Excellent framing on the strategy vs tool problem. The analogy to 3,000 analog materials is spot on, it's not the medium but the lack of coherence that breaks implementation. I think the most underrated point here is how consumer tech anxety gets projected onto learning tools when they're fundamentaly different beasts with diferent design goals and success metrics.
I think your last point almost merits its own post and one we chronically underthink. When we blur consumer tech and learning tech, we also end up importing the wrong success metrics. We see a lot of edtech gain investment and traction from optimizing for engagement, logins, and time-on-device because that’s what consumer apps track, instead of attention quality, feedback, and actual learning. That’s how we end up treating a "Chromebook being used to scroll TikTok" and a "Chromebook being used to help a student revise an essay" as the same “screen problem,” when they’re doing totally different jobs.
The core issue is learning the balance between leisure activities and learning/working on the same device. Folks in the working world have largely mastered a balance.
This is something very close to me because I've had a major learning disability most of my life. I understand that everyone's vouching for funding and the latest innovation, and I can understand that appeal.
Well put!
Excellent framing on the strategy vs tool problem. The analogy to 3,000 analog materials is spot on, it's not the medium but the lack of coherence that breaks implementation. I think the most underrated point here is how consumer tech anxety gets projected onto learning tools when they're fundamentaly different beasts with diferent design goals and success metrics.
I think your last point almost merits its own post and one we chronically underthink. When we blur consumer tech and learning tech, we also end up importing the wrong success metrics. We see a lot of edtech gain investment and traction from optimizing for engagement, logins, and time-on-device because that’s what consumer apps track, instead of attention quality, feedback, and actual learning. That’s how we end up treating a "Chromebook being used to scroll TikTok" and a "Chromebook being used to help a student revise an essay" as the same “screen problem,” when they’re doing totally different jobs.
The core issue is learning the balance between leisure activities and learning/working on the same device. Folks in the working world have largely mastered a balance.
This is something very close to me because I've had a major learning disability most of my life. I understand that everyone's vouching for funding and the latest innovation, and I can understand that appeal.