“Every education investor needs to read this book. Instead, they can just read “Failure to Disrupt,” the new book by Justin Reich, Director of the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT. Or, better yet, read just the introduction and conclusion. Those 30 or so pages may be the most important read for anyone in, or even thinking about being in, edtech. In a few dozen pages, Reich lays out the embarrassing cycle of copied ideas, massive hype, enormous wasted funding and the unmet promises of edtech — why so many innovations and companies find only dramatically downsized and incremental uses, leaving education fundamentally not disrupted over and over again.”

– Derek Newton

Forbes Magazine

“At the end of the book, Reich offers four questions that he finds especially useful to consider when examining a new large-scale educational technology. Perhaps the most useful question is the first: “What’s new?” Despite what “edtech evangelists” might claim, new technologies often have closely related ancestors that can help predict their success, he argues. In the end, however, new technologies alone are unlikely to have a substantial impact on schooling. We must also be open to changing educational goals and expectations according to the possibilities offered by emergent technologies.”

– Kanwal Singh

Science Magazine

“If you have already decided that educational technology is a utopia or a dystopia, there’s no need to read this—or, indeed, any– book. But if you desire a clear, balanced, and insightful evaluation of the range of educational technologies, Justin Reich’s book will inform and delight you.”

– Howard Gardner

Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“Technology in learning carries a high cost economically and culturally. In a game of trade-offs between efficiency and human development, research remains the critical lens to guide decisions. This exceptional book is the best resource currently available to guide readers to understanding the failure of technology in classrooms, what needs to be done to make a real impact, and the critical importance of education as community.”

– George Siemens

Executive Director of the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Research Lab, The University of Texas at Arlington

“Reich is to be congratulated on writing an important corrective to our public fascination with ‘disrupting’ higher education. It is all the more devastating for its even-handedness. There is no cheap online solution to delivering world class higher education that meets our nation’s ideals and needs. Anything proposed to do so runs roughshod over closely held values: rigor, access, equality, and justice. This is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the present and future of higher education.”

– Tressie McMillan Cottom

author of Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy

“This magisterial book offers a remarkable account of the different approaches to online learning and what can be expected of them. Comprehensive, wide-ranging, and incisive, this book offers a definitive account of the past, present and future of technology-assisted learning. If you had to pick one book to learn about all things online learning, this would be the one.”

– Jal Mehta

Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education