In this talk Audrey Watters describes Dial-a-Drill: "it would call the student at home and pose questions that the student would then answer by pushing the buttons on the telephone in response." It's a pretty funny story typical of the educational phrenology of the day. And in this new era of 'remote learning'? No different, says Watters. "Under normal conditions, ed-tech is no silver bullet. Why the hell would we expect it to be now?!" Still, we see educational technology creeping into the home, she says. "An extension of school? Maybe. An extension of ed-tech corporations' reach? Definitely."
Well - OK, sure. But many of Watters's stories remind me of stories about old-time medicine (including questionable practices that exist even to this day). But we're not rejecting modern medicine, are we? Watters nothwithstanding, past tech failure does not entail future tech failure. Sure, I would certainly agree, an extension of med-tech corporations' reach is a bad thing. Count me an enthusiastic supporter of public health care. But I am also an enthusiastic supporter of public education, which is not the same thing as rejecting educational technology, and indeed, may well require that we embrace it.
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