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I wish there were some experimental evidence that this approach is effective. Would some parental attention and tutoring have the same effect as the "educationa

I wish there were some experimental evidence that this approach is effective. Would some parental attention and tutoring have the same effect as the "educational sites"?

j_s 9y ago
I agree! However, that takes real work & prioritization (time) rather than electricity/technology. Also (meme-ing a bit here): why not both? :) In reality, it's always a mistake to let the nonexistent perfect be the enemy of the good (or to be most pessimistic: the not-as-bad). I personally am desperate for an app-ified version of this well-researched "direct instruction" book/process: https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985/ https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671...
utefan001 9y ago
Hi Drallison, I am the co-creator. This is my biased description... My 14 year old son said that he was surprised to learn how fast 30 mins goes by when using DnsLearning. Encouraging children to come up for air every 30 mins is a good thing. My 9 year old daughter went to Khan Academy 7 times one day during the summer. This means she was watching a lot of youtube videos. I told her I was impressed how many times she went to Khan Academy. She responded. "Yea, well I got tired of doing Khan Academy so I decided to clean my room instead." So, for those 2 cases, for my 2 children, it has been effective :)
utefan001 9y ago
Regarding parental attention, the reality is that most parents are extremely busy. Single parents, long commutes, multiple jobs, etc. DnsLearning was primarily created to help parents that cannot afford private schools, tutoring, or moving out of a low income neighborhood. All of these great education sites are competing with very powerful algorithms that are designed to keep users watching video after video. If youtube starts encouraging users to do a few Khan Academy problems before watching the next video, I will consider DnsLearning a total success.
varjag 9y ago
Speaking as a parent to now teenager. Fact is just like their parents, kids are tremendously connected these days, so there's a massive networking effect in the cohort. There's much less outdoor/social activities among kids than there were couple decades ago, simply because there's noone playing outside. Yes we can argue that no screen can replace human interaction fully but it does replace quite a bit of it. We often hear this parents not doing their jobs sentiment over and over, either from people who have no kids or had them prior to smartphone era. Do you often find yourself spending a whole evening with a laptop or tablet? Checking facebook on your phone compulsively? Well same thing with kids. Sure I could just seize my son's devices, but then what? Push him out to the empty street? Try to be his playmate until he's 18? Because it's not just your kid, the whole social interaction fabric went the way of Great Barrier Reef. Sure no technology can substitute parenting; most parents we know do the expected job of taking the kids for activities, courses, helping with homework etc. But you can't (and shouldn't) hover over your kids all the time. If this project can convert any of the social media/gaming time to at least something useful, it is priceless.

I wish there were some experimental evidence that this approach is effective. Would some parental attention and tutoring have the same effect as the "educational sites"?

j_s 9y ago

I agree! However, that takes real work & prioritization (time) rather than electricity/technology. Also (meme-ing a bit here): why not both? :) In reality, it's always a mistake to let the nonexistent perfect be the enemy of the good (or to be most pessimistic: the not-as-bad). I personally am desperate for an app-ified version of this well-researched "direct instruction" book/process: https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985/ https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671...

utefan001 9y ago

Hi Drallison, I am the co-creator. This is my biased description... My 14 year old son said that he was surprised to learn how fast 30 mins goes by when using DnsLearning. Encouraging children to come up for air every 30 mins is a good thing. My 9 year old daughter went to Khan Academy 7 times one day during the summer. This means she was watching a lot of youtube videos. I told her I was impressed how many times she went to Khan Academy. She responded. "Yea, well I got tired of doing Khan Academy so I decided to clean my room instead." So, for those 2 cases, for my 2 children, it has been effective :)

utefan001 9y ago

Regarding parental attention, the reality is that most parents are extremely busy. Single parents, long commutes, multiple jobs, etc. DnsLearning was primarily created to help parents that cannot afford private schools, tutoring, or moving out of a low income neighborhood. All of these great education sites are competing with very powerful algorithms that are designed to keep users watching video after video. If youtube starts encouraging users to do a few Khan Academy problems before watching the next video, I will consider DnsLearning a total success.

varjag 9y ago

Speaking as a parent to now teenager. Fact is just like their parents, kids are tremendously connected these days, so there's a massive networking effect in the cohort. There's much less outdoor/social activities among kids than there were couple decades ago, simply because there's noone playing outside. Yes we can argue that no screen can replace human interaction fully but it does replace quite a bit of it. We often hear this parents not doing their jobs sentiment over and over, either from people who have no kids or had them prior to smartphone era. Do you often find yourself spending a whole evening with a laptop or tablet? Checking facebook on your phone compulsively? Well same thing with kids. Sure I could just seize my son's devices, but then what? Push him out to the empty street? Try to be his playmate until he's 18? Because it's not just your kid, the whole social interaction fabric went the way of Great Barrier Reef. Sure no technology can substitute parenting; most parents we know do the expected job of taking the kids for activities, courses, helping with homework etc. But you can't (and shouldn't) hover over your kids all the time. If this project can convert any of the social media/gaming time to at least something useful, it is priceless.