June 9, 2026
Classroom of the Future? Again?
Computer Lessons
Schools Thought Computers Would Save Classrooms—and the comments are absolutely grading that dream
TLDR: The article shows that schools were betting on computers to transform learning as far back as the 1960s, using big shared machines like PLATO. In the comments, readers split between admiring the early ambition and roasting it as the first version of today’s overhyped education tech promises.
This historical deep dive into how schools fell hard for computers is catnip for commenters, who turned a story about old university experiments into a full-blown debate about whether education tech was always a shiny sales pitch in a nicer outfit. The article explains that long before home PCs, American colleges in the 1960s were already pouring government money into giant shared computers, hoping they could teach whole classrooms at once. Systems like Dartmouth’s and Illinois’ famous PLATO were sold as the future: cheaper, smarter, more personal learning for every student.
And wow, the community had thoughts. The strongest reaction? A very loud “we’ve heard this one before.” Commenters were practically cackling at how familiar the promises sounded: personalized learning, data everywhere, teachers “freed up” for better work. Some called it the original ed-tech hype cycle, while others pushed back, saying PLATO really did invent genuinely cool ideas and shouldn’t be dismissed as just a fancy worksheet machine. That split sparked the main drama: visionary breakthrough or expensive classroom gimmick?
The jokes were ruthless. People compared the old teaching machines to “an iPad kid ancestor,” mocked the endless parade of consultants and surveys in the poem, and basically declared that every generation gets told a glowing machine will finally fix school. The vibe was half nostalgia, half roast session, with a side of “history is one long software update nobody asked for.”
Key Points
- •The article says the idea that computers would transform education became established in American universities during the 1960s, before the microcomputer era.
- •It identifies Sputnik-era and Great Society-era federal funding as major factors behind growth in educational computing and research.
- •It highlights DTSS and PLATO as two early time-sharing systems built specifically for educational use and supported by government grants.
- •The article explains that PLATO emerged from the earlier tradition of teaching machines associated with Sidney Pressey and B.F. Skinner.
- •It describes PLATO’s evolution from a simple slide-based instructional system into a more advanced platform with graphical terminals, non-linear lessons, and interactive simulations.