3 ms·

I wonder: In the article they mention that the reasons for such effectiveness are "rapid personalized feedback" and "entertaining content keeping kids focused".

I wonder: In the article they mention that the reasons for such effectiveness are "rapid personalized feedback" and "entertaining content keeping kids focused". Those reasons could apply to many educational fields. So i wonder: are there any other apps/sites showing very strong gains versus standard teaching?

dharma1 12y ago
Would be good to see some kind of vetted ratings collected from a large sample size on which apps actually work better than others - there are so many apps out there and each will try to claim they work better than the rest.
akbar501 12y ago
> the reasons for such effectiveness are ... "entertaining content keeping kids focused" I'd be interested to see studies emerge on the value of entertainment in educational content as the child ages. In my direct experience with my own children, entertainment provides value due to engagement as mentioned in the article. But, entertainment switches from engagement to distraction around age 5 or so. My 2 year old definitely stays more engaged with the alphabet app and basic counting apps when they are entertaining. However, entertainment is highly distracting to my 6 year old. I've found at 6 she's more interested in how the learning actually applies to the real world, so she engages with educational apps as a means to an end. For example, she likes to write stories. So, she asked me to download spelling apps so that's its easier for mom and dad to read her stories. With all of that said, I'm a huge believer in the potential of technology to improve education. IMHO, education is no where near optimal.
- pinkyand 12y ago
  Interesting comment. And i might have quoted wrong, it might speak of "engagement".
- mcintyre1994 12y ago
  I think this could just be a question of implementation. For example, Duolingo's gamification is fantastic as an adult.
  - watwut 12y ago
    My personal experience is that Duolingo is fun for two months maximum and then it becomes an equivalent of any other exercises sheet.
turingfail 12y ago
There is the duolingo study: http://static.duolingo.com/s3/DuolingoReport_Final.pdf http://static.duolingo.com/s3/DuolingoReport_Final.pdf I would interpret its table 11 as emphasizing the need for entertainment or other focus retention for success within a school curriculum. (I consider duolingo good at instant feedback but incapable of retaining focus without significant external motivation.)
e12e 12y ago
I'm not aware of any studies/references, but AFAIK it's been shown that rapid feedback is very beneficial to most kinds of teaching (and anecdotally that seems to work well for me, and anyone I've observed/taught). As another anecdote, my dad spent some time teaching Norwegian (ie: native language, so substitute eg: English as appropriate) in primary school (ages 10 to high-school) at a small school (tiny municipality) -- and always corrected essay assignments as soon as they were handed in, so kids got them back ~1-2 hours after finishing. For that one class everyone had great progression in writing, spelling, grammar -- and perhaps most importantly -- enjoyed getting essay assignments. To the point that the teacher taking over the class(es) couldn't understand why the kids demanded to be allowed to write essays... As for "standard teaching" -- is there any such thing? Many students, single teacher teaching -- with low degree of interaction and freedom is pretty poor teaching. I'd guess it's also rather common -- but is it really the standard we want to attain?

dharma1 12y ago

Would be good to see some kind of vetted ratings collected from a large sample size on which apps actually work better than others - there are so many apps out there and each will try to claim they work better than the rest.

akbar501 12y ago

> the reasons for such effectiveness are ... "entertaining content keeping kids focused" I'd be interested to see studies emerge on the value of entertainment in educational content as the child ages. In my direct experience with my own children, entertainment provides value due to engagement as mentioned in the article. But, entertainment switches from engagement to distraction around age 5 or so. My 2 year old definitely stays more engaged with the alphabet app and basic counting apps when they are entertaining. However, entertainment is highly distracting to my 6 year old. I've found at 6 she's more interested in how the learning actually applies to the real world, so she engages with educational apps as a means to an end. For example, she likes to write stories. So, she asked me to download spelling apps so that's its easier for mom and dad to read her stories. With all of that said, I'm a huge believer in the potential of technology to improve education. IMHO, education is no where near optimal.

pinkyand 12y ago
Interesting comment. And i might have quoted wrong, it might speak of "engagement".
mcintyre1994 12y ago
I think this could just be a question of implementation. For example, Duolingo's gamification is fantastic as an adult.
- watwut 12y ago
  My personal experience is that Duolingo is fun for two months maximum and then it becomes an equivalent of any other exercises sheet.

turingfail 12y ago

There is the duolingo study: http://static.duolingo.com/s3/DuolingoReport_Final.pdf http://static.duolingo.com/s3/DuolingoReport_Final.pdf I would interpret its table 11 as emphasizing the need for entertainment or other focus retention for success within a school curriculum. (I consider duolingo good at instant feedback but incapable of retaining focus without significant external motivation.)

e12e 12y ago

I'm not aware of any studies/references, but AFAIK it's been shown that rapid feedback is very beneficial to most kinds of teaching (and anecdotally that seems to work well for me, and anyone I've observed/taught). As another anecdote, my dad spent some time teaching Norwegian (ie: native language, so substitute eg: English as appropriate) in primary school (ages 10 to high-school) at a small school (tiny municipality) -- and always corrected essay assignments as soon as they were handed in, so kids got them back ~1-2 hours after finishing. For that one class everyone had great progression in writing, spelling, grammar -- and perhaps most importantly -- enjoyed getting essay assignments. To the point that the teacher taking over the class(es) couldn't understand why the kids demanded to be allowed to write essays... As for "standard teaching" -- is there any such thing? Many students, single teacher teaching -- with low degree of interaction and freedom is pretty poor teaching. I'd guess it's also rather common -- but is it really the standard we want to attain?