Most educational apps are dumb and they are probably making your kids dumb, too

Time and time again, I see parents plop a tablet in from of their kids as a way to distract them, occupy them or even motivate them to learn something. Call me old fashion, but I still think that the best tablet for learning is no tablet at all. Other than convenience and a bit of instantaneous feedback with limited free-content, there’s little that a tablet can offer compared to all other gadgets that came before it. Aside from its novelty, which wears quickly, little is new and much is recycled. But parents continue to drop a tablet in front of their kid in lieu of TV thinking that because children have the ability to interact and self-select content, it is better than being broadcasted to and be exposed to hours of TV commercials. This is also a fallacy. I’m going to give two big reasons why: content and context.

First, app developers are very good at marketing educational materials as games. They are designed to look like games, function like games and they often reward like games to engage the user to continue. Developers use design functions and strategies to create repeatable behavior to hook the user into engaging for as long as possible. To the user, these apps give the illusion of options; the choices are often predefined and exist within the realm of what was programmed to provide the reward. And while new content is being incrementally delivered, there is an unknown ratio between actual content served with a sidebar of advertising. The primary motivator for this manufactured addiction is to get your child to pester you to buy the app or exposed them to ads so they can get you to buy something.

Habitually, this type of behavior draws the user closer toward the virtual world and the app employs algorithms and user feedback to provide more of the same.  In effect, the user is getting largely recycled content being presented in a different skin. There is a whole lot of researched behind these tactics that are being used by the largest tech companies.

Parents think that because kids have the ability to interact and self-select content, it is better than being broadcasted to and be exposed to hours of TV commercials. This is a fallacy. Not only have they given their kids a poor learning modality, it also distant them farther from a socially connected world they can only access once they become unplugged.

The second big reason why most education apps are mostly useless is because of a lack of context. People socialize by interacting with each other. We associate the faces of the people we come into contact with the interaction and impression to form the total experience. Our brains record this experience when billions of neurons form trillions of synaptic connections. What we are exposed to and what we remember are constantly being augmented and superimposed over older memories. This is the reason why a particular smell can conjure a hidden visual memory. It is also the reason why learning a language from a book or even a teacher (virtual or not) is completely different from learning it through immersion. Contrast learning the word ‘merci’ from a workbook to hearing it from a native French speaker.  You order a glass of wine and the server brings it to your table at the river’s edge café. You exchange a few phrases and she says ‘merci’. Years later, you’ll always remember how delightful that experience was at that café because someone said ‘merci’ to you. This is context. Unless your tablet can produce an immersive Star Trek like holodeck experience, your device might as well be a Roman wax tablet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trashing education apps or videos, or a fancy tablet. They are great and I have a few lying around the house. But they simply must be used at the right situation (context) delivering the right information (content) in order for it to be relevant and meaningful.

I would consult YouTube to find out how to switch an air filter in my car (situated learning as first proposed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger). However, I would never expect educational videos or an app to help me become a competent auto mechanic! By the same token, giving your child a tablet and hoping they will learn something during their constructive use of time is a fallacy. Not only have they been given a poor learning modality, it also distant them farther from a socially connected world they can only access once they become unplugged.