August 22, 2005
Learning Software Falling from Grace
Once a Booming Market, Educational Software for the PC Takes a Nose Dive - New York Times (Free registration required)
This New York Times Article highlights the changing trends in educational computer software. The market for "educational" titles has plummeted in the last few years and there are several reasons given for this drop (parents don't want to deal with it, < href=http://www.leapfrog.com/>LeapFrog and other stand-alone technologies are taking over for younger learners, free stuff is online, etc.). Interestingly, the article notes that parents are spending more on educational products overall.
I have another thought about the reasons for this decline: the software itself is not reflective of what people want from their computer systems. As I watch my son interact with the computer, I notice he wants to produce things and communicate with people (in addition to gaming of course), not consume canned learning content. The programs for doing this? MS Word, Publisher, Pinnacle Video Editor, Yahoo email and messenger, etc. He is part of the generation Toffler called "prosumers."
These activities are more valuable to him than the "educational" software on store shelves.
In hopes of boosting lagging sales, at least one software company promises to allow parents to track student progress online. This is still a top-down model of learning driven, in large measure, by the goal of high scores on standardized tests.
How to make successful educational software: Allow live connection to peers and teachers (i.e. real people), have tons of content on any topic at your fingertips, include production capabilities in multiple media formats, and allow productions to be published instantly on a global network. And, by the way, it should not cost anything...
All of these things are already available, we just do not call it "educational" software. I believe a declining market is going to get a lot tougher.
Posted by Rovy at August 22, 2005 4:48 AM