ABSTRACT
Enthusiasm for new digital learning technology is understandable. It reflects a deeply rooted modern belief in capitalism and technology as drivers of social efficiency and progress. It also reflects current anxieties over the role and purpose of public schooling within changing historical circumstances marked by precarity and technological acceleration. It has long been an ambition to create a perfect learning machine. One modern example is the teaching machine invented by Sidney Pressey in 1926. Algorithmic education is based on the production of data generated through student interaction with digital screen interfaces that is then subjected to predictive algorithms as the central expertise guiding teaching and learning. Algorithmic education reflects a web of corporate interests and speculative narratives that project sociotechnical solutions and futures for schools and society based on digital technology platforms. The Internet of Things will connect everything with everyone in an integrated global network.
