These were the principal terms used to describe educational technology until about 1970. Later, when sound was added to film and audio recordings became popular, the terms audiovisual education, audiovisual instruction, and audiovisual devices were used to represent the variety of media employed to supplement instruction. The terms visual education and visual instruction were used originally because many of the media available to teachers, such as three-dimensional objects, photographs, and silent films, depended upon sight. The typical view among educators is that technology can be used effectively to supplement instruction by providing instructional variety, by helping to make abstract concepts concrete, and by stimulating interest among students. Although technology proponents have from time to time claimed that technology will replace teachers, this has not occurred. The history of educational technology is marked by the increasing complexity and sophistication of devices, exaggerated claims of effectiveness by technology advocates, sporadic implementation by classroom teachers, and little evidence that the technology employed has made a difference in student learning. In addition, the principal focus will be upon the most modern computational and communication devices used in schools today. However, for many educators the terms educational technology, instructional media, and instructional technology are used interchangeably, and they are used so here. Educational technologists often employ the term instructional media to represent all of the devices that teachers and learners use to support learning. According to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, one of the principal professional associations representing educational technologists, 'Instructional Technology is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization for analyzing problems, and devising, implementing evaluating, and managing solutions to these problems, in situations in which learning is purposive and controlled.'(p. This term represents both a process and the particular devices that teachers employ in their classrooms. Specialists in educational technology, in particular college and university faculty who conduct research and teach courses on educational technology, prefer the term instructional technology because it draws attention to the instructional use of educational technology.

To the lay public and to a majority of educators, the term refers to the instructional use of computers, television, and other kinds of electronic hardware and software. Educational technology has both general and specialized meanings.

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