Unfulfilled Promise: The Forty-Year Shift from Print to Digital and Why It Failed to Transform Learning

Getting Smart Podcast

This episode is an overview of a recent contribution to a publication from the Hoover Institute written by Tom Vander Ark. This publication takes a look at the shift from print to digital in light of the 40th anniversary of A Nation At Risk. This era marked a shift from information scarcity to abundance, a shift from searching to sorting. It changed what, how, and where people learn, and not always for the better. In American schools, the shift to digital learning was gradual, uneven, often chaotic, expensive, and, while there was observed improvement in engagement, largely ineffective at boosting traditional outcomes.

The shift to digital learning was marked by four phases: computers in the back of the room, introduction of the World Wide Web, the rise of blended learning, and remote learning. The rise of generative AI in 2022 marks a new era of human-computer interaction.

Links:

1. View Publication
2. A Nation at Risk +40 | A Review of Progress in US Public Education
3. AI for Education Publication
4. Amanda Bickerstaff on AI for Education
5. Bodo Hoenen on Generative AI for Curriculum
6. Charles Fadel on Education and Competencies for the Age of AI