“THIS will revolutionize education.” It’s been a constant mantra of those seeking to open the doors of knowing through devices, interfaces, apps and platforms. Technological optimism - it’s a well research phenomena. I’ve been around the block and the current fervor surrounding AI in education is yet another one of these moments that makes me shake my head.
I remember being in Teachers’ College, 1990s and the CD ROM was going to change everything! Students brains would be bursting out of their skulls and education would never be the same. It was a crazy time. Yet, not decades but just years later, the revolution sputtered, not even televised. And so it goes for most technological advancement, especially in education. It will be the same regarding AI.
We are so susceptible to the pleas of optimism in ed-tech. The cheerleaders and slick Willys. It’s part of our make-up to be optimistic, trust. It’s just easier that way, it’s just nicer to believe in Oz and not pull back the curtain, seeing that wizard there with all his gears and levers.
I call this repeated process “the microwave effect”. When microwaves were introduced, a new age of instant, delicious food was envisaged. More delicious, healthier than could ever be imagined. It would replace the stove and liberate women, turning them into beatific Jane Jetsons. Push a button and eat deliciously, healthily. What happened? The microwave became just another device to warm food, sitting so lonely and unused on our kitchen countertops.
If educational technology will “revolutionize” - why don’t we see the evidence? Why aren’t people X factor smarter, more intelligent the world over? There is no evidence of educational outcomes zooming off the charts.
Each generation must do the work themselves, inside their heads. Technology is not magical, is not the panacea that it is marketed as and it does not affect the inner state of any human being (but I’m sure there is someone out there trying to discover a way to do this, a laser or port into the human mind - I’m not exaggerating, this of Musk’s folly - Neuralink).
Technology is of the outer, visible world. A person can learn just as well with an old blackboard than a fancy, new electronic whiteboard. Flashcards on paper work just as well as those online with amazing features and functions.
I remember visiting a town in the Amazon, the south of Colombia. Everyone spoke 3 or 4 languages. Yet, the town didn’t have electricity, nobody had phones loaded with apps or schools with computers. People learned without any technological interface.
Now of course, technology does have benefits. I don’t disagree with that, that’s quite apparent. But it’s effect is one of efficiency - less time, ease of use to do a given task. The car shortened time of travel. The internet shortened time to access knowledge. Generative AI will quicken our ability to process language and help with organizing learning, creating content etc … . What it won’t do is directly change what goes on in a student’s head - the learning therein.
What’s lost when it comes to educational technology is the understanding of what learning is - a qualitative change in the state of an organism (student). This qualitative change happens inside the body of a being, and no tweaking of the outside environment is going to change that. No technology (yet) is going to make one iota of difference therein. The video above, lays out this argument well. (see it in full here).
Materialism, the belief system pushing technology to ever bolder frontiers is one that believes (like its cousins, scientism and reductionism) that everything is made of bits of data - learn the recipe to mix those bits and bytes rightly and you’ll revolutionize education, the world. Put in the correct levers, switches, lights and like the “machine that goes “ping””, everything will be solved, the patient cured, the holy grail found.
Education is and will always be a social process, one involving free, radically unpredictable living beings. The teacher organizes this process and nurtures this process. No technology will change the student without his/her permission and them doing the work inside their head. [and that’s where generative AI is a danger, it is a technology that allows students to bypass that interior process of thought, reflection. It presents a false view that learning has occurred]
The only thing that will revolutionize education is a change in the social environment in which learning occurs. Education needs to move on from the traditional 220 days a year, classroom model and provide new ways for students to interact, immerse, maintain motivation, be enlivened with the process of their inner change of self. And of course, getting high quality, energetic, enthusiastic teachers working with students will also do what no technology can ever do. Value, pay teachers more. Get the right people working with students (see my thoughts on credentialism). More importantly, make education more about the heart than just banking knowledge, knowing facts. And most importantly, let’s fix what does hinder education - the foundations of society. We need better home environments, less financial desperation for parents, a narrower income disparity, more social supports. It’s the soil on which learning grows.
Now of course, I’m don’t for a moment think I’ll change the minds of most of those (like myself, just a few number of years ago) that are Ed-tech cheerleaders. They will keep releasing their ill-designed studies showing their new, shiny trinket revolutionizing student outcomes. The conventions and exhibition floors will continue to be filled with booths of delirious nouveau Ponce de Leons. No, I’m resigned to the fact of educational materialism governing our world. And too, how money, business swings its shiny objects in front of us - playing a numbers game.
I can only hope a few souls are still out there, refusing to drink the Kool-Aid. That will give me hope to keep following the evidence and survive this newest round of “this will revolutionize education” hype.
Technological Optimism