Allan Collins on Jenna McWilliams' review of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology
I asked Allan Collins, who wrote Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology with Richard Halverson, what he thought of Jenna McWilliams' review. He responded,
What a curious reading of our book! Most people come away from the book and our talks about the book with the impression we are technology enthusiasts. Jenna McWilliams sees us as technology pessimists. We were striving in the book to be neither, but rather to make sense of the effects that technology is having on education broadly speaking.We do talk about the losses that are occurring for education with the digital revolution, but we also talk about the gains. We give them equal space -- if anything the technology enthusiasts ideas get more space. We certainly don't depict enthusiasts in the way she describes as "overwhelmingly optimistic, Utopian idealists."
McWilliams focuses only on the losses we describe, not on the gains. We also attempt to say how schools and society can act to mitigate the losses and exploit the possibilities. The book argues that technology is changing education in many and subtle ways, and that society and its leaders need to understand these changes if they are to make wise policy decisions.
If you've read Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology please let us know what you thought of it.