Engagement vs. Curriculum: Are We Limiting Ourselves?

The reading from Hirsh-Pasek, et al. surveyed a range of educational media, primarily focusing on young children and apps. It cites research to argue that children learn best when the learning is active, engaged, meaningful, socially interactive, and in the service of a learning goal. The definition of each of these terms is then explored through a range of studies.

I was particularly interested in a distinction made between “physically active” and “mentally active” when it comes to interacting with an app: “Tapping in a response to something on a screen to make it rise is ‘minds-off,’ but activities such as purposefully figuring out where a puzzle piece goes or learning about abstract concepts such as cardinality or addition are minds-on.” (p. 8)

Having designed preschool learning apps, I didn’t find this to be a very useful distinction because physical activity is described in terms of its relation to the app’s interactive design, but the mental activity is not. In other words, in the first example (tapping to make something rise), I have an idea of what is happening on screen and what the child might be doing, but in the second (learning about abstract concepts), I do not.

Later, when exploring the concept of engagement, Hirsh-Patek writes, “When each touch or swipe is met with an immediate response, children feel in control, maintain their focus, and continue the interaction.” (p. 12) This seems problematic in light of the previous quote. If tapping to get immediate feedback is minds-off but engagement-on, then it might follow that we have a conflict between achieving engagement and achieving learning.

Many of the conversations I had when designing educational apps was similar: What compromises should we make to satisfy the designers (who want fun), and the researchers (who want education)? While I am simplifying the conflict to some extent, I think both parties would agree to its general truth.

However, I am curious about whether or not this conflict really exists, or if we simply aren’t thinking about designing educational apps in the right way. I am interested in how interactive, educational media can be designed in such a way that the game mechanic itself is a reflection or expression of the learning process. In other words, I wonder if there’s a way to bring physical activity and mental activity into a kind of symbiotic relationship with each other when designing. This would seem to maximize both engagement and learning, if it can be achieved.

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Finally, on a completely different topic, I was interested in what the reading said about the importance of social relationships in learning, and where to find literature on creating the types of characters and parasocial relationships that children of different ages are most drawn to and influenced by.