Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology

The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America

Are schools making the most of new technologies? Are they tapping into the learning potential of today’s Firefox/Facebook/cell phone generation? Allan Collins and Richard Halverson argue that the way computers have transformed our workplaces and lives can and should be adapted to transform American schooling. This groundbreaking book offers a vision for the future that goes well beyond the walls of the classroom to include online social networks, distance learning with “anytime, anywhere” access, digital home schooling models, video games, and more.



The digital revolution has hit education, with more and more classrooms plugged into the whole wired world. But are schools making the most of new technologies?  Are they tapping into thelearning potential of today’s Firefox/Facebook/cell phone generation? Have schools fallen through the crack of the digital divide? In Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, Allan Collins and Richard Halverson argue that the knowledge revolution has transformed our jobs, our homes, our lives, and therefore must also transform our schools.  Much like after the school-reform movement of the industrial revolution, our society is again poised at the edge of radical change. To keep pace with a globalized technological culture, we must rethink how we educate the next generation or America will be “left behind.” This groundbreaking book offers a vision for the future of American education that goes well beyond the walls of the classroom to include online social networks, distance learning with “anytime, anywhere” access, digital home schooling models, video-game learning environments, and more.

Allan Collins is professor emeritus of education and social policy at Northwestern University and former co-director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Technology in Education. Richard Halverson is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of WisconsinMadison, where he is co-founder of the Games, Learning and Society group.

“The most convincing account I've read about how education will change in the decades ahead—the authors' analyses are impressive, fair-minded, and useful.”

—Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of Five Minds for the Future and Frames of Mind

“A breakthrough book that goes well beyond the idea of adding technology to existing schools. This will be a must read for my students and research collaborators.”

—John Bransford, University of Washington, author of How People Learn and Preparing Teachers for a Changing World

“If you want to join today’s conversation about the future of learning, start here.”


—Lauren Resnick, University of Pittsburgh, author of Education and Learning to Think and Making America Smarter

“An entirely readable guide to the future, written by people whose research has helped bring us to this point in history.”


—James Paul Gee, Arizona State University, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy

“This important book is filled with insight about how to make education serve the needs of the 21st century.”


—Donald Norman, Northwestern University, author of Things That Make Us Smart and The Design of Everyday Things