7 November 2020 | New Scientist | 23P
ROPONENTS of education
technology have made
remarkable promises
over the past two decades: that by
2019, half of all secondary school
courses would be online; videos
and practice problems can let
students learn mathematics at
their own pace; in 50 years only
10 mega-institutions of higher
education would be left; or that
typical students left alone with
internet-connected computers
can learn anything without the
help of schools or teachers.
Then in 2020, people around
the world were forced to turn to
online learning as the coronavirus
pandemic shut down schools
serving more than 1 billion
students. It was education
technology’s big moment, but
for many students and families,
remote learning has been a
disappointment. When the world
needs it most, why has education
technology seemed so lacklustre?
Educational software has a long
history, but throughout there have
been two major challenges. The
first is that most people depend
on human connection to maintain
their motivation. When a student
closes their laptop in frustration
in a classroom, someone can see
it and respond. When the same
thing happens while using an
education technology product,
human connections are shut
down with it.
Well-designed online learning
environments can encourage
meaningful relationships, and
MIonline learning has the potential
CH
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D’U
RB
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Comment
Justin Reich is director
of the MIT Teaching
Systems Lab, and author
of Failure to DisruptViews
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Arctic’s hope p30Culture columnist
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Truth Seekers p32to transcend typical classroom
boundaries, but in practice,
many online students struggle
to stay focused.
The second challenge is that
curricula are complex. On any
given day in a school, one teacher
may introduce a new sound-letter
mapping in phonics, another
finish a unit on plate tectonics,
and a third facilitate a seminar
on Don Quixote. Many teachers
can walk down the hall into a
new lesson to teach different
subject material. But for every
new curriculum area for education
technology, new content, tools,
resources and assessments needto be developed and disseminated.
Assessments are also a thorny
challenge. In some domains,
like mathematics and computer
science, education technology can
instantly detect when a student
solves a problem or creates a
correctly functioning computer
program. We can reward students
for getting answers correct, nudge
them towards resources when
they get things wrong, and create
the feedback loops of instruction,
assessment and iteration that
good learning requires.
Unfortunately, the same
approach doesn’t work so well in
other areas. We can ask studentsto calculate how far a tectonic
plate might move given a certain
speed and time and computers
can instantly evaluate a correct
numerical answer. But if we ask
students to write a paragraph that
explains how plate tectonics work,
computers can’t reliably identify
correct, partially correct and
incorrect responses. Computers
cannot reliably evaluate how
humans reason from evidence,
and reasoning from evidence
is the very core of schooling.
Education technology has long
promised to transform education,
but at best, the field has developed
individual tools for niches of the
curriculum. For large swathes
of school learning, we don’t have
online tools or resources that are
any better than a printed textbook.
Every technological solution
is also a human capital problem:
integrating technologies into
learning requires giving teachers
and students time to play with
and get acclimated to new tools,
routines and pedagogies.
For most teachers, the road
to more effective teaching with
technology looks less like a
transformation, and more like
tinkering: a slow and steady
process towards identifying
the right tool or approach
for particular students in
a particular context. ❚Online learning’s big issue
Now is the time for educational technology to shine, but it simply
isn’t good enough and is unlikely to be so soon, says Justin Reich