In my view, using technology too soon is definitely detrimental [to education]. I have often used the analogy 'it's like wine-tasting for first-graders'. One can be a strong advocate of both first-graders and wine-tasting, but strongly opposed to wine-tasting for first-graders.
— George Andrews (2012), contemporary American mathematician, educator, author
…The newer the idea, the more likely it is to become obsolete. If something has proved itself valuable over 5000 years, it is a good bet that it will be useful for the next 100; if something has only been valuable for the last 50 or 20, then we cannot be nearly so certain…Nothing dates so fast as the cutting edge.
— Daisy Christodoulou (2014), contemporary English educator, author, reformer
Thinking that computers will obviate the need for mathematicians is like thinking 80 years ago when cars replaced horse drawn wagons, there would be no more need for careful drivers. On the contrary, powerful engines made careful drivers more important than ever.
— Robert Lewis (ca. 2000), contemporary American mathematician, computer scientist, educator, author
There are lots of different ways that algorithms can go wrong, and what we have now is a system in which we assume because it’s shiny new technology with a mathematical aura that it’s perfect and it doesn’t require further vetting.
Of course, we never have that assumption with other kinds of technology. We don’t let a car company just throw out a car and start driving it around without checking that the wheels are fastened on.
We know that would result in death; but for some reason we have no hesitation at throwing out these algorithms untested and un-monitored even when they’re making very important life-and-death decisions.
— Cathy O'Neil (2016), contemporary American mathematician, author, educator
I don't think any of us can do much about the rapid growth of new technology. A new technology helps to fuel the economy, and any discussion of slowing its growth has to take account of economic consequences.
However, it is possible for us to learn how to control our own uses of technology. The "forum" that I think is best suited for this is our educational system.
If students get a sound education in the history, social effects and psychological biases of technology, they may grow to be adults who use technology rather than be used by it.
— Neil Postman (1996), American author, educator, critic
It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case.
Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.
Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle — they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.
— Alfred North Whitehead (1911), influential English mathematician, logician, philosopher
Now, it is safe to say that no mechanical invention ever effected greater improvements in machinery, no discovery of new agents more signal revolutions in all the departments of science, than the blackboard has effected in the schools;
and certain it is, that no apparatus at all comparable with it for simplicity and cheapness, has to such a degree facilitated the means, and augmented the pleasures of primary instruction.
— Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction (1843)
The printing press…soon did for knowledge what steam has done for trade: reduced time and distance to their lowest terms in the intellectual commerce of the people. Men no longer had to make long and weary pilgrimages to the homes of learning: knowledge was brought to their very doors.
Often with less trouble than was taken, formerly, to teach one pupil by the voice, a teacher now taught thousands by the pen.
— Henry Holman (1908), British educationist, Inspector of Schools, author
The use of the typewriter in high schools will be not only common but universal. There is no doubt but that this machine will fulfil an important educational mission.
While the use of the typewriter is a necessary part of a practical education, it accomplishes its greatest good when used by pupils, for it begets habits of neatness and accuracy, secures skill in execution, and develops a more perfect mastery of our language.
It not only perfects the operator in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing, and business and social forms, but defect and strength in thought, style, and sentences are more easily observed when in plain type than is possible in writing.
— Frank E. Plummer, (1891), American educationist, academic administrator
There is no doubt that the overhead projector is the most versatile visual aid to be developed in recent years. Its applications are almost limitless and it is being used to an increasing extent in schools and universities throughout the country.
The acceptance of a new ‘gadget’ is always difficult in a teaching situation geared to a particular way of communication but once tried the overhead projector is found to be of immense help either as an addition to one’s teaching tools or as the basis of a complete teaching system.
— Keith Barker (1973), contemporary English electrical engineer, educator, writer, content creator
Books will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.
— attributed to Thomas Edison (1913), influential American inventor, industrial scientist, entrepreneur
In an effort to improve the teaching of high school physics, I want to propose an experiment involving the preparation of a large number of moving picture shorts…complete with text books, problem books, question cards and answer cards. …but, before taking up the detailed mechanism, it is necessary first to look at the subject matter.
Success or failure depends to a large extent on having the entire apparatus of the experiment really right.
Like a high fidelity phonograph, one must have besides the machine a good piece by a good composer played by an artist. The room must be good, not too noisy, and the people have to want to listen, but that all depends upon the piece.
— attributed to Jerrold Zacharias (1956), American physicist, educator, reformer, chairman of the Physical Science Study Committee