Week 3: Quality’s The Thing

The readings this week proposed ways of exploring children’s media usage that seemed to reach a consensus that it is not the platform, but rather the quality of the interaction (game, video, or in-person play) that will affect learning outcomes.

In “Putting Education in ‘Educational’ Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning”, Hirsh-Pasek, Zosh, et. al describe the wide range of apps for children available today. It’s a refreshingly realistic view of the good and the bad, and more specifically, what differentiates the two. This is incredibly helpful for those of us interested in creating learning environments. Until this point, I had a lot of trouble making clear distinctions between what works and what does not.

The researchers highlight the importance of narrative in good apps. The enemy of narrative is distraction. As such, the educational games that work well keep the story moving, rather than offering all the bells and whistles, to reach better learning outcomes. Challenges that come seemingly out of nowhere tend to break concentration, rather than encouraging the child’s engagement. Just because you can create an interactive element, doesn’t mean that the game creators necessarily should.

I wonder if the power of narrative to encourage learning is related to the longterm success of programs that began on television (Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer) and then moved onto another platform. Children are already familiar with the narrative, without having to be necessarily reminded within the app, creating more opportunities to move into areas where children get to make choices through gameplay, without losing the narrative’s momentum.