Media

	Author: Tech Firms’ Rhetoric Outpaces The Actual Good They Do All Tech Considered with Audie Cornish (Aug. 3, 2015) “The more technology we have, it’s all the more important that we focus on the human forces and making sure that those are right.”
	Integrating technology too tightly with education presents its own kind of problems by Matt Purdy (July 27, 2015) “For most people, this is a pretty simple choice. They’d rather keep their education with the understanding that with it they can do all kinds of things which would of course make up for the lack of technology.”
	The Problems With Putting Too Much Tech in Education Innovation Hub with Kara Miller (July 24, 2015) “The distractive potential of technology is so high that if you give it to the average child, they’re not going to learn anything. They’re going to end up further distracting themselves.”
	If you build it, it doesn’t matter: Author Kentaro Toyama throws cold water on tech utopias by Dan Raile (July 13, 2015) Facebook is an advanced technology that harvests human energy to feed itself and provides humans the illusion that they are having a pleasant life.
	Get real, not virtual: Why there’s less than meets the eye in plans for Digital India by Amulya Gopalakrishnan (July 10, 2015) Policymakers often invoke technology to fill in the unknown blanks… But it is worthwhile to look closer and more critically at the digital dreams being held out to us.
	The Case Against Laptops in the Classroom by Jennifer Senior (July 9, 2015) Not that many years ago, it would have been considered curmudgeonly – hostile to progress, even – for teachers to voice concerns about laptops and iPhones.
	Author Kentaro Toyama Interview with Tavis Smiley (July 9, 2015) In a world where we have abundant technology, the technology kind of takes care of itself. What we really need to work on is [the] social foundation.
	Equality of Technology Radio Op-Ed (July 7, 2015) It’s often said that “the Internet democratizes” or that “technology levels the playing field,” but the evidence doesn’t bear up.
	‘Geek Heresy’: Why this former Microsoft researcher says tech is not the answer with Todd Bishop and John Cook (July 7, 2015) Even at a company like Microsoft, which is very technology-centric, in the end it comes down to the power of relationships when it comes to technology transfer.
	Social Action, Offscreen THINK with Krys Boyd(June 30, 2015) This hour, we’ll talk about why personal connections are the key to helping the less fortunate with computer scientist Kentaro Toyama, author of Geek Heresy.
	Sure, there’s an app for that, but does it work in Michigan? Op-ed and radio interview(June 29, 2015) Silicon Valley churns out apps to “change the world,” but whose world are they really changing? How do we know if these new technologies are going to work in a city like Detroit, for example?
	Author: Technology Not a Global Panacea by Doug Bernard (June 22, 2015) The heresy is that technology has limits in the kinds of problems it can solve. Specifically, it’s not a solution to very deep, persistent social challenges.
	Tech’s No Panacea for Saving the World Bloomberg Surveillance (June 18, 2015) Microsoft Research India co-founder Kentaro Toyama discusses the role of tech in the world.
	Tech’s No Panacea for Saving the World Interview with Nicole Wallace (June 17, 2015) It’s a cliché to say that if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but if you teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime. And yet… philanthropy’s in the business of giving away fish.
	How the Human Condition Limits the Power of Technology Op-Ed (June 12, 2015) What we need instead are orchestral health systems, symphonic schools and a population of climate-preserving virtuosos.
	It may be the age of machines, but it’s up to humans to save the world Op-Ed (June 11, 2015) Amplification reaffirms human agency in an age of machines, as well as the power of non-technologists to cause meaningful change.
	Taking a Tire Iron to Techie Triumphalism by Anand Giridharadas (June 8, 2015) Indeed, technology has become a kinder, gentler variant of so-called trickle-down economics, in which one gives poor schoolchildren iPads and a pat on the back…
	Malcolm Gladwell is right: Facebook, social media and the real story of political change Book Excerpt (June 6, 2015) To say that the Arab Spring was a Facebook revolution is like calling the events of 1775 in America a lantern revolution thanks to Paul Revere: “One, if by land, and two, if by sea.”
	Technology won’t fix America’s neediest schools. It makes bad education worse. Book Excerpt (June 4, 2015) To be sure, children have a natural desire to learn and play and grow. But they also have a natural desire to distract themselves with Angry Birds. Digital technology amplifies both of these appetites.
	Why Technology Alone Won’t Fix Schools Book Excerpt (June 3, 2015) What the U.S. education system needs above all isn’t more technology, but a deliberate allocation of high-quality adult supervision focused on those who need it most.
	He was certain technology would save the world. Here’s what changed his mind. by Matt McFarland (June 3, 2015) “The technology worked as advertised… but those special conditions in which it worked, turned out to be exactly what was missing in those places that we wanted to roll it out in.”
	Can technology offer solutions to inequality? Op-Ed (May 29, 2015) Technology is less a bridge, and more a jack – it widens socio-economic gaps.
	No, new tech will not lower your company’s costs Book Excerpt (May 26, 2015) Unlike at Walmart, where digital tools amplify the company’s zealous pursuit of lower costs, in U.S. health care, technology intensifies all the ways in which spending is encouraged.
	Kentaro Toyama’s Geek Heresy with Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson (May 26, 2015) “Another consequence which I think is very underappreciated is that if you believe in amplification, then technology only amplifies inequalities — socio-economic inequalities between people.”
	Tech Only a Tool in Social Change, ex-Microsoftie Says by Matt Day (May 24, 2015) Toyama advocates a nuanced approach, favoring deploying technology to amplify social factors already in place and avoiding cookie-cutter programs.
	Why Technology Will Never Fix Education Op-Ed (May 19, 2015) More technology only magnifies socioeconomic disparities, and the only way to avoid that is nontechnological: Either resolve the underlying inequities first, or create policies that favor the less advantaged.
	The Power of Wisdom to Enact Social Change by Jonathan Wai (May 19, 2015) I thought about what human factors must be in place for technology to have positive impact. And, I kept coming back to good intention, discernment, and self-control – what I call ‘heart, mind, and will.’
	Geek Heresy: There is no techno-fix for poverty by Gabe Spitzer (May 15, 2015) [Geek Heresy] is not aimed at attacking the techno-fix mentality in aid and development so much as it is intended to put these techno-fixes in their proper context.
	Putting Technology in Its Place by Brian Bergstein (Apr. 15, 2015) Kentaro Toyama went to India with noble intentions for using technology to improve people’s lives. Now he’s wrestling with why the impact was so small.
	Kentaro Toyama explores ‘Geek Heresy’ in the developing world by Todd Bishop (Oct. 3, 2014) “Technology is terrific, and it’s helped the rich world come far, but in the end, there’s no real progress without change in people.”