Watters, A. (2021). Teaching Machines – The History of Personalized Learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Audrey Watters is the online learning sectors resident critic. For many years she has been “calling out” EdTech and big-tech’s claims about learning in her blog Hack Education. Now she has crafted a comprehensive and critical-reflective look at EdTech from the Sidney Pressey’s 1926 “positive reinforcement provider” through to present day AI enabled technologies. Well written, Watters challenges the “transformation” narrative that often accompanies an emerging educational technology and, in doing, so challenges the “learnification” industry as a whole. Full of excellent examples and case vignettes, including wonderful stories of failed adventures (including some from repeat offenders), Watters offers a compelling narrative of caution and respect for the bigger purposes of education.
