High-tech tools for change
When the electric light was invented, education reformers thought the school day would be transformed. After all, that new technology offered the possibility to educate students at any time of the day or night. Not much has changed on that score since Thomas Edison’s creation, however — nor since the invention of the automobile, the telephone, television, or any other transformative technology of the past 100 years. For all the hopes of technophiles, most children’s school days still follow the agrarian calendar and run from 9 to 3. It’s easy to get excited about the possibilities afforded by 21st century technology, from mobile phones to cloud computing to social media. But when it comes to truly transforming broken education systems at home and abroad, said IBM Foundation President Stanley S. Litow, one thing is clear: “We need a little humility.” “You open one great restaurant, and everybody will want to copy you,” said...