New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- 'Technology can teach' is a zombie idea that has haunted education for a few decades. Ideas rarely die, and countless undead ideas float around even after they are proven completely wrong. 'Human sacrifice can please higher powers to turn fortunes' is one such undead idea. Fortunately, it rarely sees action, like most undead ideas.

Zombie ideas are a sub-category of undead ideas-they can still motivate action despite being harmful and wrong. Education has been under attack from a few zombie ideas, but none has the resilience of 'technology can teach.'

First, let us be clear about what we are not talking about. We are not talking about the use of computers or the internet to access content-for example, a teacher sh...