We love our smartphones.

If you’ve been paying attention over the past few decades, you should have learned this important fact about technology. It nearly always over-promises, with the delivery on that promise coming up short.

Back when Governor King was sitting in the Blaine House, he made a big to-do about introducing laptops into our schools. The intent, at least as publicly pronounced, was to make Maine “the most digitally literate society in the world.” He touted how this would be an economic boon for Maine, too. Anyone doubting King and his plan were seen as malcontents and neo-Luddites. It’s how tech evangelists always try to bully the cautious into submission and get their way of adding more technology to our overly-digitized lives.

Fast-forward 15 years and one could make the case that King’s laptop plan didn’t deliver much of a return on the $50 million price tag accompanying laptops for all Maine seventh graders. Digital snake oil for the Pine Tree State.

Sherry Turkel was quite enthusiastic about technology as a tool for learning and like many, believed that technology would greatly enhance our quality of life. Turkel’s spent the past 30 years studying the psychology of people’s relationships with technology and our digital culture. It’s safe to say she’s “cooled” in her ardor for technology’s ability as a tool to teach; she actually presents scenarios where it inhibits the ability to learn, even in her own classroom at MIT. Continue reading →