Reich, J. (2020). Failure to Disrupt – Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education.Boston: Harvard University Press.
For around seventy years, it has been suggested that teaching machines, computers, artificial intelligence, and immersive technologies will transform education and that schools, colleges and universities will need to urgently adjust to the emerging power of educational technology. It is a fantasy, as many investors who have lost secure dividends on this idea will tell you. But it persists. Recently, Goldman-Sachs advised pension fund investors that COVID-19 and the experience of remote teaching will provide the momentum needed for technology to transform education. This book tells us why this will not happen. A great many technologies haven been developed by well-meaning individuals who have never taught and have no intention of doing so. They see education in terms of “banking” – collecting knowledge, depositing it in we-portfolios and doing so as a single learner interacting with technology. But education is about both the experience of learning – interaction, genuine and deep engagement and the building of learning relationships – not just about knowledge and skill acquisition. While some educational technology can be used to enhance a community of inquiry or the co-creation of knowledge, it cannot replace the purposeful pursuit of learning through partnerships with instructors and peers. That is the core argument of this well-written and thought-through book. There is no “killer-app” that will replace meaningful and thoughtful teaching and learning. Well worth some of your time.
