In this reflection on Teaching Machines by Audrey Watters, I focus on educational psychologist Sidney Pressey, the inventor of the first teaching machine.
Pressey “talked about using mechanical devices in the 1920s in ways almost identical to those who push for personalized learning today, all so that…a teacher could focus on her “real function” in the classroom: “inspirational and thought-stimulating activities,” including giving each student individualized attention.”” (p. 9)
I was a faculty member for 20 years at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. At the school and university, I was a big advocate beginning in the late 1990s for incorporating digital technologies into the classroom. I taught the school’s first online course in 2010. For the last 6 years I have worked at Extension Engine which has, among many other projects, helped Harvard Business School create HBS Online, a truly amazing platform for digital learning.
Given all of that, one would think that I would have been aware that both Pressey existed and that personalized learning has a 90yr history. Neither, unfortunately, were true. This book goes on to explain just how extensive these efforts were, thereby foreshadowing both the promises made for today’s digital education and the challenges it continues to address.
Am I alone in the existence of these blind spots?
