Why Duolingo ?
Being an ESL teacher, I have often been concerned about the English language proficiency of my kids. According to the ASER survey in 2012, only 48.9% children enrolled in rural India in Std. V could read English words or more, and only 22.5% could read simple English sentences. With a rural background, the kids simply do not have enough exposure to English language outside of the school (Even in the school it is taught as the Second / Third language). This is true of millions of similar kids learning in Non-English mediums in rural schools.
After the Indian Government announced its plan for providing tablets to school children at just $25, a new spectrum of possibilities in educational technology has opened up. Though the plan has not been fully implemented, it would be sooner than later. It has excited me no end to know that a tablet can provide extra English learning opportunities for the kids. Also, my disadvantaged kids would have an opportunity to compete on an equal level with other technology equipped kids. However most of the content on the web is in English. So learning English using the tablet is an opportunity to learn both - the language and the content on the web. Hence i was immediately interested in the idea of Duolingo which does exactly this. Additionally Duolingo has also started a provision of learning English through Hindi (which is the most common language in India). I took this opportunity of EVA submission to inspect its merits and demerits
Reflection on the EVA process
I teach in a school for underprivileged students. For long, i have been thinking of a mobile based English language learning venture - especially one which teaches English for kids through Marathi (official language for the state where I live) . However, the entire purpose of the venture was to reach out to rural kids for free. How could such a venture be sponsored ? The EVA process for Duolingo has opened my eyes to a new win-win crowd-sourced business model. It has made me realize that there could be complementary services / products around me which could provide for each other's cost. I am sure there would be similar win-win spaces if one explores more. Also the research about how the app market works made me realize that there several business models by which an app can generate revenue - it need not always be the customers who need to pay for the product. This has been very liberating.
On exploring Duolingo myself and reading plenty of articles on it, I have also realized that mobile based learning could only do so much about learning a language as an academic pursuit. It is surely no magic pill which could replace the instructors. One would have to look more at how to use it as an add on and be less dreamy (as I was) about it.
Lastly, it has also overwhelmed me .. the knowledge that creating a language learning app is definitely not simple as I would have liked to believe. It involves human computer interaction, distributed large scale systems, language processing and gamification. I might have to rethink if i currently have the capacity of entering into a venture that deals with languages.
Being an ESL teacher, I have often been concerned about the English language proficiency of my kids. According to the ASER survey in 2012, only 48.9% children enrolled in rural India in Std. V could read English words or more, and only 22.5% could read simple English sentences. With a rural background, the kids simply do not have enough exposure to English language outside of the school (Even in the school it is taught as the Second / Third language). This is true of millions of similar kids learning in Non-English mediums in rural schools.
After the Indian Government announced its plan for providing tablets to school children at just $25, a new spectrum of possibilities in educational technology has opened up. Though the plan has not been fully implemented, it would be sooner than later. It has excited me no end to know that a tablet can provide extra English learning opportunities for the kids. Also, my disadvantaged kids would have an opportunity to compete on an equal level with other technology equipped kids. However most of the content on the web is in English. So learning English using the tablet is an opportunity to learn both - the language and the content on the web. Hence i was immediately interested in the idea of Duolingo which does exactly this. Additionally Duolingo has also started a provision of learning English through Hindi (which is the most common language in India). I took this opportunity of EVA submission to inspect its merits and demerits
Reflection on the EVA process
I teach in a school for underprivileged students. For long, i have been thinking of a mobile based English language learning venture - especially one which teaches English for kids through Marathi (official language for the state where I live) . However, the entire purpose of the venture was to reach out to rural kids for free. How could such a venture be sponsored ? The EVA process for Duolingo has opened my eyes to a new win-win crowd-sourced business model. It has made me realize that there could be complementary services / products around me which could provide for each other's cost. I am sure there would be similar win-win spaces if one explores more. Also the research about how the app market works made me realize that there several business models by which an app can generate revenue - it need not always be the customers who need to pay for the product. This has been very liberating.
On exploring Duolingo myself and reading plenty of articles on it, I have also realized that mobile based learning could only do so much about learning a language as an academic pursuit. It is surely no magic pill which could replace the instructors. One would have to look more at how to use it as an add on and be less dreamy (as I was) about it.
Lastly, it has also overwhelmed me .. the knowledge that creating a language learning app is definitely not simple as I would have liked to believe. It involves human computer interaction, distributed large scale systems, language processing and gamification. I might have to rethink if i currently have the capacity of entering into a venture that deals with languages.