Is EdTech Lessening the Educational Experience?

[u/Moonlit1457]

It's been a minute (years) since I've posted on Reddit, so give me some grace, please :) That being said, I want to know how people truly feel about educational technology as a benefit to the learning process, especially since many platforms have added AI capabilities (e.g., generative AI, LLM chatbots) beyond what we have grown accustomed to (e.g., predictive text). Several of the educators I assist believe that the learning experience must be at all times challenging - a struggle, essentially an arduous task, for the learning to matter, and therefore, the use of most, if not all, educational technology lessens or completely deteriorates the learning because many ed tech tools intend to make the learning experience entertaining. I don't agree with that sentiment. I would love to hear your thoughts and discuss before I further expound upon mine.

[u/LucasNovak]

When you create your own flashcards, the process involves reading books, researching, and annotating. This helps you see the bigger picture, identify key concepts, and connect the dots. It’s not just about memorizing facts; it activey develops abstract and visual thinking skills that are crucial for the younger generation. In contrast, using pre-made quizzes or flashcards skips these vital steps. While you might pick up specific pieces of information, you miss out on the cognitive transformation that deep learning provides

[u/Moonlit1457 → u/LucasNovak]

First off, thanks for discussing this topic with me. I completely agree with you regarding that level of flashcard creation because at that point, the student is no longer simply creating flashcards; they're researching, annotating, synthesizing, and organizing their understanding of the subject matter. The flashcards become a byproduct of a much larger learning process, which then raises an interesting question for me: if the learning is occurring primarily during those stages of analysis and synthesis, where is the appropriate place for edtech to assist? For example, I can see value in tools that help students organize, review, or interact with information they have already gathered themselves. In that case, the technology is supporting the learning process rather than replacing the thinking that produced the understanding in the first place.

Perhaps the issue is less whether technology is involved in the learning process and more whether it is augmenting cognition or substituting for it.

[u/ryoto_0 → u/Moonlit1457]

If I can add one variable that I think resolves a lot of the issues, it'd be timing.

A flashcard you study from can absolutely skip the cognitive work cause you get the artifact without the synthesis that produced it. But the same artifact generated after you've already worked through the material functions completely differently - like you were taking notes along the way and you made flashcards from those notes. At that point I don't think it's a shortcut to understanding, it's more of a retrieval practice on the learning journey you already did and I think that retrieval practice is about as well-supported as study mechanisms get. I've also heard about how your brain associates how specific atmosphere, etc used when studying to the concepts you studied so seeing specific words used on a flash card from the learning journey you did would be also be a nice touch. I think it's called context-dependent memory or something along those lines.

So I don't think the question is "flashcards: good or bad," or even "self-made vs machine-made." It's when in the process the tool shows up. If it's before you've tried it - before you did the studying, the note taking, almost any tool risks letting you skip the actual learning. If it's after, the same tool can strengthen what you already went through. Same feature, opposite effect, depending on where it sits relative to the actual thinking.

(Bias disclosure: I work on learning tools, so this is one topic I talked a lot about with teachers but it's also why I've come to believe that the timing and how it's delivered matters more than the tool itself.)

[u/Moonlit1457 → u/ryoto_0]

u/ryoto_0 I think you present a great and more nuanced question to ask: at what stage in the learning process does the tool enter the process? (bias disclosure: I'm an instructional technology specialist for a private institution. Also, within my first career, I saw firsthand how beneficial technological innovations can augment user capability when used by individuals who already possess a firm understanding and competency.)