Introduction 1
1 B.F. Skinner Builds a Teaching Machine 19
2 Sidney Pressey and the Automatic Teacher 35
3 "Mechanical Education Wanted" 61
4 The Commercialization of B.F. Skinner's First Machines 81
5 B.F. Skinner Tries Again 107
6 Programmed Instruction: In Theory and Practice 135
7 Imagining the Mechanization of Teachers' Work 149
8 Hollins College and "The Roanoke Experiment" 167
9 Teaching Machines, Inc. 179
10 B.F. Skinner's Disillusionment 195
11 Programmed Instruction and the Practice of Freedom 213
12 Against B.F. Skinner 231
Conclusion 245
Acknowledgments 265
Notes 269
Index 301
Audrey Watters is a writer on education and technology. She is the creator of the popular blog Hack Education (hackeducation.com) and the author of widely read annual reviews of educational technology news and products.
“This is a landmark book...“Reading Teaching Machines is like
donning a pair of glasses that suddenly makes much of the present
more explicable. This is why I want to urge people to read this
book with all possible haste.”
—Inside Higher Ed
"For generations, important men (like B.F. Skinner) have been
promising that technology will take the place of teachers. Watters
deep history examines the forces that view teaching, teachers, and
students as problems to be solved, rather than humans to be
engaged."
—Chicago Tribune
"A thoroughly researched book...The book is fascinating and very
readable, loaded with well-chosen details. Reading this story, one
suspects it might be fair to say that it is ed tech, not public
education, that has not made a significant step forward in the last
100 years."
—Forbes
"Watters’s central thesis is a powerful one, and Teaching Machines
provides a breath-taking array of examples to back it up."
—Schools Week
"Watters’ much-anticipated and long-in-the- making book fills a
gaping hole in our understanding of the origin and implementation
of education technology...This major piece of work will establish
her as the foremost public intellectual and independent scholar in
the field."
—EduBlog
"Long before the advent of personal computers, inventors and
researchers created what they called “teaching machines” in hopes
of revolutionizing education. Some of these creations date back to
the 1920s, and were made from wood and brass. Yet today’s edtech
leaders often ignore or choose to forget this history, argues
Audrey Watters, a longtime critical observer of edtech...Watters
traces the history of these pre-computer-age gadgets in her new
book, Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning.
—EdSurge
"... a fascinating history"
—Education Next
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