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346 points obscurette | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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rahimnathwani ◴[] No.42117512[source]
The argument Jared makes in the body of his article ("The argument I’m making is that digital technologies so often aren’t used for learning that...") is less bold and sweeping than the one in the title ("The EdTech Revolution Has Failed").

It's true that edtech hasn't (yet) created an educational utopia, as some people may have imagined or hoped. But there are educational technology tools that my son (8yo) uses several times per week, that undoubtedly help him to learn important stuff:

1. Math Academy (truly amazing for 4th grade math all the way to first year of undergrad: https://www.bit.ly/ma-way)

2. Skritter (for learning to write Chinese characters)

3. Anki (flashcard program).

4. Octostudio (for learning to code, by the same folks as MIT Scratch)

#1 and #2 are both much more efficient (learning per unit of time) than any other method I've seen. They (along with #3) use spaced repetition and retrieval practice as part of their secret sauce.

But they are also highly domain-specific. Math Academy relies on thousands of hand-crafted math problems, all designed within a (hand-crafted) graph of topics that students must master. Skritter has tools that give people (adults or children) an easy on-ramp to learning the broad strokes of each character, and more advanced modes that train more precision.

replies(2): >>42117598 #>>42118324 #
1. narcraft ◴[] No.42118324[source]
I'm an adult user of Math Academy. I have a bachelor's in Math and I'm working through the Mathematical Foundations series to brush up on material from all the lectures/assignments I skipped and fill in the cracks of my knowledge. I absolutely love it.
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2. rahimnathwani ◴[] No.42118377[source]
I used it for 2 months during spring last year (averaging over an hour per day). I have chosen not to prioritize math study for now, but I also absolutely love it.