“The $300 textbook is dead” says Pearson CEO John Fallon

Pearson CEO John Fallon talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about why the company is pivoting from print to digital textbooks.

In this episode:
Fallon’s background; the publishing industry’s slow-motion embrace of the internet; “the $300 textbook is dead”; how Pearson will make money from a cheaper digital textbook; competing with well-funded education startups; how Pearson’s Aida will grade calculus problems and, one day, essays; why teachers won’t be made obsolete; how the school of the future will be informed by the skills needed in the job market; why do students still need to physically go somewhere to learn?; how Pearson thinks about its competition; working with tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft; and the state of democracy in Boris Johnson's UK.

Follow us
Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), host
John Fallon (@johnfallon), guest
Erica Anderson (@EricaAmerica), executive producer
Eric Johnson (@HeyHeyESJ), producer

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Om Podcasten

Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas — and other problems. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they’re navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.