Audrey Watters. Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning. Boston, MA: MIT Press, 2021. 328p. Hardcover, $34.95 (ISBN: 978-0262045698).

Abstract

Books sometimes feel like a map, a way of orienting yourself to help you understand where you are. Or, in the case of Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning by Audrey Watters, it’s like going to therapy to unpack your family of origin’s dysfunction, allowing you to reframe your childhood. This is the kind of work that makes your present circumstances more intelligible. This book is like all of that, but for educational technology.