Sounds like an iPhone/iPad to me…

The New Teachers by Isaac Asimov: “Each person (child, adult, or elderly) can have his own private outlet to which could be attached, at certain desirable periods of time, his or her personal teaching machine. It would be a far more versatile and interactive teaching machine than anything we could put together now, for computer technology will also have advanced in the interval.”

And then:

All teaching machines would be plugged into this planetary library and each could then have at its disposal any book, periodical, document, recording, or video cassette encoded there. If the machine has it, the student would have it too, either placed directly on a viewing screen, or reproduced in print-on-paper for more leisurely study.

But what about my noble profession of (human) teachers? Asimov makes room for us too:

Of course, human teachers will not be totally eliminated. In some subjects, human interaction is essential–athletics, drama public speaking, and so on. There is also value, and interest, in groups of students working in a particular field–getting together to discuss and speculate with each other and with human experts, sparking each other to new insights.

I actually prefer Asimov’s vision for us (human) teachers compared to the current state of institutional education here in the U.S.

In reality, we’re almost there. We now have incredible “pocket” computers (iPhones and iPads) that have access to a great deal of humanity’s recorded history. Surely a young person, or an old person like myself, could spend their life learning from/with these machines.

The part of Asimov’s vision that hasn’t transpired, and will face a pretty ugly but eventual and already-determined battle, is the human teacher component. Eventually, perhaps in the next decade, that will change for some learning institutions and learners who opt-out of the one-size-fits-all education in a box formula that has so miserably failed our country.