http://chronicle.com/free/2001/02/2001022201u.htm
Chronicle of Education
Thursday, February 22, 2001
'Automatic Professor Machine' Is
Unveiled -- by a Longtime
Technology Critic
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
A longtime technology critic has fashioned
a prototype of a device that he says could
do away with traditional colleges and
teachers, replacing them with
knowledge-dispensing terminals that look
like A.T.M.'s. The fictional device, called
the Automatic Professor Machine, spoofs
the ever-rising wave of
education-technology products on college
campuses.
Langdon Winner with the A.P.M. prototype.
Its inventor, Langdon Winner, has staged
satirical news conferences unveiling the
machine on campuses and at educational
meetings around the country. Mr. Winner,
a professor of political science at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who has
long criticized e-learning, says he hopes the
Automatic Professor Machine will make
people stop and think about the current
craze for online education.
In the spirit of distance education, the
professor has placed a video recording of
his mock news conference on his World
Wide Web site.
In the 25-minute video, Mr. Winner plays
the role of a slick entrepreneur named L.C.
Winner, C.E.O. of EDU-SHAM,
Educational Smart Hardware Alma Mater
Inc. He delivers a PowerPoint presentation
about the future of education and the many
products his virtual company is developing,
including a "wearable university" that
delivers courseware via a university T-shirt.
Here's how L.C. Winner says the A.P.M.
would work: Students would walk up to
one of the computer terminals -- installed at
convenient locations like fast-food
restaurants, prisons, and colleges -- and
select a course or degree from a menu.
Then students would insert a few hundred
dollars and a floppy disk to retrieve lessons
from a central database. The students
would place their completed lessons back in
an A.P.M. terminal to get their grades and
an instant diploma.
Mr. Winner says his presentation is a
reaction to what he sees as a lack of critical
attention to education technology.
"I thought the debate about education and
technology had gone too far in one
direction. It was sort of all enthusiasts and
all people going, 'This is the wave of the
future.'"
The professor has long had an interest in
satire. In 1969, while he was a music critic
and editor for Rolling Stone, Mr. Winner
helped create the Masked Marauders, a
band that spoofed rock "supergroups" that
brought together stars from various popular
bands.
The rock band included musicians who
imitated Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Paul
McCartney, and George Harrison.
Stay tuned. Mr. Winner says he's planning
a musical sendup of distance education -- a
song called "March of the Distant
Educators." He says the song will combine
the grandeur of "Pomp and Circumstance"
with the catchiness of an advertising jingle.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901
