Never Send a Human to Do a Machine′s Job: Correcting the Top 5 EdTech Mistakes

Technology has transformed our lives. Virtually every school and classroom is connected. Why then, has it not transformed education? Consider these five ways educators can begin to optimize classroom technology and rethink its use. See technology as a complement rather than a replacement Embrace its creation potential over consumption function Encourage design and personalized learning over standards and outcomes Celebrate the journey toward digital competence over curriculum improvement Focus on tech-pedagogy over product usage Learn how to let technology cultivate student autonomy, creativity, and responsibility while focusing on lessons that hone higher-order and critical thinking skills.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction 1. The Wrong Relationship Between Technology and Teachers: Complementing in an Ecosystem Versus Replacing in a Hierarchy An Ecosystem, Not a Hierarchy: Reconsidering the Relationship Between Teachers and Technology Technology and Teachers in a Learning Ecosystem: What Are Their Niches? Constructing a Learning Ecosystem: What Does It Look Like? 2. The Wrong Application: Technology as Tools for Consumption Versus Tools for Creating and Producing The First Approach: Technology as a Tool for Consumption Constructivism: Constructing by Creating and Producing Wikipedia: A Mass Project of Creating and Making Digital Stories, Twitters, Blogs, Videos, and Robots: New Genres of Creating and Making Diverse Needs as Creators and Makers 3. The Wrong Expectation: Technology to Raise Test Scores Versus Technology to Provide Better Education Can Technology Boost Test Scores? Don’t Let the Wrong Question Guide Our Technology Use Providing Better Education: The Real Value of Educational Technology 4. The Wrong Assumptions: Technology as Curriculum Versus Digital Competence The Wrong Assumptions: Technology as Curriculum/Instruction What Is Digital Citizenship? Developing Digital Citizenship Through the Use of Digital Technology 5. The Wrong Technology Implementation: Top Down Versus Bottom Up Two Technology Paradoxes Before 3 p.m. Model After 3 p.m. Model Before 3 p.m. Versus After 3 p.m.: What Are the Differences? Alternative Ways to Implement Technology Conclusion 6. Making It Right: Reimagining Education in the Second Machine Age The Need for Reimagining Education Reimagining the What: Curriculum Reimagining the How: Pedagogy Reimagine the Teacher-Machine Relationship: Summary Index

About the Author :
Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas and a professor in Educational Leadership at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education in Australia. He previously served as the Presidential Chair, Associate Dean, and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he was also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Prior to Oregon, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the International Academy of Education. Gaoming Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of Indianapolis. She teaches educational psychology and educational technology courses in undergraduate and graduate programs. Her research interests include technology integration, teacher preparation, and comparative education. Her work has appeared in On the Horizon, the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Educause Review, and the International Encyclopedia of Education. Jing Lei is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Syracuse University. Dr. Lei’s scholarship focuses on how information and communication technology can help prepare a new generation of citizens for a globalizing and digitizing world. Specifically, her research interests include technology integration in schools, the social-cultural and psychological impact of technology, e-learning, emerging technologies for education, and teacher technology preparation. Her recent publications include Handbook of Asian Education: A Cultural Perspective (2011, Routledge) and The Digital Pencil: One-to-One Computing for Children (2008, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates publishers). Wei Qiu is an instructional designer and adjunct faculty at Webster University. She received a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology from Michigan State University. Her research interests include using technology to enhance students’ learning experience, second language education, and global competency development. 

Review :
"Yong Zhao and his team have written a book that challenges the ideas not of how technology can make teaching better, but of how technology can create schools that are truly learner-centered. They focus not only on what technology could do better, but how the human element of schools is still needed now more than ever." "Dr. Yong Zhao continues to push educators’ thinking by taking a serious examination of the role technology has played (or hasn’t) in education in the last 30 years. The struggles he lays out are those that many are trying to overcome on an almost daily bases. The new thinking in this book needs to be read by those in the classroom and leaders alike."  "This book masterfully address the issues related to technology integration in schools. Dr. Zhao artfully navigates through the misconception of technology as the ultimate solution to the challenges of teaching. The book provides useful examples of the successful marriage good instruction and good technology can have when properly balanced." "In the final chapter, Zhao shines a spotlight on the need to leverage the voice of the STUDENTS (#stuvoice) in our classrooms as an asset to our own evolving connected capacities as adults. The development of social media in today’s world is constant, and each day our students bring with them rich cultures and talents into our classrooms. Zhao identifies this ripe space for innovation to be infused, but a culture shift is necessary on the part of adults. It’s not about the tools but the people. Students need to be empowered and teachers (and especially school leaders) need to relinquish some control. We can breed innovation or stifle innovation here." "Never Send a Human to Do A Machine’s Job is simultaneously an historical look at the myriad disappointments of technology in education over the past few decades and a vision for a future of a more personalized and product-filled educational experience. The vision provided in the book is realistic, well researched, and highly relevant to the needs of today’s learner. It is time to totally reimagine education. Are you ready?" "At this critical junction for education technology, we need voices like Yong Zhao’s. Never Send a Human combines a historical perspective on past failures with forward-thinking solutions, and his narration is eloquent all along the way. This book is transformational in its vision of teachers and tech working side-by-side for students." "Dr. Zhao′s instructional technology expertise shines brightly in this book. He does a wonderful job of describing the various ways in which educators and policymakers have misframed digital technologies to the detriment of their learning potential for students. Replete with numerous ways to think our way back out of our self-inflicted integration challenges, this book offers hope to those of us who are ready to reimagine the power of learning technologies in our schools." "Yong Zhao and his colleagues have written a valuable guide to the uses and misuses of technology in classrooms. They strip away all the false promises and hollow rhetoric and offer a clear framework for using technology in ways that allow students to create, not consume."