How Education Is Changing Thanks To Khan Academy 240
An anonymous reader writes "Wired reports on how freely-available lectures from Khan Academy are affecting both teaching methods and learning methods in classrooms across the country. From the article: 'Initially, Thordarson thought Khan Academy would merely be a helpful supplement to her normal instruction. But it quickly become far more than that. She's now on her way to "flipping" the way her class works. This involves replacing some of her lectures with Khan's videos, which students can watch at home. Then, in class, they focus on working problem sets. The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed on the kids' own time and homework is done at school. ... It's when they're doing homework that students are really grappling with a subject and are most likely to need someone to talk to. And now Thordarson can tell just when this grappling occurs: Khan Academy provides teachers with a dashboard application that lets her see the instant a student gets stuck. "I'm able to give specific, pinpointed help when needed, she says. The result is that Thordarson's students move at their own pace. Those who are struggling get surgically targeted guidance, while advanced kids ... rocket far ahead; once they're answering questions without making mistakes, Khan's site automatically recommends new topics to move on to.'"
Salman Khan suggested it... (Score:5, Informative)
Isn't this just doing what Salman Khan suggested in his TED talk [ted.com]? He proposed that teachers should use class time for supervising and assisting in problem solving, and that students should watch lessons at home.
link? (Score:5, Informative)
How can Wired write an entire article, and slashdot write a summary, all about a website, and nobody includes the link to Kahn Academy [khanacademy.org]!?? Geesh
Re:No computer/Internet? (Score:4, Informative)
I didn't have an internet connection or a computer. I barely had a home. My parents were drug addicts. I'm glad my teachers didn't leave my education up to my parents. I would have turned out just like my parents, otherwise.
I would have loved to live in a free dormitory.
Instead, I was one of the few kids to make it out of my area (likely the only one genuine below the poverty level) and in to college. There, I got involved with other peoples educations and made a career of higher education outreach into low-income middle schools, high schools, and community colleges.
No, we can't leave any part of a child's success to his/her parents. We can do our best to involve them, but if the parents fail, then the child fails, and we in education fail. We're not allowed to fail.
Re:Students without broadband (Score:5, Informative)
Good luck in a lot of places finding a public library that's open when you'd need it to be. Public libraries are closing or cutting hours and services at an alarming rate.
One of the problems with educational reformers is that things that work on a small scale - only put in the best teachers, get parents involved, etc. can't always be replicated on a large scale. And they need to realize that. You can't have 100% excellent teachers. What's the current number - not even a third of the US population gets a 4-year college degree? Exactly how can we pay to have millions of brilliant teachers? Especially when teachers are under attack, there's pressure to drive pay down, etc. And a huge part of public school problems are actually societal problems. We've got drugs, crime, malnutrition, poverty, uninvolved/absent parents, lead poisoning, lousy school facilities and so forth. And the public schools can't cherry pick.
And at a time when standardized tests are being used to evaluate teachers and schools, the kids have no stake in the tests. And there's a ton of pressure (some of it based on the raft of IEPs given to students for all sorts of reasons - some legit, some ridiculous) to grade kids based on effort and not outcome. You want to make adjustments for kids with issues? Provide both absolute and adjusted grades.
And the cost to support students with learning or behavioral problems is high. It's not unheard of now to have a classroom with three or four kids with individual aides, plus there's an assistant teacher to deal with kids who have less-stringent IEPs, plus the lead teacher. Unless, of course, you teach art, music, industrial arts, etc. Then, the aides get that as a break period. So you've got 25 kids in the room - a bunch of whom get aides in other classes and some for behavioral reasons - with no help. And you received no training in how to deal with those students as part of your education.
Re:Uh, What About Research-Based Methods? (Score:2, Informative)
But I thought that was the point, kids really aren't learning that much with the lecture. The lecture just sets up the subject matter. They get the help when doing the problems, in class, with the teacher available for assistance. That is when the learning occurs.