Today, I got an email to the invitation of a workshop of MM Publications. One of its programs will be about digital education. Many language teachers say that “The Engagement Gap” is the greatest threat to modern education. The theory goes like this: Old pages are boring, textbooks are relics, and unless we wrap a lesson in a digital interface with a leaderboard and a ticking clock, “New Learners” simply won’t show up.
I call it a distraction.
While designers are busy trying to “bridge the gap” with apps and animations, we are losing the very thing that makes learning possible: Deep Work.
Take, for example, the ubiquitous Kahoot. A lot of my colleagues use it actually. But in my opinion, it rewards the fastest finger, not the deepest thought. It prioritizes reflexes over actual language production.
When you add a countdown timer and blaring disco music to a grammar lesson, you aren’t helping students learn; you’re inducing a state of fight or flight. We’ve traded the quiet concentration of a workbook for a high-stress game of click the right shape.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the technology-first approach is the “IT Tax.” We spend twenty minutes troubleshooting Wi-Fi, hunting for Game Pins, or navigating clunky User Interfaces.
That is time stolen from the subject at hand. If I am in a language class, I want to be speaking, reading, and wrestling with syntax. I don’t want to be upgrading my digital literacy just to see a quiz on a screen. Every minute spent managing an app is a minute not spent mastering the target language.
There is a growing fear among educators that boring is synonymous with failure. But learning a difficult skill like a new language is inherently challenging. It requires grit, repetition, and the ability to sit with a text until it makes sense.
By trying to cure boredom with gamification, we are actually stripping students of the mental muscle required for high-level mastery. We aren’t making it easier to learn; we’re just making it easier to get away with not studying.
It’s time to stop apologizing for the textbook. A book doesn’t have a notification tray. A printed page doesn’t require a login. It offers true focus, cognitive depth and human connection. Because language is about people talking to people, not people tapping on glass.
If we want to close the “Engagement Gap,” we shouldn’t do it by making education look more like TikTok. We should do it by showing learners that the most engaging thing in the world isn’t an app. It’s the actual progress that comes from hard, focused work.