When learning platforms engage only the most motivated students, the issue isn’t pedagogy or access—it’s experience design.
GUEST COLUMN | by Alex Galvagni
MATTHEW BRITTON
Here’s an uncomfortable truth about edtech in classrooms: most of it doesn’t work. Not because the industry lacks talent or research. There are brilliant educators, solid pedagogical frameworks, and genuine effort behind these programs. They fail because they’re designed to please procurement committees, not to engage kids in the way they want to learn.
‘They fail because they’re designed to please procurement committees, not to engage kids in the way they want to learn.’
That reality shows up in numbers. Engagement rates across much of the industry hover around 5% —meaning these tools primarily benefit the small fraction of highly motivated students who need help least, while leaving the other 95% behind. This is known as the 5% problem. There are several complex reasons for this but a big one is that these platforms lack the creativity, responsiveness, and inspiration that real learning requires. Teachers get frustrated. Districts spend millions on software licenses that collect digital dust. This isn’t a failure of ambition. It’s a failure of design.
The Alpha Generation Deserves Better
Today’s young learners are growing up in a world engineered for engagement. Netflix recommends shows based on their preferences. YouTube adapts in real time to their interests. Even toys are interactive and responsive. Experiences are personalized, on demand, and visually compelling.
Then they sit down for their “learning time” and encounter something that looks and feels like it was built twenty years ago. Multiple choice questions on bland backgrounds. Linear progression that ignores what they already know. Experiences that feel like homework dressed up with a few cartoon characters. It’s the equivalent of expecting a Pixar movie and getting a test prep worksheet with clip art.
We can debate whether children should have lower expectations or more patience for boring interfaces. But that is irrelevant. These are the learners we have, shaped by the digital world they inhabit. Now it’s up to us to meet them there.
What Happens When You Actually Design for Children
When learning experiences are built the way children naturally engage—with interactivity, adaptability and visual richness, storytelling, something remarkable happens – they want to use them.
We’ve seen this firsthand with ABCmouse, where two-year-olds stay focused and engaged in learning activities, because the experience holds their attention. The animations are smooth. The feedback is immediate. The pacing adjusts to the learner, not a rigid scope and sequence. It feels less like “educational software” and more like something they’d pick on their own.
This isn’t about dumbing down content or confusing entertainment over learning. Engagement isn’t a distraction from learning, it’s a prerequisite. A brilliant curriculum that children won’t touch helps no one.
The Real ROI of Engagement
When engagement rises from 5 percent to the whole student population, everything changes. Students aren’t just logging in, they’re progressing. They’re advancing months ahead of peers. Teachers stop struggling with resistance and start seeing results. And districts take notice, not because of sales pitches, but because educators are asking to keep using tools that actually work. That’s the return on investment that matters, outcomes per learner. It’s the difference between EdTech as expensive shelfware and edtech as a meaningful lever for learning.
What This Means for the Industry
The edtech companies that will matter aren’t the ones with the best sales decks, the longest district relationships or strongest procurement strategies. They’re the ones with products that work. They leverage technology intelligently and build beautiful engaging experiences that children want to use.
That requires an honest reckoning with who we’re designing for. It means treating experience and design with the same rigor as curriculum. Children today expect interactions, personalization and visual experiences that don’t feel like punishment. They want learning that feels as engaging as the rest of their digital lives.
We can either meet those expectations or keep wondering why 95% of students ignore what we build.
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Alex Galvagni is CEO of Age of Learning, the educational technology company behind ABCmouse, My Math Academy, My Reading Academy, and My Reading Academy Español. Connect with Alex on LinkedIn.
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