Boser: Students Want Learning to Be Easy. But for Learning to Be Valuable, the Brain Has to Struggle

The 74 Million – Ulrich Boser

“Lots of educational programs and interventions push easy ways for students to learn, especially many of the tech tools being used in the time of COVID-19. As an example, consider the headline-making app DragonBox, which supposedly “secretly teaches math” to students via an algebra “game.” USA Today declared the app to be “brilliant.” But as a learning tool, DragonBox appears to fall short, at least according to one study. Students using the app don’t appear to improve in their ability at solving algebraic equations, according to a 2014 study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.” (more)