan show.

1966: Bruner developed Constructivist theory.

1969: Man on the Moon: Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.

1970: Problem Solving Learning: This is where small groups work collaboratively to solve problems.

1971-1980

1971: NASDAQ opens as world's first electronic stock market.

1971: Invention of the Microprocessor.

1973: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

1975: Bill Gates and Paul Allen forms Microsoft to write computer software.

1978: First test-tube baby born.

1978: The Stand by Stephen King

1981: First space shuttle launched.

1981-1990

1981: Personal computer: IBM released their own personal computer.

1981: AIDS is identified in the U.S.

1982: Total Quality Management

1982: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

1983: Howard Gardner developed seven intelligences that deal with the way people learn and how we all learn differently.

1984: First online purchase

1987: Beloved by Toni Morrison

1987: The first public subscription to internet made available.

1990: Theory of Anchored Instruction developed

1990: Tim Berners-Lee developed language necessary for the modern internet to function (WWW, HTML, and HTTP).

1991: First Smart Board

1991-2000

1996: First cloned animal, Dolly the sheep

1998: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

1999: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

2001: Terrorists attack the U.S. by hijackers ramming jetliners into the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashed 80 mi outside of Pittsburgh.

2001-2010

2001: iPod invented for transporting digital music.

2002: Web 2.0: Changed the use of internet and business.

2002: No Child Left Behind: This act was signed into law by President Bush to require annual testing of all students in public schools.

2003: Space shuttle Columbia explodes killing all astronauts on board.

2003: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

2005: Evolution: School boards across the country met to discuss the controversial issue of how to teach students the origin of the earth.

2007: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowsby J.K. Rowling

2008: The U.S. falls into a recession.

2009: Criterion Referenced Instruction: Robert Mager developed this type of instruction in order for it to be used for training purposes.

2009: The first black president inaugurated.

2010: iPad is released to public.