Technology As a Fix for Education

Why Technology Will Never Fix Education

Kentaro Toyama | May 19, 2015

In 2004, I moved to India to help found a new research lab for Microsoft. Based in Bangalore, it quickly became a hub for cutting-edge computer science. My own focus shifted with the move, and I began to explore applications of digital technologies for the socioeconomic growth of poor communities. India struggles to educate its billion-plus population, so during the five years that I was there, my team considered how computers, mobile phones, and other devices could aid learning.

Fixed broadband Internet subscriptions in 2012 as a percentage of a country's population. Source: International Telecommunications Union. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_access

<more at http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Technology-Will-Never-Fix/230185; related links: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/arizona-state-and-edx-will-offer-an-online-freshman-year-open-to-all/97685 (Arizona State and edX Will Offer an Online Freshman Year, Open to All. April 23, 2015) and http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964 (The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and Why? Gayle Christensen, Andrew Steinmetz, Brandon Alcorn, Amy Bennett, Deirdre Woods, and Ezekiel J. Emanuel. November 6, 2013. [Abstract: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have commanded considerable public attention due to their sudden rise and disruptive potential. But there are no robust, published data that describe who is taking these courses and why they are doing so. As such, we do not yet know how transformative the MOOC phenomenon can or will be. We conducted an online survey of students enrolled in at least one of the University of Pennsylvania’s 32 MOOCs offed on the Coursera platform. The student population tends to be young, well educated, and employed, with a majority from developed countries. There are significantly more males than females taking MOOCs, especially in BRIC and other developing countries. Students’ main reasons for taking a MOOC are advancing in their current job and satisfying curiosity. The individuals the MOOC revolution is supposed to help the most — those without access to higher education in developing countries — are underrepresented among the early adopters.]>