Justin Reich is a former high school history teacher, and an associate professor of digital media at MIT who hosts The Homework Machine, a podcast about AI in schools.
In this new interview, Reich describes how he no longer thinks device bans don’t work, complains about being inaccurately paraphrased by journalists who interview him, laments how browsers and productivity tools have become impossibly distracting — and explains why he now pushes back when called about Alpha School stories. “What about this small private school that serves a tiny number of super-affluent students is worthy of all of our attention?”
Watch the interview or read the transcript above (or on YouTube).
Listen to the conversation on Spotify or Apple.
Read Reich’s companion essay, Teaching in an age of tech-created distractions.
Previously from The Grade
How tech took over (with Audrey Watters)
How edtech lost its inevitability
How to immunize schools from bad tech (with Dan Meyer)
Education reporting in the age of AI (with Lee Gaines)
Skepticism — & nuance — needed in edtech coverage (with Greg Toppo)
Shut up about edtech opt-outs (The Principal’s Office)
Covering edtech like Big Pharma (with Natasha Singer)
We’ve ‘lost the plot’ on edtech, says tech reporter Taylor Lorenz
