The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer

This book claims that schools are failing. It points to computers as the solution, because they encourage and allow a style of thinking that makes learning more effective. I think the parts of this book that focus on integrating technology into schools will be mere distractions. The core of what I want from this book is an understanding of what effective and ineffective learning look like. The case studies will be particularly useful in that they provide a wide variety of characteristics associated with good learning that I can mine for common elements leading to fun or engagement. I will read Chapter 1, yearners and schoolers, Chapter 2, personal thinking, Chapter 5, a word for learning, Chapter 6, an anthology of learning stories, and Chapter 7, instructionism versus constructionism.