The Monsters of Education Technology

by Audrey Watters

A collection of essays by ed-tech's "Cassandra" Audrey Watters, this book contains talks and tales of education its histories, mythologies, ideologies, and monsters. Each chapter was originally delivered as a lecture during 2014.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Technology

207 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

An independent writer, Audrey Watters earned her BS in Social Sciences from the University of Wyoming in 1996 and her MA in Folklore from the University of Oregon in 2000
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Reviews

[Terry Clague · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific collection of talks and articles from education technology's "Cassandra" who argues that education technology is the "Trojan Horse poised to dismantle public education, to outsource and unbundle and disrupt and destroy."

In the course of these essays, the author highlights forgotten histories (e.g. Thomas Edison's 1913 prediction that textbooks would soon be obsolete); asks awkward questions about the meaning of "open"; compares the idea of technology having "wants" with Frankenstein's monster; and ends with Ivan Illich as a potential saviour via "convivial" ed-tech".

The oral foundation of the book means that there are more questions than answers, whilst there's a fair amount of (useful) whataboutery here. The unavoidable repetition in some of the chapters and the book Watters is working on (Teaching Machines) will doubtless work better as a whole, but until then this splendid book should be required reading for anyone with an interest in education technology.

[Maile]

This book is a collection of public speeches by Watters. The first section talks about the hidden or lost education technology, the second section covers the ideology of education technology. The third is a vision for the future of education technology or at least the point we are poised at where it becomes either monstrous or marvelous. Watters states, “The future of ed-tech is shaped by the history of ed-tech - whether we realize it or not” (Watters, 2014). This is the reason I read this book. I believe we must understand where ed-tech has been in order to utilize it best for our students. One of the first points she makes is that changing technology is easy, changing practices, not so much (Watters, 2014). Her point is that much of education technology has not revolutionized education so much as automated it. Be it having a computer score a multiple-choice exam or a computer finding the average of student test scores, it is still the same practice. Watters does a wonderful job of connecting the dots of the first “teaching” machines. While there are patents for teaching machines going back into the 1800s, perhaps B.F.Skinner deserves credit for the first teaching machine in the 1950s. His machine allowed students to enter their own answers to the questions displayed, then the student would advance the machine to show the correct answer and hide their own. Skinner believed that this machine would remove the inefficiencies of a classroom. Students could move at their own pace and they would receive immediate feedback. I do not believe this is teaching, nor does Watters. Skinner’s machine was based on conditioning a response, unfortunately, much of where education technology has gone follows the same path. We see this structure in much of the marketing material for current education apps, self-paced and instant feedback. Watters does not have answers, rather the book poses the questions that we must be asking about the technology. Is this truly in the best interests of the learner? Her final section poses the idea that the future of educational technology should not be more of the same, where learners are programmed (conditioned) to respond a certain way or that large companies won’t be collecting student data to monetize, think of Khan Academy or LMS. She projects “the future where learning technologies support and foster learner control and learner agency. It’s a story where students are the subjects, not objects when it comes to education and education technology” (Watters, 2014). One view she proposes is that each person has their own digital space, where your digital work is stored so that you control it your entire life, rather than losing access when a semester ends or when the school chooses a new LMS. She states that the power of the internet is not to deliver content but to provide human connections. We must stay vigilant that education technology serves the student, not the corporations that sell it to us.
“We all should consider the implications of technology on how we teach and learn, lest the future of ed-tech be just like the history of ed-tech: learners as pigeons” (Watters, 2020). I think this book is a must-read for every educator as a reminder to not be distracted by the shiny but to really look at the apps and technology being sold to you. It is easy to get sucked into the idea of technology providing an answer to all the problems, but as Watters reminds us, we must know what the problems are we are trying to solve. While Google Apps for Education might be free, what does Google get out of the deal? They are able to record every keystroke our students make, and they are able to take that data and monetize it. She reminds us to be critical and informed.
Audrey Watters journalist and freelance writer who specializes in education. She has written for Edutopia, MindShift, O'Reilly Radar, ReadWriteWeb, and The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Hybrid Pedagogy, Inside Higher Ed, The School Library Journal, and others. She is the recipient of the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship at Columbia University for the 2017–2018 academic year. She is a public speaker and has compiled four books of her speeches. The Monsters of Education Technology was her first such book. She has published three after volumes, as well as several other books. She maintains Hack Education website on which she runs a blog about education technology.

References
Watters, A. (2014). The monsters of education technology. CreateSpace.
Watters, A. (2020, May). Hack Education. http://audreywatters.com/.

[Ben Kraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audrey Watters is great, but this collection isn't really her best: it gets a bit repetitive at times, the speeches don't always read quite right as essays, and by now it's a bit dated. I'm looking forward to Teaching Machines though!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audrey Watters' work on the history and assumptions of education technology is very, very good. If you haven't come across her before this book is a good place to start!

[Brigid Goslin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote this review as an assignment for a course in the Master of Educational Technology program at Boise State University.

In the world of exciting, sugar-coated, gleaming “newness” of Educational Technology, Audrey Watters casts a monstrous shadow over it in her appropriately titled book, The Monsters of Education Technology, snatching away the proverbial candy from Ed Tech’s babies. Watters was on her way to writing another book, Teaching Machines, and in the process was traveling to Ed Tech conferences delivering talks and keynotes challenging and deeply questioning Educational Technology through intensive research on history, literature, culture and the future of education. She compiled the dynamic and fluid collection of 14 talks she gave throughout the year in 2014 into this nonfiction work, The Monsters of Education Technology.

Audrey Watters warns her audience of what lies ahead in the Introduction, describing the format of the book as well as the tone being pessimistic about Ed Tech with a struggled attempt to be optimistic. She quotes the early 20th Century political theorist Antonio Gramsci in several talks, “I am a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” Watters provides a deep history lesson on Ed Tech including influences on Ed Tech dating back to the 19th Century. Readers are slammed with negativity and abhorrence for silicon valley and the monetizing of Ed Tech by corporations and startups. She exposes data mining for what it really is and questions its validity in actually improving education and benefiting learners. Through this deep examination of the Ed Tech industry and its intention Watters rips off the rose colored glasses most of us are wearing when we perceive Ed Tech. She describes this herself on page 47, “This isn’t about passive or unquestioning adoption of new technologies; it’s about actively wrestling with difficult questions about what these technologies might mean, about who benefits and how.” However, it is not all death and doom from Watters perspective, she does provide ideas and positive inspiration for her audience. She is challenging her audience to release from the glowing halo of Ed Tech and to not accept aspects of Ed Tech just because it is the latest thing, or Wired magazine had a great article on the wave of the educational future. As educators ask questions, research history, recognize monsters, and be a proponent for learners.

I read this book with the intention of taking a look at the other side of Ed Tech, through the critical lens and this collection of talks did not disappoint. As a current student in the Boise State University Master of Educational Technology program, the community atmosphere is positivity and how remarkable Ed Tech is, how it is changing the face of education for the better. Watters believes that technology CAN do this, but does not believe that it is currently being done in the right way. If you only want to consider a feel-good, sunshine and roses look into Educational Technology than this book will leave you feeling empty. If you truly desire to look within and ensure that you are a proponent for Ed Tech, than it is necessary to question and challenge all that it has become and will become in the future. I’ll end with a quote from Watters (2014), “Learning - human learning - isn’t an algorithm. The problems we face surrounding education cannot be solved simply by technology. They require political debate and democratic engagement. They require morals not markets. They require flexibility. They require compassion. They require justice. They require great care.” (p. 52)

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the intersection of education history and technology you'll find Audrey Watters, applying a critical, social-justice-minded lens to modern approaches to revamping education. This book is a lightly edited collection of talks given by Watters that asks hard questions about the Silicon Valley approach to education. My only criticism: more judicial editing to reduce duplication of content would have made the collected book easier to read.

In lieu of a full review, here are notes I took while reading:

* Papert (discovery, "child programming teh machine") vs. Skinner (multiple-choice questions, immediate feedback)

* How does an ed-tech startup achieve "success"?
** Markets are built around units of consumers and corporations, not communities
** Markets favor competition (or collusion), not collaboration. How do public goods (i.e. education) fit in?

* "Scalable" courses have implications:
** How are local cultures included or excluded? Colonialist education of sorts (Said's criticism?)
** (Astra Taylor): individual diversity increases, total diversity decreases if everyone consumes the same course content

* How do you change education culture rather than simply providing new tools?

* Skinner's "teaching machines": "fixation on control, a rejection of freedom, and an absence of emotion"

* Focus on "content delivery" rather than other factors. Distance learning as example. Edison predicting movies replacing textbooks. Online education. Audrey calls "programmed instruction".
** Distiction on "instruction" vs. "learning".

* Interactivity via the web: social justice approach.
** Not just content delivery. Think of web as "read/write".
** Forums a common tool, but not exactly new.
** "domain of one's own" (UMW)
** Focus on networks (esp. interaction with classmates)

Further reading:
* Mindstorms (Papert)
* Teachers and Machines (Larry Cuban)
* Education and the Cult of Efficiency (Raymond Callahan)
* Men Explain Things to Me (Rebecca Solnit)
* (as a related group) Compulsory Miseducation, Death at an Early Age, Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, School is Dead

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como aperitivo para o seu livro, longamente esperado mas publicado este ano pela MIT Press, sobre a história da tecnologia educativa, a investigadora Audrey Watters coligiu um conjunto de intervenções e keynotes neste livro. O tema, são as tecnologias edicstivss, que Watters critica de forma profunda, bem fundamentada, e certeira. A autora situa-se declaradamente numa abordagem à educação que privilegia as competências profundas, a capacitação e desenvolvimento profundo e autónomo do indivíduo, e não a mera transmissão de conhecimentos. É com base nesta visão que desmonta os pressupostos por detrás das mais recentes tecnologias  educativas. 


Aponta aos MOOCs e LMSs o seu carácter formulaico e rígido (compreendo, uso alguns LMS e a escolha nunca é o melhor sistema, mas sim o menos pior). Questiona porque é que as iniciativas de aprendizagem de programação se focam tanto no utilitário, desvirtuando e afastando-se da visão abrangente, do programar como ato intelectual, que está no cerne da visão de Papert que deu origem a este campo. Obriga-nos a pensar na questão dos dados, que com os sistemas digitais de apoio à educação, quer na aprendizagem quer na administração escolar, são um manancial imenso, apropriado e usado por entidades e empresas, mas raramente usados pelos próprios alunos, os geradores desses dados. Critica profundamente a superficialidade das visões comerciais sobre tecnologia educativa, desmontando a sua suposta inovação e mostrando que, na maioria dos casos, não passam de empacotamento do mais primitivo que há em educação, o absorver factos e treinar a sua memorização. Obriga-nos a perguntar porque é que temos o que temos, porque é que consideramos inovadores sistemas LMS inflexíveis, softwares de drill and practice, foco no aprender por aprender, ou gadgets cujo uso prático depressa mostra a rapidez com que se esgotam. Isto, em discursos e apresentações. Imagino o livro sobre a evolução da tecnologia educativa, que já está na lista de leituras.

[Bonni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always feel like my ratings are pretty bland on Goodreads. Almost everything I read gets four stars. Anything that would wind up being three stars or less would most likely not ever get finished. The good news is that there are a plethora of good books out there and I have ample people in my life who are sources for rock solid recommendations.

Why five stars for this one?

My criteria for a five star review is that it has to be a book that I am highly likely to read again in the future. This book has challenged me to reconsider my perspectives on many aspects of edtech. I still have work to do. This book promises to make many of us uncomfortable (in the best ways possible) and offers the ultimate hope in better being able to serve our students.

If, after reading this book, you want to hear more from Audrey, she was a guest on my podcast: http://teachinginhighered.com/18

Our conversation by no means replaces the importance of reading this book in its entirety, but touches on just some of the issues raised in these keynotes.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a book, per se, but a collection of 14 talks--presentations--on aspects of education technology. Lots of overlapping material which--strangely--only adds to the straightforward, no-bullshit tone of these interwoven essays. Watters makes her points clearly, around single topics--data, teaching machines, the overbalance of male thinking in technological design and practice--and then, bingo, the next essay is related and builds on the previous one.

It may have been a quick and dirty way to write a book, but it's effective. And Watters nails the core issues: to a man with a computer, every problem looks like data. Great stuff. Learned a lot.

[Anthony Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're inundated with tools and ideas and you're just looking for a relaxing read without feeling pressured to have to try something new, I recommend this book! I also recommend it if you want to learn more about the origins of a lot of today's ed-tech, even if Watters' take on it is somewhat pessimistic. It's a quick read since it's a collection of speeches; each "chapter" flows extremely well.

See here for a more in-depth review: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NX52...

[Antonio Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

great ideas but repetitive

Because they are talks a lot of the most interesting facts are repeated. However this author has a great voice and is worth listening to.