Let’s imagine a thought experiment where we can take Duolingo back in time to the 1960s – but no other modern technology or entertainment. Just Duolingo. I think then that probably every kid in 1960s Britain would have completed ten languages by the time they were 12. It would have been more entertaining, more addictive and more exciting than any kids’ media product of the 1960s.
But of course, that is not how it works. Modern technology is not restricted to Duolingo, or to learning apps. It is used to create a whole range of entertainment products.
Most of these entertainment products are trying to do just one thing: hold the user’s attention.
Teachers and educational apps are also trying to hold their students’ attention. But they are trying to do another thing too: they want their students to learn.
This basic dynamic is why, in a straight fight with an entertainment product, teachers and education apps will always lose out. The entertainers are optimising for one parameter, and the educators are optimising for two.
However much fun you make learning, someone else will use the same techniques minus the constraint of learning. You are in an arms race where you have one arm tied behind your back. Your rival can use all the techniques you can, plus several more that you can’t.