Comment by dtran | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dtran | Hacker News Reader

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I don't think he spent time making a custom iPad app for his daughter so he could make learning independent enough to not participate. He was merely trying to apply one of his strengths (programming), his background (a startup designing educational games), and background knowledge (knowing his daughter loved Harry Potter) to try to create a better learning experience for his daughter, which is something I think every good educator, whether it's a teacher, parent, or peer, should do. You have to teach people to your strengths and their strengths - if he was an author and chose to teach math to his daughter in the context of elaborate stories and fairy tales, would you call that self-defeating as well?

This reminded me of Randy Pausch's last lecture (if you haven't had a chance to watch it, I highly recommend it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo). Teaching kids is all about headfakes* - you are't encouraging them to play soccer so they can go and play in the World Cup, but rather so they have a fun context to learn about things like hard work, practice, and teamwork. Analogously, I think this personalized Harry Potter app just teaches his daughter that learning doesn't always have to feel like work, not specifically that she should spend all day trying to get praises from Hermoine and British men answering math problems.

* Disclaimer: I don't have kids and know little to nothing about raising or educating kids.

>you are't encouraging them to play soccer so they can go and play in the World Cup, but rather so they have a fun context to learn about things like hard work, practice, and teamwork

I'm sure many people (parents|teachers|other educators)see things like sports in this way. Personally I'm teaching my kids football because I enjoy kicking a football around and playing the game - it's not a direct proxy for learning something else, that is not the motivation.

The reason I'm teaching my eldest about maths is because I find it interesting, stimulating and often fun; not because I see it as a gateway to being an accountant or whatever.

Having said that I see nothing novel educationally in the article except the very specific combination of movie franchise + ipad + maths. Remember Britney Spears being used to teach physics a few years ago?

Slightly OT: I don't think his reasons as stated indemnify him from a successful claim of copyright infringement. He chose the specific franchise as a promotional tool both for his blog and for, it seems, KnowPro Apps. This was apparently a decision rooted in the profitable promotion of business entities. The fact that the app he mention itself was created for sole personal use is immaterial. If there is a KnowPro paid for this app in any way then I'd expect a successful suit could follow. IANA©L

Thanks for your feedback.

I think the novelty comes in exactly what you state, and I think that the educational system relies too heavily on the status quo. There would be nothing wrong with a classroom posting pictures of Harry Potter and couching a lesson in the Harry Potter clothes in order to drive more student involvement. It's no different than when Jeopardy was popular 10 years ago and Jeopardy-like student challenges spread across schools.

With respect to the copyright infringement aspect, I hope that is not the case. I believe that many people are visual learners and seeing an example can have a much more powerful result than a mere description. It was with that intention that I posted the video. I do not plan to distribute the app as that would clearly be in copyright violation.

Great points. There are 2+ ways to view everything. I appreciate your input! :)

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