I like laptops – you can take them home. I’m not very impressed with computers that schools have chained to desks. I’m very impressed when kids have their own computers, because then they’re liberated from a failed bureaucracy. No, no. You can’t do any single thing and solve the problem. You have to change the incentives; you’ve got to restructure the interface between human beings. If you start redesigning a learning system rather than an educational bureaucracy, if you have incentives for kids to learn, and if you have 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week free-standing opportunities for learning, you’re likely to make a bigger breakthrough than the current bureaucracy. The current bureaucracy is a dying institution.
Predictor: Gingrich, Newt
Prediction, in context:For a 1995 article for Wired magazine, Esther Dyson interviews U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at his House office about the future of the Internet. Dyson quotes Gingrich saying: ”I believe that every American child ought to be living in the 21st century. [I believe in] creating information enterprises in poor neighborhoods, where you create massive opportunities – you start with laptops for direct interfacing not tied to a public building. This is why I like laptops – you can take them home. I’m not very impressed with computers that schools have chained to desks. I’m very impressed when kids have their own computers, because then they’re liberated from a failed bureaucracy. No, no. You can’t do any single thing and solve the problem. You have to change the incentives; you’ve got to restructure the interface between human beings. If you start redesigning a learning system rather than an educational bureaucracy, if you have incentives for kids to learn, and if you have 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week free-standing opportunities for learning, you’re likely to make a bigger breakthrough than the current bureaucracy. The current bureaucracy is a dying institution.”
Biography:Newt Gingrich was a U.S. Congressman and the Speaker of the House of Representatives who was known to be so tech-savvy that Wired magazine ran stories on his tech policy positions. He opposed Senator Exon’s controversial Communications Decency Act. (Legislator/Politician/Lawyer.)
Date of prediction: May 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Friend or Foe: Newt Gingrich Talks the Talk About Being a Revolutionary. And He Walks the Walk by Ramming Through the Most Radical Political Agenda Since the New Deal. So Why Does He Still Leave Us Feeling Uncomfortable?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.08/newt_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney