Many of you have heard of Khan Academy. If you haven't, Khan Academy is a very very large collection of short online videos narrated by Sal Kahn that teach algebra, calculus, economics and other subjects. The mission of Khan Academy is to offer a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.
One of my favorite parts about Khan Academy is that a person can keep track of his or her progress in math from basic adding and subtracting to exponents and even calculus. It is like the banquet table is all set and the student can taste different foods and skip others.
I tried an experiment at school. My students accessed the website http://www.khanacademy.org/ at home, kept track of their progress on a Google account and showed me their progress at school. My experiment was to find out why Khan Academy is so popular and successful. If I knew the reasons and agreed with the reasons I would then spread the word.
If Khan Academy videos helped my students learn (or review) well enough to correctly answer the questions about number lines, percents and scientific notation, great! If the video didn't help them understand prime numbers then I or another teacher would teach the lesson in person. Several of my students spent over 20 hours on Khan Academy over the course of a month. I asked them what they liked about Khan Academy. Students liked seeing their progress and this encouraged them to make more progress.
Sal Khan explained in a TED talks lecture that the data surprisingly showed technology can personalize and humanize education. This may sound ironic and I have met people who are skeptical of and against online learning because they say it is impersonal and not self sustaining. Khan says that math students preferred the narrated videos over him in person because they could pause, rewind, and repeat the videos at their own pace. The students didn't have to face embarrassment that they should have have learned their times table in 4th grade or be anxious that they didn’t understand adding fractions completely the first time it was taught. Learning from the videos is humanizing and replaces the one-size-fits-all lecture. Khan Academy can be personalized and tailored to fit you.
Classroom teachers have assigned watching Khan Academy videos as homework and then used class time to do group projects, math application exercises, peer tutoring and video making. The traditional classroom routine of lecture students, assign homework, give tests is changed around or "flipped." The old routine of teaching math doesn't expect mastery or encourage experimentation. A traditional math course keeps moving, and everyday new skills keep being added. Yikes! At the high school level, if a student struggles with algebra or hates algebra it is probably because there is a hole, several holes or many holes in their past math education.
One of my favorite parts about Khan Academy is that a person can keep track of his or her progress in math from basic adding and subtracting to exponents and even calculus. It is like the banquet table is all set and the student can taste different foods and skip others.
I tried an experiment at school. My students accessed the website http://www.khanacademy.org/ at home, kept track of their progress on a Google account and showed me their progress at school. My experiment was to find out why Khan Academy is so popular and successful. If I knew the reasons and agreed with the reasons I would then spread the word.
If Khan Academy videos helped my students learn (or review) well enough to correctly answer the questions about number lines, percents and scientific notation, great! If the video didn't help them understand prime numbers then I or another teacher would teach the lesson in person. Several of my students spent over 20 hours on Khan Academy over the course of a month. I asked them what they liked about Khan Academy. Students liked seeing their progress and this encouraged them to make more progress.
Sal Khan explained in a TED talks lecture that the data surprisingly showed technology can personalize and humanize education. This may sound ironic and I have met people who are skeptical of and against online learning because they say it is impersonal and not self sustaining. Khan says that math students preferred the narrated videos over him in person because they could pause, rewind, and repeat the videos at their own pace. The students didn't have to face embarrassment that they should have have learned their times table in 4th grade or be anxious that they didn’t understand adding fractions completely the first time it was taught. Learning from the videos is humanizing and replaces the one-size-fits-all lecture. Khan Academy can be personalized and tailored to fit you.
Classroom teachers have assigned watching Khan Academy videos as homework and then used class time to do group projects, math application exercises, peer tutoring and video making. The traditional classroom routine of lecture students, assign homework, give tests is changed around or "flipped." The old routine of teaching math doesn't expect mastery or encourage experimentation. A traditional math course keeps moving, and everyday new skills keep being added. Yikes! At the high school level, if a student struggles with algebra or hates algebra it is probably because there is a hole, several holes or many holes in their past math education.
We all have "swiss cheese like holes" (says Sal Kahn) in our math knowledge. Having these holes keeps students from making progress in math and liking math. At the high school level, I hear a lot of students say: "I hate math!" or "I am not good at math." Khan Academy shows the student and teacher exactly where and what those holes are and offers step-by-step problem solving hints and video lessons to help fill in these holes so a student can become happy and confident.
I've finally started reading your blog, and I absolutely love the interview with the principal above this post. The world needs more teachers that think like you two.
ReplyDeleteWhat I wanted to say was that there are soooo many YouTube videos about science and math that are informative and fun. If you'd like, send me an email and ill try to hunt down a list for you.
-Niki (ignore the username. I have no idea why or when I chose that)