Never Send a Human to do a Machine’s Job: Top 5 Mistakes in Ed Tech
Never Send a Human to do a Machine’s Job: Top 5 Mistakes in Ed Tech[1]
First published in the Answer Sheet of Washington Post on October 6 2015
A few weeks ago, the OECD released a report[2] that essentially says investing in technology does not lead to better education outcomes, measured by PISA scores. The study finds “no appreciable improvements in student achievement in reading, mathematics or science in the countries that had invested heavily in ICT for education. And perhaps the most disappointing finding of the report is that technology is of little help in bridging the skills divide between advantaged and disadvantaged students.”
The report is new, but the finding is not. Just a few years back, in 2007, the U.S. Department of Education sent a report[3] to congress with the conclusion that “test scores were not significantly higher in classrooms using selected reading and mathematics software products” based on findings of multi year experimental study involving hundreds of schools and thousands of students. In 1998, ETS released a report[4] reporting “negligible” positive relationship between computer use and NAEP scores in math for fourth graders and slightly more positive relationship between 8th graders’ math achievement and “professional development and using computers for higher order thinking skills.” But using “computers to teach lower-order thinking skills was negatively related to academic achievement and the social environment of the school.”
Before computers, there were other technologies that did not make significant impact on education achievement, at least not as much as they had promised. There were exemplary pockets of success. Technology has not done much to improve education on a large scale. In the big picture, students’ academic performance has remained flat over the last several decades, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and other historical assessments. The achievement gap has persisted. But the funny thing is that enthusiasm for technology never seems to have been affected by the “failures.” If anything, it keeps increasing, despite repeated reports of no-significant-impact. So does investment. Today, we are seeing the rise of another wave enthusiastic efforts to use technology to improve education. This time, it is social media, big data, learning analytics, and machine-delivered personalized learning.
Cyclic amnesia best characterizes the history of technology in education. Over the last 100 years or so, we have gone through many cycles of hope and then disappointment: from film to radio, from radio to TV, from TV to computers, and from computers to the Internet. Every cycle started with amazing euphoria and then Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Never Send a Human to do a Machine’s Job: Top 5 Mistakes in Ed Tech:
