Paulo Blikstein works ā€œat the intersection of education and technology,ā€ but his allegiance is clear.

ā€œPeople say technology makes things cheaper and more efficient, so automate education,ā€ says Blikstein, Associate Professor of Communications, Media & Learning Technologies Design. ā€œBut we don’t need more automation in education; we need less. The best use of technology is to creatively augment what teachers can do, not replace them.ā€

Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor of Communications, Media & Learning Technologies Design

Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor of Communications, Media & Learning Technologies Design (Photo: TC Archives)

Blikstein creates tools to help children learn STEM subjects by doing, making and building. He created the first open-source educational robotics platform and the first program to bring maker education to schools — the FabLearn project, now in 22 countries on four continents.

He studies these tools in vivo to validate broader learning theories. In 2015, with his then-students Richard Davis and Bertrand Schneider, he placed high school students with no formal engineering and design training in a maker space. They soon acquired behaviors and problem-solving skills ā€œresembling those of experts.ā€

We don’t need more automation in education; we need less. The best use of technology is to creatively augment what teachers can do, not replace them.

— Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor of Communications, Media & Learning Technologies Design

Blikstein attended a progressive Brazilian elementary school led by the daughter of Paulo Freire, author of. After studying engineering in college, he earned a master’s in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT and a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University.

Teaching at Stanford University in Silicon Valley, Blikstein became wary of technology’s potential uses in education. ā€œAny discussion of EdTech must address the Silicon Valley mythology of ā€˜give us your data, because we’re the good guys, we wear hoodies,ā€™ā€ he told a recent TC conference. ā€œFilmmakers use technology to tell otherwise impossible stories; doctors, to heal in unthinkable ways. Similarly, teachers should use technology to teach kids to build AI, not to deliver 19th century Orwellian-style education. We want more humanity in the classroom, not less.ā€