From Dropout to Fluency: App-Enablement with Duolingo

In The App Generation, Howard Gardner and Katie Davis of the Harvard Graduate School of Education examine the role of apps in today’s society and draw a fundamental distinction between apps that empower and apps that “line the road to serfdom.” According to Gardner and Davis, apps that encourage us to “pursue new possibilities” and “explore new paths” are app-enabling and help us to create meaning and identity. In contrast, apps that “restrict or determine our procedures, choices, and goals” and “turn us into couch potatoes” create app-dependence. 

I've been wondering about how certain apps might lead to empowerment or dependency. Do I, myself, use education apps passively to receive information and not think for myself? Do other apps empower me to be an active and inspired learner?

More specifically, I’ve been thinking about my quest to learn Spanish. About a decade ago I took an on-site Spanish course, but found my motivation lagging and I struggled to make all the scheduled classes. After several months, I lost interest and dropped out. Yet, thanks largely to a language app, I have been studying and practicing Spanish for years.

Back in 2015 I started using the Duolingo language app, now the world’s most popular educational app. I was drawn in initially by its simple and colorful interface and found the exercises neither too difficult, nor too hard. I instantly liked the combination of listening, reading, writing, and speaking exercises and that I could complete a lesson in under 10 minutes. And though I began studying at 53 years of age I seemed to be making steady progress.

Duolingo’s fundamental assumption is that if you practice the language every day -- even a little -- you’re bound to make progress. And Duolingo tries to motivate and encourage you by consistently congratulating you on your progress and by offering rewards for your accomplishments. Sure enough, I began practicing Spanish daily and at one point had a “streak” of 180 consecutive days.

Yet, The App Generation co-author Howard Gardiner defined app dependency in an interview as “a population—young or old—that plays video games all day.” Curiously enough, I AM playing a game when I use Duolingo. ( And I could play it all day long.) For me, Duolingo is a successful example of gamification, because it features the typical elements you find in games — earn points, attain levels, win prizes, and compete with others (if you wish) — and the player is learning a skill. It may not be “Assassin’s Creed,” but Duolingo and video games share many of the same elements: tasks, challenges, rewards, and gratifications.

Gardiner defines app-enabling as a situation when an app “opens up new possibilities, engenders the exploration of unexpected moves and options, which could include terminating the app and proceeding in a novel direction.” What Gardiner doesn’t explicitly address is the role of engagement and how motivation engenders a search for new options.

I’ve found Duolingo to be app-enabling as it’s encouraged me to seek out other ways to learn and practice Spanish. When I reached the Duolingo 10% fluency level, I decided to seek out a tutor online so that I could practice Spanish conversation. For years now, I have a weekly conversation with a Spanish teacher at Verbling.com to help me with practical conversational situations.

In 2018 I started giving edtech presentations in Spanish for the first time. I was hired via the U.S. State Department to deliver talks and run workshops on educational technology in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Spain. It was enthralling to deliver keynotes and lead workshops in Spanish. I’m still not completely fluent, but I remain motivated to learn and continue to practice Spanish daily with Duolingo.

I'm not sure if my experience fits the full scope of Gardner and Davis’s app-enabling definition. I also think that apps are more-or-less neutral and that powerful technology can be used poorly and poor technology can be used powerfully. That said, if an app can help encourage and motivate me to seek out new ways to learn and improve, then I would say that it has inspired new and powerful learning experiences.

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