The Soul of the Machine: An EdTech Insider’s Plea for a More Human Future

Technology in education is at its best when it empowers students to create, collaborate, and solve problems together. As discussed in the article, the goal should be to provide tools that foster human ingenuity and make learning an active, engaging experience for everyone.

For decades, we’ve been sold a dazzling promise: technology will revolutionize education, democratize learning, and unlock the potential of every student, regardless of their zip code or background. Yet, for all the talk of AI tutors and virtual classrooms, a nagging question remains: Who is all this technology truly serving?

According to Anne Trumbore, an EdTech insider with a front-row seat to the industry's evolution, the answer is often not the students who need it most. In a compelling interview with Greg Toppo of The 74, Trumbore, author of the new book The Teacher in the Machine, pulls back the curtain on an industry that, she argues, has often prioritized profit over people. Her message is a powerful plea to refocus on creating more equitable tools that provide “more returns to learners than to ed tech investors.”

From an Insider’s Perspective

Trumbore’s perspective is unique. She isn’t an outside critic; she was in the room where it happened. After starting as a teacher at Stanford University’s experimental Online High School, she became an "ensemble player" on the team that launched Coursera, the platform that ushered in the era of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). She has seen firsthand how idealistic goals can get lost when shaped by a free-market business model.

“I believe in the promise of ed tech,” Trumbore states. “I don’t think that the promise of ed tech and the free-market business model are compatible.”

This tension is the core of her argument. While MOOCs successfully opened the gates to elite institutions, allowing anyone with an internet connection to see what’s being taught at Stanford or Penn, they primarily benefited those who already possessed the agency and skills to succeed in that environment. They gave “additional agency to those who have it,” she notes, while failing to support the millions of nontraditional learners who need more than just access to content.

Learning from the Past to Build a Better Future

Trumbore warns that without acknowledging the history of the field, we are doomed to repeat its mistakes. She points to three mid-20th-century pioneers whose visions still shape today’s technology:

Patrick Suppes: An early innovator who popularized the idea of computers as “automatic tutors”—a concept now being realized through AI platforms from Khan Academy and others.

Don Bitzer: The creator of PLATO, a revolutionary networked learning system that, back in the 1960s, enabled communication between students and laid the groundwork for modern learning management systems.

Seymour Papert: A visionary from MIT’s AI Lab who, inspired by child psychologist Jean Piaget, argued that a child should program the computer, not the other way around. He believed technology should be a tool to empower creativity and human expression.

Trumbore sees Papert’s philosophy as especially relevant today, as schools rush to adopt generative AI. She fears a future where students are passively consuming AI-driven lessons (“Lesson 4 of OpenAI Academy”) rather than actively using these powerful tools to design, create, and solve problems. Are students using the tool, she asks, or are they being used by it?

The Path to True Equity

So, how do we escape this cycle? How do we build an EdTech ecosystem that truly serves all learners?

Trumbore suggests the first step is to be more critical and clear-eyed. We must recognize that education is inherently difficult and expensive to provide, and a frictionless, scalable product designed for mass appeal can’t replace a genuine learning experience. As she aptly puts it, if simple access to information were the solution, “libraries would have solved everything.”

The challenge isn’t just about providing access; it’s about designing educational experiences that meet learners where they are. It’s about building tools that empower, not just deliver content. It’s about shifting the focus from maximizing user engagement and profit to maximizing human potential.

Trumbore's call to action is a necessary one. As we stand on the cusp of another technological wave driven by AI, her insights serve as a vital reminder to ask the hard questions, learn from our past, and consciously build a future where technology serves humanity—not just the bottom line.

Disclaimer: This blog post was written with the assistance of an AI. The information and quotes are based on the article, "An Ed Tech Insider Pleads for More Equitable Tools," written by Greg Toppo for The 74. You can read the original piece here: https://www.the74million.org/article/an-ed-tech-insider-pleads-for-more-equitable-tools/