How Education Is Changing Thanks To Khan Academy

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.'"

KHAN!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

KHAN!!!

we still need to get rid of tech the test maybe te

[Joe_Dragon]

we still need to get rid of tech the test maybe also get rid of the some of the tests as well or make them more hands on.

In college and some cert tests it's so bad that you can cram for the test and pass but have no idea about how to use, setup, run the stuff covered in the course and at the same time you can have some know knows the course, stuff in a cert really well but sucks at testing and fails the test.

Re:No computer/Internet?

[deniable]

Yet another way for 'that kid' to get marginalised in school. I also wonder why we're teaching them to take work home. Does anyone else think homework is a problem?

School bus

[tepples]

Apparently some countries use terms cognate to "college" to mean secondary education, or what U.S. residents call "high school". Where I went to high school, after the final bell, students had five minutes to board the school bus. If a student chooses to stay late to spend time in the library, how is such a student expected to get home?

Re:Salman Khan suggested it...

[PhrostyMcByte]

Pretty much, all according to plan.

I can't help being jealous of these kids -- I imagine like many people here, being able to learn exactly at my own pace would have done a lot to keep me engaged in school.

I hope this catches on with public schools. It may be one of the most important shifts in education since... well, ever. Finally, technology in the classroom means something.

Re:School bus

[peragrin]

on the late bus? Seriously I used it all the time to get home. it was the bus that dropped off sports teams, after school detention students, and students doing after school projects(class president, various clubs, etc)

It ran something like 2-3 hours later. I liked those days, as I would do my after school project then my homework and leave all my stuff in my locker for the next day. I wouldn't have to carry much home.

Uh, What About Research-Based Methods?

[bgoffe]

It is great to see this interest in learning, but too bad that methods that careful research have shown to increase learning haven't received the same publicity (my understanding is that research based on the Khan Academy has yet to come out). I have in mind: Improved Learning in a Large Enrollment Physics Class," [cwsei.ubc.ca] Deslauriers, Schelew, and Wieman, Science, May, 2011 (a postdoc and grad student, using research based methods, get 2 standard deviations more learning in a physics class than an experienced prof with high student evaluations who lectured). . Note that Wieman is a both a Nobel Laureate and a U.S. Professor of the Year (given for teaching). Another article is Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses, [mit.edu] which again shows a 2-standard deviation increase in learning by not lecturing.

There is even evidence that watching Khan videos leads to a false sense of learning. See Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos" [wordpress.com] It basically shows that while students think they're learning a lot by watching videos, their actual learning is minimal.

A great into to all this is Wieman's Why Not Try a Scientific Approach to Science Education?" [cwsei.ubc.ca] As he puts it, to increase learning, we need to use

• Practices and conclusions based on objective data rather than—as is frequently the case in education—anecdote or tradition. This includes using the results of prior research, such as work on how people learn.
• Disseminating results in a scholarly manner and copying and building upon what works. Too often in education, particularly at the postsecondary level, everything is reinvented, often in a highly flawed form, every time a different instructor teaches a course. (I call this problem “reinventing the square wheel.”)
• Fully utilizing modern technology. Just as we are always looking for ways to use technology to advance scientific research, we need to do the same in education.

At best, Khan Academy only does the third of these.

not the acid test

[Anonymous Coward]

Only white and oriental kids in TFA.
Arguably the two groups that uptake instructions fastest.
How this goes down with blacks, hispanics, ... is the real test.

Re:I agree

[Miseph]

Very few things really are, we're just prone to hyperbole regarding the minor hiccups we encounter.