I just need to rave a little bit more about how awesome Duolingo is from a learning design point of view. It just works! It’s easy, fun, convenient, and you can learn from it. It’s everything I ask of my instructional materials. Why should we settle for anything less?
There have been many times that I’ve thought about learning Italian, but I’ve never taken actual steps towards learning the language. Signing up for a course might have been an option if my local library branch had offered free ones on evenings I could attend, but I never found any of those (didn’t really look that hard either). Paying for a course at a community college seemed both expensive and inconvenient. Buying an audio course or something like that wasn’t something I was sure I’d stick with.
But Duolingo overcame every hurdle at once. It’s free. It’s convenient. It’s fun. The only thing it lacks is pasta night with actual classmates. And that’s something I never thought I’d be willing to give up. I love being in a class with other students and a teacher. I like the group work, the relationships that form, and the dynamic. But I’m noticing that free, easy, and fun go a long way towards balancing out the equation.
I doubt I would have ever completed an online course in learning Italian. That’s not to say a very engaging, fun, effective course couldn’t be developed and maybe after I’ve chewed on everything served up by Duolingo, I’ll go searching for a MOOC version of Italian 101. But I’m all about exploring this idea of micro-learning. What other types of instruction would fit into this 10-minute format?
The list of subjects I’d like to learn is long. My reasons for not tackling a lot of them are similar. But I bet I’d tackle a lot of them if they could be served up to me Duolingo style on my phone.
Right now, in addition to learning Italian, I’m also taking a crack at Python programming and learning CSS. I wouldn’t learn either of these topics from a book (too dry for me). I need a very interactive environment much like Code School offers but without the monthly subscription fees. I would never sit through video tutorials on these subjects either. Way too tedious.
What I need is something in my pocket. A 10-minute lesson, one or two per day. It would be a little more challenging to type code on my phone (but that’s what an iPad is for). Yet I would still like to have the coding lessons delivered to me in the 10 minute format mainly because I know I will actually do them. And that’s better than not doing them at all which is where I am now.
As we move forward toward learning design that allows for the personalization of learning, the Duolingo option for instructional materials needs to be a choice on the menu. Throw it out there with MOOC, blended, face to face, and everything else. Allowing learners to pick the style of learning that suits them best, in format and approach, is a much needed step towards creating the types of independent, empowered learners we’d all like to become.
Leave a Reply