read

As many of you know, I’m working on a book proposal for Teaching Machines, a project I’ve had on the back burner for far too long now that is finally starting to come to a boil.

What do you think are the best existing works of history of the field of education technology?

Here are some titles that quickly come to mind – because I can read their titles on my bookshelf. (It’s worth noting, I suppose, that these are mostly quite dated, and they’re all by men. And I am not endorsing these as “the best.”)

  • Larry Cuban, Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920 (1986)
  • Brian Dear, The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture (2017)
  • Bill Ferster, Teaching Machines (2014)
  • Bob Johnstone, Never Mind the Laptops: Kids, Computers, and the Transformation of Learning (2003)
  • David Noble, Digital Diploma Mills (2001)
  • Wilbur Schramm, Bold Experiment: The Story of Educational Television in American Samoa (1981)
  • Paul Saettler, The Evolution of American Educational Technology (1990)
  • ---, A History of Instructional Technology (1967)

I must be missing a ton here, so if you have suggestions (particularly books by authors of color or white women and particularly histories of ed-tech outside the US), I’d love to hear them. (UPDATE: I have created a new web page that lists these titles along with others folks have recommended. It is available at history.hackeducation.com.)

Audrey Watters


Published

Hack Education

The History of the Future of Education Technology

Back to Archives