Atomizing the Primer: Purpose-Specific Edtech Applications

In an excellent essay Exorcising us of the Primer published earlier this month, Andy Matuschak explores the seductive appeal, and advantages and disadvantages as a model for edtech applications, of “The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer” from Neal Stephenson’s prescient 1995 novel The Diamond Age.

The Primer is a versatile audiovisual device that educates the novel’s protagonist Nell from childhood over a period of many years. Think of it as an iPad presenting ultra-personalized content, much of it delivered remotely by a human actor named Miranda who plays a central role in the story. 

Matuschak identifies key attractions of the approach of the Primer for contemporary edtech applications, including immersion, responsiveness, assurance (i.e. positive reinforcement), and emotional impact. However, he also identifies important negative characteristics of the Primer – authoritarianism, isolation (from other learners), over-reliance on gamification, and over-reliance on discovery learning vs. instruction – and concludes that these negatives require us to “exorcise” ourselves of the vision of the Primer and construct a new vision for dynamic edtech applications.

Although nearly all of Matuschak’s analysis is well-considered, I disagree with him on the need to “exorcise” the Primer – because the Primer is not an all-or-nothing choice.

Why the Primer is Not an All-or-Nothing Choice

The simple reason that the Primer is not an all-or-nothing choice is that we need a wide variety of edtech applications – combined with teaching by humans – to deliver effective learning in the huge variety of learning environments.

For some reason, the edtech market seems to have concluded that complex platforms serving a wide variety of learning needs are the way forward. This has commercial logic – it’s easier for big L&D and education buyers to choose one-size-fits-all solutions – and sometimes learning logic. But often platforms are not the best approach to meet specific learner needs.

Generative AI has increased the tendency to focus on big platform solutions. This is understandable given the impressive capabilities of large language models and their offspring, but it has been vastly overblown in the generative AI hype cycle. This humorous (and somewhat profane) recent blog makes the point effectively.

More fundamentally, as I wrote in one of my first blogs for LearnerShape, the platform-based approach often ignores the fact that the centuries-old traditional learning ecosystem was effective because learning content was usually acquired in the course of a job or other activity of interest, rather than through formal instruction. I wrote:

“[W]e need to enable connections among learners, teachers and opportunities to learn on the job. It is not possible or effective for these connections to take place on a single platform or under fully controlled conditions — they need to happen organically like interactions in the traditional learning ecosystem — but online services can facilitate such connections.”

Atomizing the Primer Into Purpose-Specific Edtech Applications

So rather than “exorcising” the Primer, we should “atomize” the Primer (in conjunction with other learning approaches) into a wide variety of learning applications that together deliver compelling learning experiences, with different applications used in different contexts.

This is the approach that we take at LearnerShape. Our long-term vision is to enable customized learning applications with open source learning infrastructure, which we and others have used to build a variety of products. Our work delivering this vision includes development of our simple, powerful PlaylistBuilder YouTube curation application, which is designed to support and enhance human-driven learning, has received very strong market response and is currently in beta testing. Please reach out if you are interested in trying PlaylistBuilder.

And of course many other purpose-specific applications will be part of a vibrant learning ecosystem. Ones that we admire include Kahoot! (a gamified quiz platform), Khanmigo (Khan Academy’s flexible AI-based tool, which provides some of the functions of the Primer!) and Magic School (an AI platform for schools). There will be many more.

We envision a digital learning ecosystem that has all of the diversity of the traditional learning ecosystem driven by experienced teachers and experiential learning, while incorporating the benefits of digital technologies and AI. Realizing this vision does not require a single vision of what a learning application should be, but rather an open mind to flexibly combine knowledge and technology to meet the needs of learners with diverse needs.

Maury Shenk, Founder & CEO, LearnerShape