I became interested in Khan Academy a couple of years ago. At the time, as I am now, I was teaching in a distributed learning school. Salman Khan was the opening speaker via webinar for one of our professional development days. He shared with us how he got started with online learning and the direction he saw Khan Academy going. The following article from the Khan Academy site reiterates what he shared with us
http://khanacademy.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/329316-how-did-khan-academy-get-started- ,as does
part of this TED Talk,http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html
As a math teacher I was interested in looking at his math videos and how I might use them to assist my students during both the onsite tutorials and asynchronously. My first foray was to use one of the videos to assist a student who was struggling with the concept of equivalent fractions. I previewed the videos, found the one that I thought would best assist her and then together we viewed the video. What I found was that for this topic the video went too far. I had a sense of this before we started and should have stopped it before Salman took the learning further but did not. The student came away if anything even more confused, a
lesson learned. I then had a student travelling who was struggling to understand some of the concepts being taught in the LMS, Riverdeep, and so I directed him to the related concept videos in Khan Academy. Some he found useful, for other concepts not so much and this deterred him from looking at the others and as he stated I just figured it out and did not use the videos. This following link will take you to
view some of the videos, note the site has been updated since I used it with these students. http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/fractions
As we have learned from our study of the learning theories, students learn in different ways. In math some students need to use manipulatives to understand and retain information; others need to discuss what they have seen and work through questions with others to solidify their understanding. These needs are not being met if the videos are used as a teaching tool on their own. Salman states that the videos are not meant to be used on their own as math education but rather he sees as it as freeing up time during the class time for students to receive more one on one time with the teacher, gives students more time to interact with each other, it humanizes the classroom and allows for project based learning to occur in the classroom. He sees the videos being used in a flipped classroom approach. To see Salman share his thoughts, view these two videos:
Khan on liberating the classroomhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmtgz95ZBbE&feature=relmfu
Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education http://www.khanacademy.org/talks-and-interviews/v/salman-khan-talk-at-ted-2011--from-ted-com.
Salman also shares in these videos information on the exercise platform/dashboard he has created as part of the Khan Academy. A former co-worker of mine used this platform with his students, here students sign up for accounts with the teacher as the coach. His students really enjoyed their time online, as they saw it very much like a video game, gaining points and winning virtual prizes, while mastering math concepts. Salman Khan states, in the first video above, that this platform allows students to work at their own pace, it differentiates learning, and it gives students immediate feedback while giving teachers and parents the data of where each student is at in their learning. Of importance is that students can only move ahead when they have mastered a concept. The key for me here is that mastery is the goal, competency is demonstrated before moving on. As a math teacher I too often see students who struggle in math because they do not have a solid foundation.
To see all that Khan Academy has to offer go to the following website http://www.khanacademy.org/ .
If you are interested in looking in to “how should I get started” go to http://khanacademy.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/329323-where-do-i-begin-how-should-i-get-started-
In our class discussion it was noted that people either really like what the Khan Academy has to offer or they do not. These following two videos were recommended for viewing, as you will see neither looks at Khan Academy in a postive way.
The "Khanification" of Education http://willrichardson.com/post/33950726644/the-khanification-of-education
Critique of Khan Academy goes viral (check out the video channel linked to in the blog)
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2012/07/by_now_youve_probably_heard.html
In looking for other peoples thoughts I came across this blog by Lucy Ferreira
http://lucymferreira.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/constructivism-and-the-khan-academy/ . I was drawn to Lucy’s statement “I thought the following video could be an interesting discussion piece to examine our assumptions about learning and lend support to the theory of constructivism. In it, a science educator, Derek Muller demonstrates the limitations of video based learning and how videos, like those on the Khan Academy, could be changed to better make use of constructivist learning theory.” , interesting as we move on to our final project focusing on leadership, technology and implementing change.
http://khanacademy.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/329316-how-did-khan-academy-get-started- ,as does
part of this TED Talk,http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html
As a math teacher I was interested in looking at his math videos and how I might use them to assist my students during both the onsite tutorials and asynchronously. My first foray was to use one of the videos to assist a student who was struggling with the concept of equivalent fractions. I previewed the videos, found the one that I thought would best assist her and then together we viewed the video. What I found was that for this topic the video went too far. I had a sense of this before we started and should have stopped it before Salman took the learning further but did not. The student came away if anything even more confused, a
lesson learned. I then had a student travelling who was struggling to understand some of the concepts being taught in the LMS, Riverdeep, and so I directed him to the related concept videos in Khan Academy. Some he found useful, for other concepts not so much and this deterred him from looking at the others and as he stated I just figured it out and did not use the videos. This following link will take you to
view some of the videos, note the site has been updated since I used it with these students. http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/fractions
As we have learned from our study of the learning theories, students learn in different ways. In math some students need to use manipulatives to understand and retain information; others need to discuss what they have seen and work through questions with others to solidify their understanding. These needs are not being met if the videos are used as a teaching tool on their own. Salman states that the videos are not meant to be used on their own as math education but rather he sees as it as freeing up time during the class time for students to receive more one on one time with the teacher, gives students more time to interact with each other, it humanizes the classroom and allows for project based learning to occur in the classroom. He sees the videos being used in a flipped classroom approach. To see Salman share his thoughts, view these two videos:
Khan on liberating the classroomhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmtgz95ZBbE&feature=relmfu
Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education http://www.khanacademy.org/talks-and-interviews/v/salman-khan-talk-at-ted-2011--from-ted-com.
Salman also shares in these videos information on the exercise platform/dashboard he has created as part of the Khan Academy. A former co-worker of mine used this platform with his students, here students sign up for accounts with the teacher as the coach. His students really enjoyed their time online, as they saw it very much like a video game, gaining points and winning virtual prizes, while mastering math concepts. Salman Khan states, in the first video above, that this platform allows students to work at their own pace, it differentiates learning, and it gives students immediate feedback while giving teachers and parents the data of where each student is at in their learning. Of importance is that students can only move ahead when they have mastered a concept. The key for me here is that mastery is the goal, competency is demonstrated before moving on. As a math teacher I too often see students who struggle in math because they do not have a solid foundation.
To see all that Khan Academy has to offer go to the following website http://www.khanacademy.org/ .
If you are interested in looking in to “how should I get started” go to http://khanacademy.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/329323-where-do-i-begin-how-should-i-get-started-
In our class discussion it was noted that people either really like what the Khan Academy has to offer or they do not. These following two videos were recommended for viewing, as you will see neither looks at Khan Academy in a postive way.
The "Khanification" of Education http://willrichardson.com/post/33950726644/the-khanification-of-education
Critique of Khan Academy goes viral (check out the video channel linked to in the blog)
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2012/07/by_now_youve_probably_heard.html
In looking for other peoples thoughts I came across this blog by Lucy Ferreira
http://lucymferreira.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/constructivism-and-the-khan-academy/ . I was drawn to Lucy’s statement “I thought the following video could be an interesting discussion piece to examine our assumptions about learning and lend support to the theory of constructivism. In it, a science educator, Derek Muller demonstrates the limitations of video based learning and how videos, like those on the Khan Academy, could be changed to better make use of constructivist learning theory.” , interesting as we move on to our final project focusing on leadership, technology and implementing change.