Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave
Amanda L. Darlington
Time 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
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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 Hallows
by 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.