Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education by Justin Reich.
Justin holds a PhD from Harvard University’s School of Education. He began his career as a high school history teacher. Today his is an associate professor at MIT and the director of the Teaching Systems Lab and is the host of the TeachLab podcast.
This book is tackling head on the many bold promises that technology can accelerating learning and provide customized education. There are an overwhelming number of technology projects funded by Silicon Valley firms, educational think tanks, and various entrepreneurs bringing emerging educational technology to the most underserved communities.
Recall when MOOCs were claimed to be the educational technology that would revolutionize education? Justin is revealing that MOOCs and even the number of “intelligent tutor” solutions only resulted in confusing educators and bypassing students. Perhaps those funded projects should have determined how benefactors were always students from affluent zip codes. The projects never made the impact as intended.
Schools and Silicon Valley favor programs that scale up. It turns out that technology cannot by itself disrupt education or provide shortcuts past the more difficult challenge of institutional change.
