«Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education»
Justin ReichMitsui Career Development Professor, MIT and Director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab (English).
Abstract
Widespread school closures are unprecedented, but the use of education technology and online learning to reach across distances, teach refugee and disaster-impacted communities, and expand the possibilities of schooling is quite common. In Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education, MIT professor Justin Reich looks through the history of instructor-guided courses like MOOCs, algorithm-guided tools like adaptive tutors, and peer-guided spaces like networked learning communities. He argues that education technology has never sweepingly transformed schools, but there are specific tools and approaches that work well in certain subjects with certain students. Looking back at where technology has made the most positive difference and understanding the barriers to adoption and effective implementation can give us clues to how we can make remote and hybrid learning work better this year.
Bio
Justin is an assistant professor of digital media in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing department at MIT and the director of the Teaching Systems Lab. He is the author of Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education, and the host of the TeachLab Podcast. He earned his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was the Richard L. Menschel HarvardX Research Fellow. He is a past Fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society. His writings have been published in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other scholarly journals and public venues. He started his career as a high school history teacher, and coach of wrestling and outdoor adventure activities
