Thinking Allowed

The risks of automation of education

2024-12-18 12:10:00

Unintended consequences such controlling the norms of behaviour and framing knowledge can be brought with automation ... and the problem is not a new one.

"Although intended as an act of freedom, the self-instruction provided by an Automatic Teacher also habituated learners to the authoritative norms underwriting self-regulation and self-governance. They not only learned to think in and about school subjects (arithmetic, geography, history), but also how to discipline themselves within this imposed structure. They were regulated not only through the knowledge and power embedded in the school subjects but also through the self-governance of their moral conduct. Both knowledge and personality were normalized in the minutiae of individualization and in the machinations of mass education."

Petrina S. Sidney Pressey and the automation of education, 1924-1934. Technology and Culture. 2004;45(2):305-30.

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automation self-governance norms knowledge subjects also education school