Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology since 1920

TLDR

Reformers have long promoted film, radio, television, and computers as tools to revolutionize classroom instruction by boosting productivity, enabling individualized learning, reducing repetitive tasks, and expanding content beyond what teachers can provide. The study seeks to understand teachers' responses to the promise of technology and why few teachers adopt machines. Cuban examines the teacher‑machine relationship by compiling evidence from diverse sources to construct a historical narrative. The book reveals cyclical patterns of acceptance and denial, noting reformers' enthusiasm, educators' initial optimism, teachers' hesitancy and frustration, and the slow, limited adoption of technology, urging readers to reconsider the current enthusiasm for classroom computers.

Abstract

Film and radio, television, and computers have each been heralded by reformers as a way to revolutionize classroom instruction by increasing productivity. The promises implied in these aids caught educators' attention: individualized instruction, relief from tedium of repetitive activities, and presentation of content beyond what was available to a classroom teacher. How have teachers responded to the promise of improvement? To answer this question, Larry Cuban has gathered evidence from many diverse sources, constructing a history of technology and education that reveals hidden or ignored patterns in the teacher-machine courtship. He traces cycles of acceptance and denial; the enthusiasm of reformers; the initial optimism of the educational community; the hesitancy, doubts, and frustrations of teachers; and the very slow and limited acceptance of the new technology. He also asks, Why have so few teachers used machines? His answers, drawing from a range of disciplines, will prod readers into viewing the current passion for classroom computers in a different light. This now classic text provides a much-needed perspective on technology in the classroom.