One can predict that in a few more years that millions of school children will have access to what Philip of Macedon’s son Alexander enjoyed as a royal prerogative: the personal services of a tutor as well-informed and responsive as Aristotle. (Suppes, 1966)
Suppes' influential paper, The Uses of Computers in Education, offered a compelling vision for the role of tech and education.
The paper opens by framing one-to-one teaching as a "glory of the aristocracy".
Undoubtedly, an educational curriculum that accounts for any individual needs has a better chance of providing a student with a successful learning experience. However, despite the intrinsic merits of one-to-one teaching, Suppes quickly realises that scaling these benefits is economically infeasible.
He then offers a series of somewhat extravagant proposals. For colour, let's consider the context of his assertions. It's the early 1960's, and the world is at the dawn of the Computer Age.
"Could the computer make one-to-one teaching easier?"
"Could the computer be used to create and deliver curriculums that are better suited to individuals as opposed to groups?"
"Could we facilitate genuine dialogue mechanisms between learners and computers?"
Fast forward 50 years, and we're arguably none the wiser on all three of Suppes' proposals. Despite increasing investment in EdTech startups, the learning experience on most platforms can be pretty unremarkable.
I sought to understand why this was the case.
My journey started with Toby Mather's article on EdTech paradigms. He expertly introduced the Student-Technology paradigm that underpins the majority of tech-enabled educational platforms.
His insights contributed heavily to a post I wrote about the core tenets of the Student-Technology paradigm. Within a similar context, I was also able to explore the benefits and drawbacks of using Udemy and Teachable to create and deliver online curriculums.
After much reflection on the knowledge I had gained, like Suppes before me, I encountered a fundamental question in educational philosophy.
"Do we want to commit ourselves further to recognising differences in cognitive style by introducing individualised styles of teaching that cater to them?"
Such judgments were too lofty for my mind to consider at the time. So to ward off any further rumination, I played a game of Among Us with friends and subsequently wrote about it.
Alas, I forgot you were still here. Welcome to the Tutorpass newsletter.