According to Wikipedia,
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 2,600 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics and computer science. (Wikipedia 2011)
The Khan Academy got its start when Salman Khan began making tutoring videos for his relatives. He left the videos public and others began watching them. They became so popular that he quit his job to make videos full time and start the Khan Academy. He says that the reason for their success is that in a traditional classroom, you hear it once, and then move on. But with YouTube videos, you can watch them anytime, anywhere, and as many times as you need. If you have forgotten something from a previous lesson, no problem, just go rewatch the video.
Here's a video from TED 2011 of Khan giving a talk about the academy and his vision for education.
The process is pretty simple. Students watch a video on a subject they are going to learn. Then they take a test over the material. They are not allowed to move to the next lesson until they have obtained mastery. That's getting ten questions correct. If they get a question wrong the software models the process to them. Teachers can chart their success and intercede where necessary or send a student to help their peer. Khan's theory that he states in the video is that if you move on before you have attained mastery then you are left with gaps in your knowledge. These gaps will haunt you later on in your education.
He mentioned "flipping the classroom" several times in the video. Flipping the classroom is the idea that the students teach themselves and the teacher is more of a guide. This method was mentioned in the book The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner. In his book, Wagner examines why students in the US seem so far behind the students in other countries. His theory was that the traditional lecture based classrooms aren't preparing students for the 21st century world. He maintained that one of the most important skills teachers need to impart to their students is critical thinking. This can easily be achieved by flipping the classroom. This model forces students to think critically and places the burden of learning on them. He examined schools such as High Tech High where they practice this method and found that the students are learning and are actually excited to go to school.
The great thing about the Khan Academy is that they've made their videos available to everyone for free. So any teacher, anywhere, is free to use them in his or her classroom. I feel this completely embraces the idea of Web 2.0 and could be a great boon to classroom teachers and especially home schooled students.
Khan Academy. In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy
Wagner, T. (2010). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do. Basic Books. Kindle Edition
YouTube (2011). Finding Salman Khan talk at TED 2011. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk
These videos sound like a great supplement to use in your classroom. I would be interested in seeing how successful these videos really are.
ReplyDeleteModels of education are moving from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered. Even in the traditional public school classroom. Revolutions in education are calling for more emphasis on differentiation as the primary task of the teacher, even as “students are coming to school with a greater diversity of needs and assets, requiring teachers to personalize learning at the same time that economic factors are driving class sizes higher and constraining the resources available to help teachers reach each student. Advances in technology and pedagogy have given teachers more tools to manage these challenges and students more ways to access knowledge" (Coggshall, Behrstock-Sherratt, & Drill, 2011). The role of the teacher evolves as the role of technology does. One thing has not changed—educators must strive to reach each student. Pupils connect with their instructor through relationship, with the content through rigor, and with their own learning through relevance. Technology integration is a powerful tool for increasing all three connections.
ReplyDeleteCoggshall, J., Behrstock-Sherratt, E., & Drill, K. (April 2011). Workplaces that support
high-performing teaching and learning. Washington, DC: American Federation of
Teachers.