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Post by headlesscookie on Apr 7, 2018 4:35:20 GMT
Hi all!
Can I have some honest opinions about the new Crowns system on Duolingo? For me, this brings back the same heartbreak that came with them killing Immersion, but I'm curious to know if you're all feeling the same way.
With love,
Alex
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Post by Trofaste on Apr 7, 2018 7:34:30 GMT
When I first got the crowns, I wasn't a huge fan. But as I've used them more, figured out how they work, and developed a method for using them (I can elaborate if you want) I've begun to like them more. There are still things I don't like. The number of lessons to get a skill to level 5 seems a bit overboard for the early skills, especially as it's really impossible to get any variety in the sentences for a few skills (anyone who likes is welcome to ask for the list of words available to use in the first skill of a tree and try their hand at it). I would also really like to be able to do timed practice on a specific skill *before* I get it to level 5, and I miss the skill overview with the list of lessons and the T&N (on the other hand, I think more people will see the T&N now, which is definitely good), and the ability to take a specific lesson of a skill over again. And I don't like the lack of visible "strength" or similar to show what needs work. But all in all, for a first iteration I think it's good. There are definitely improvements to be made, but I know they're working on some of them right now, which makes me a good deal happier about it. For the others, it's possible they're already working on them or have them planned and I don't know it, but even if not, there were problems with the old system too and I don't think there's really much difference between them except that we were used to the problems with the old.
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Post by headlesscookie on Apr 7, 2018 18:01:27 GMT
When I first got the crowns, I wasn't a huge fan. But as I've used them more, figured out how they work, and developed a method for using them (I can elaborate if you want) I've begun to like them more. There are still things I don't like. The number of lessons to get a skill to level 5 seems a bit overboard for the early skills, especially as it's really impossible to get any variety in the sentences for a few skills (anyone who likes is welcome to ask for the list of words available to use in the first skill of a tree and try their hand at it). I would also really like to be able to do timed practice on a specific skill *before* I get it to level 5, and I miss the skill overview with the list of lessons and the T&N (on the other hand, I think more people will see the T&N now, which is definitely good), and the ability to take a specific lesson of a skill over again. And I don't like the lack of visible "strength" or similar to show what needs work. But all in all, for a first iteration I think it's good. There are definitely improvements to be made, but I know they're working on some of them right now, which makes me a good deal happier about it. For the others, it's possible they're already working on them or have them planned and I don't know it, but even if not, there were problems with the old system too and I don't think there's really much difference between them except that we were used to the problems with the old. Thanks for responding  I think my biggest distaste with them isn't even that it takes dozens of lessons to make it to Level 5 just to get a skill golden (it took me an hour to spam that through the first Italian lesson just to see how it works), and then the skills don't even decay. How is that supposed to help users? The biggest thing about language learning is that it requires refreshing skills every so often, and, for people like me who happily had a golden tree, that would involve going back every week or so for most skills. Now that's all gone and Duolingo is treating us like babies, making us go through basic lessons over and over and over. My guess is that they shortened the lessons so ads could pop up more. It's solely money with them now - that's why they cut Immersion and turned the website around to market it for schoolkids who generally only are there because their teachers require them to. |
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Post by luscinda on Apr 11, 2018 12:31:20 GMT
I haven't really paid much attention to the changes to the lessons - just a teeny bit of practice. I was absolutely horrified by the exercises that came up initially as it wanted you to sort word cards in your own language, which is all kinds of RONG. But not I've got it back to wanting me to type, it seems not far off its normal state. I haven't really looked into it enough to know but I don't think anything is blocked, which seemed to be the big concern on their boards?
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Post by Trofaste on Apr 11, 2018 12:50:37 GMT
luscinda On the web there's a button to switch to typing those exercises instead. I don't think it's there on the app though (not sure as I don't use the app).
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Post by luscinda on Apr 14, 2018 11:36:14 GMT
luscinda On the web there's a button to switch to typing those exercises instead. I don't think it's there on the app though (not sure as I don't use the app). I know, I would have walked away had I not found it. But it is pedagogically ridiculous that they do it at all. It puts all the cognitive load onto processing L1 and you can do most of it without fully understanding (or in some cases even reading) the target language. |
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Post by Trofaste on Apr 14, 2018 12:48:33 GMT
luscinda On the web there's a button to switch to typing those exercises instead. I don't think it's there on the app though (not sure as I don't use the app). I know, I would have walked away had I not found it. But it is pedagogically ridiculous that they do it at all. It puts all the cognitive load onto processing L1 and you can do most of it without fully understanding (or in some cases even reading) the target language. I'm certainly not going to argue with that. At least it gets more difficult in later levels... (I've had lessons where everything was translation to the target language, typing, no word bank, for example) |
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