Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife,
Priscilla Chan, celebrated the birth of their daughter by announcing they would
invest nearly their entire fortune in good causes, with personalized learning
topping the list. While certainly a magnanimous gesture, there is one small
problem: There’s little evidence that technology by itself can replace good
schools.
Studies have shown that creating personalized learning tools
that allow students to learn at their own pace, provide constant feedback, and
recommend lessons based on previous work can produce improvement in learning results.
But students still need support from teachers and parents.
Jason Reich, a researcher at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, reported in a paper published in Science that 38% of
students enrolled in online courses from Harvard and MIT live in more affluent
neighborhoods. Reich also found students with college-educated parents were
nearly twice as likely to finish the online courses they take.
“The history of education technology shows emerging
technologies tend to disproportionately benefit affluent people,” Reich said in
a National Public Radio report.
“Designing for digital equity is really hard.”
The good news is Zuckerberg has shown a willingness to
do the hard work necessary. Facebook engineers are already working on a
personalized learning platform with Summit Schools, a chain of
technology-centered charter schools. In addition, Zuckerberg has invested in
AltSchool, a Bay Area startup that blends Montessori educational concepts with
high-tech tools. He also plans to build free-standing private schools for
low-income students.
“The
technology is important, but it’s not really the hard or the expensive part,”
said Michael Feldstein, co-founder of the education blog e-Literate, in the NPR
report. “These challenges are particularly hard for poorer schools where there
is less money and less support for teachers.”
