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A short history of schooling and its technologies glossary

27 terms from C02, A short history of schooling and its technologies — each defined in the primer's own words. Every term the primer teaches links to the slide that teaches it.

The whole context glossary

C02 · Purposes and foundations

A short history of schooling and its technologies

“This technology will transform education.”

Every term below is defined in the words of a short history of schooling and its technologies, primer C02 of understanding the context of education, and opens the primer at the slide where it is taught. 3 terms are also defined by another primer in the series; where the two differ, both wordings are given. The whole context glossary holds all of them together.

TermDefinitionReferred to inRead further
A
Age-graded classroom

A class of pupils grouped by age, taught by one teacher in one room for a year at a time. Boston's Quincy Grammar School (1848) is often cited as an early American example (National Park Service, n.d.).

  • Tyack, D., & Tobin, W. (1994). The "grammar" of schooling: Why has it been so hard to change? American Educational Research Journal, 31(3), 453–479. doi
  • Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform. Harvard University Press.
  • National Park Service. (n.d.). Quincy Grammar School. Retrieved September 17, 2026, from home.nps.gov
C
Charismatic technology

A technology that attracts support through the story it tells about learners and the future, more than through evidence of results (Ames, 2019).

  • Ames, M. G. (2019). The charisma machine: The life, death, and legacy of One Laptop per Child. MIT Press. mitpress.mit.edu
  • Warschauer, M., & Ames, M. (2010). Can One Laptop per Child save the world's poor? Journal of International Affairs, 64(1), 33–51. jstor.org
Common school

A free, public school intended for all children in a community. Horace Mann promoted it in Massachusetts from 1837 (Warder, 2014).

  • Warder, G. (2014). Horace Mann and the creation of the common school. Social Welfare History Project, VCU Libraries. socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu
  • Kaestle, C. F. (1983). Pillars of the republic: Common schools and American society, 1780–1860. Hill and Wang. doi
Cuban's cycle of classroom technology

Four stages that recur with each classroom machine: exhilaration, scientific credibility, disappointment and teacher-bashing, driven by non-teachers' impulse to change classroom practice; a pattern drawn from history, not a law (Cuban, 1986).

  • Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. Teachers College Press.
D
Disruptive innovation

The theory that a new model first serves people the existing system does not, then improves until it displaces the old one; Christensen, Horn and Johnson applied it to schools (Christensen et al., 2008).

C23 Christensen's theory, applied to schooling with a forecast that by 2019 about half of high school courses would be delivered online. That did not happen, and it has been widely questioned (Christensen et al., 2008).

  • Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W. (2008). Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. McGraw-Hill.
  • Glazer, N. (2008, August 19). Something's better than nothing [Review of the book Disrupting class, by C. M. Christensen, M. B. Horn, & C. W. Johnson]. Education Next. educationnext.org
  • Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M. E., & McDonald, R. (2015, December). What is disruptive innovation? Harvard Business Review, 93(12), 44–53. hbr.org
Domestication of technology

This primer's term for teachers adapting a new tool to the practice they already have, so it serves familiar ends (after Cuban, 1986, 2001).

  • Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. Teachers College Press.
  • Cuban, L. (2001). Oversold and underused: Computers in the classroom. Harvard University Press. doi
  • Cuban, L., Kirkpatrick, H., & Peck, C. (2001). High access and low use of technologies in high school classrooms: Explaining an apparent paradox. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 813–834. doi
E
EdTech Matthew effect

Reich's name for the pattern in which open educational technology reaches the already educated first, so learners with more socioeconomic resources benefit most (Reich, 2020).

  • Reich, J. (2020). Failure to disrupt: Why technology alone can't transform education. Harvard University Press.
  • Hansen, J. D., & Reich, J. (2015). Democratizing education? Examining access and usage patterns in massive open online courses. Science, 350(6265), 1245–1248. doi
Educational radio and television

Broadcast or closed-circuit programmes made for schools, such as the Ohio School of the Air from 1929 and closed-circuit school television from the 1950s (Kupfer, 2017; Keeler, 2018).

  • Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. Teachers College Press.
  • Kupfer, S. (2017, June 23). "The flame of living genius": The Ohio School of the Air. Ohio Memory. ohiomemory.ohiohistory.org
  • Keeler, A. (2018). Old new media: Closed-circuit television and the classroom. Convergence, 24(6), 538–553. doi
Emergency remote teaching

"A temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances", distinct from planned online learning (Hodges et al., 2020).

  • Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, A. (2020, March 27). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. EDUCAUSE Review. er.educause.edu
F
Factory-model narrative

The claim that schools were designed on the model of factories and have not changed since. Historians dispute it as a single story (Watters, 2015).

  • Watters, A. (2015, April 25). The invented history of "the factory model of education". Hack Education. hackeducation.com
  • Callahan, R. E. (1962). Education and the cult of efficiency: A study of the social forces that have shaped the administration of the public schools. University of Chicago Press. press.uchicago.edu
G
Grammar of schooling

"The regular structures and rules that organize the work of instruction", such as age grades, periods and subjects (Tyack & Tobin, 1994, p. 454).

C23 "The regular structures and rules that organize the work of instruction", such as age grades, periods and subjects (Tyack & Tobin, 1994, p. 454). Primer C02 covers it in depth.

  • Tyack, D., & Tobin, W. (1994). The "grammar" of schooling: Why has it been so hard to change? American Educational Research Journal, 31(3), 453–479. doi
  • Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform. Harvard University Press.
  • Courtney, S. J., & Mann, B. (2021). Thinking with 'lexical' features to reconceptualize the 'grammar' of schooling: Shifting the focus from school to society. Journal of Educational Change, 22(3), 401–421. doi
H
High access, low use

The finding that access to equipment and software seldom led to widespread teacher and student use, and that computer use sustained rather than altered existing patterns of teaching practice (Cuban et al., 2001).

  • Cuban, L., Kirkpatrick, H., & Peck, C. (2001). High access and low use of technologies in high school classrooms: Explaining an apparent paradox. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 813–834. doi
  • Cuban, L. (2001). Oversold and underused: Computers in the classroom. Harvard University Press. doi
Hype cycle

Gartner's curve of expectations for a technology, from innovation trigger through a peak and trough to a plateau. A description, not a tested law (Dedehayir & Steinert, 2016).

  • Dedehayir, O., & Steinert, M. (2016). The hype cycle model: A review and future directions. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 108, 28–41. doi
  • Gartner. (n.d.). Gartner hype cycle. Retrieved September 17, 2026, from gartner.com
I
Interactive whiteboards

Large touch-sensitive displays connected to a computer and projector, bought widely by UK schools in the 2000s (Moss et al., 2007).

  • Moss, G., Jewitt, C., Levačić, R., Armstrong, V., Cardini, A., & Castle, F. (2007). The interactive whiteboards, pedagogy and pupil performance evaluation: An evaluation of the Schools Whiteboard Expansion (SWE) project: London Challenge (Research Report RR816). Department for Education and Skills. discovery.ucl.ac.uk
L
Law of Amplification

Toyama's argument that technology helps education where it is already doing well, does little for mediocre systems and can cause outright harm in dysfunctional schools; it magnifies existing strengths and gaps (Toyama, 2015b).

  • Toyama, K. (2015a). Geek heresy: Rescuing social change from the cult of technology. PublicAffairs.
  • Toyama, K. (2015b, May 19). Why technology will never fix education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. chronicle.com
  • OECD. (2015). Students, computers and learning: Making the connection. PISA, OECD Publishing. doi
Logo and constructionism

Logo is a programming language for children from the late 1960s. Constructionism, Papert's theory, holds that people learn best by building things in the world (MIT News, 2016; Papert, 1980).

  • Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. Basic Books.
  • MIT News. (2016, August 1). Seymour Papert, pioneer of constructionist learning, dies at 88. news.mit.edu
M
MOOCs

Massive open online courses: free or low-cost online courses open to anyone, widely launched by universities from 2012 (Hansen & Reich, 2015).

  • Hansen, J. D., & Reich, J. (2015). Democratizing education? Examining access and usage patterns in massive open online courses. Science, 350(6265), 1245–1248. doi
  • Reich, J., & Ruipérez-Valiente, J. A. (2019). The MOOC pivot. Science, 363(6423), 130–131. doi
  • Reich, J. (2020). Failure to disrupt: Why technology alone can't transform education. Harvard University Press.
N
National Digital Literacy Programme (SG)

Singapore's programme under which every secondary student was to have a personal learning device by the end of 2021, with schools given autonomy over how to integrate it (Ministry of Education Singapore, 2020b).

  • Ministry of Education Singapore. (2020b, November 2). Personal learning device [Parliamentary reply]. moe.gov.sg
  • Ministry of Education Singapore. (2020c, December 29). Blended learning to enhance schooling experience and further develop students into self-directed learners [Press release]. moe.gov.sg
O
One Laptop per Child

A project announced in 2005 to give low-cost laptops to children in the Global South (Ames, 2019).

  • Ames, M. G. (2019). The charisma machine: The life, death, and legacy of One Laptop per Child. MIT Press. mitpress.mit.edu
  • Cristia, J., Ibarrarán, P., Cueto, S., Santiago, A., & Severín, E. (2017). Technology and child development: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child program. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9(3), 295–320. doi
  • Warschauer, M., & Ames, M. (2010). Can One Laptop per Child save the world's poor? Journal of International Affairs, 64(1), 33–51. jstor.org
One-to-one computing

A programme that gives each student a personal device, such as a laptop or tablet, for school and home.

  • Cristia, J., Ibarrarán, P., Cueto, S., Santiago, A., & Severín, E. (2017). Technology and child development: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child program. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9(3), 295–320. doi
  • Warschauer, M., & Ames, M. (2010). Can One Laptop per Child save the world's poor? Journal of International Affairs, 64(1), 33–51. jstor.org
P
Personalised learning

Instruction adjusted to each learner's pace, needs or interests, often through software. Its promises echo those of teaching machines (Watters, 2021).

  • Watters, A. (2021). Teaching machines: The history of personalized learning. MIT Press.
  • Reich, J. (2020). Failure to disrupt: Why technology alone can't transform education. Harvard University Press.
PLATO

A computer-based education system from the University of Illinois, begun in the early 1960s and used for four decades (University of Illinois Distributed Museum, n.d.).

Programmed instruction

Learning material broken into small steps, each needing a response and giving immediate feedback, as in Skinner's teaching machines (Skinner, 1958).

  • Skinner, B. F. (1958). Teaching machines. Science, 128(3330), 969–977. doi
  • Skinner, B. F. (1954). The science of learning and the art of teaching. Harvard Educational Review, 24(2), 86–97.
  • Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (1988). A history of teaching machines. American Psychologist, 43(9), 703–712. doi
T
Teacher-proof materials

Curriculum or technology designed to work the same way whatever the teacher does. The idea treats teachers as operators, which the history of classroom technology suggests rarely works (Cuban, 1986).

  • Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. Teachers College Press.
Teaching machines

Mechanical devices that present questions and give immediate feedback, from Pressey's in the 1920s to Skinner's in the 1950s (Benjamin, 1988).

  • Benjamin, L. T., Jr. (1988). A history of teaching machines. American Psychologist, 43(9), 703–712. doi
  • Skinner, B. F. (1958). Teaching machines. Science, 128(3330), 969–977. doi
  • Watters, A. (2021). Teaching machines: The history of personalized learning. MIT Press.
Technological determinism

The view that technology drives social change largely by itself. This primer argues that schools shape technologies at least as much as the reverse.

  • Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920. Teachers College Press.
  • Toyama, K. (2015a). Geek heresy: Rescuing social change from the cult of technology. PublicAffairs.
Tinkering

Gradual, incremental change that adapts reforms to schools, defended by Tyack and Cuban (1995) as a way to keep what works.

C23 Gradual, incremental change that adapts reforms to schools, defended by Tyack and Cuban (1995) as a way to "preserve what is valuable and rework what is not" (p. 5).

  • Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform. Harvard University Press.
  • Holland, B. (2015, September 16). Reflecting on Tinkering toward utopia [Opinion]. Education Week. edweek.org

Nearby

The primer itself, and the ones either side

Read a short history of schooling and its technologies (opens in a new tab)Aims of education Learners All 24 primers
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