On: The EdTech Revolution Has Failed

[xt00]

Was one of the goals with EdTech to sort of gamify learning to get kids more engaged or something? I could imagine a scenario where some kids learn more by a paper / pencil / book modality and would do worse learning from an iPad— while other kids who are totally disengaged might learn something at all from an iPad so that’s better than nothing?

[CalRobert → xt00]

My daughter has learned more arithmetic in 200 minutes with flash cards and a sticker board than in a year with her school’s tablets

I think the goal is to give kids screens so they’ll quit bugging their teacher

[debacle → CalRobert]

Arithmetic is one of the places software excels. Fast Math is ubiquitous. Where do you think the friction for your daughter was?

[CalRobert → debacle]

The teacher ignored her and figured she was fine screwing around with the tablet. We also motivate her with good old fashioned bribery. It works!