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Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

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Re: Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

#41

Post by StrawberryFrog »

nvarsj wrote: post #28
solipsist wrote: post #5

I haven't exactly been as amazed by the Khan Academy as everyone else has. After watching a few videos, I decided that we need to focus more on the material that we are teaching - rather than the methods we go about doing it. They will obviously go hand by hand, but in my opinion the material that we are teaching is our biggest weakness and therefore needs the most reform. A video that everyone should take the time t…

"do you need to learn how the engine of a car works before you can drive it?" No, but you'd be a much better driver if you did. Understanding the basics of a science, especially math, is extremely important to fully grasp the higher level topics. I don't believe one can conceptually understand a topic without understanding the fundamentals that it builds upon. Unfortunately I see philosophies as you describe in my lo…

No, but you'd be a much better driver if you did.

And I think that the time is better spent learning to drive. That's just an unfounded opinion, but at least I can see it as such. Do you have any evidence that understanding engines makes drivers "much better"?

Re: Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

#44

Post by elai »

dwc wrote: post #16

As an autodidact interested in exploring more mathematics, of course I learned about Khan Academy. One look and I was impressed, but that didn't last long. Though the videos are well done all around, there's no clear curriculum to follow. Or if there is a curriculum, it's not obvious. Instead, I have a bazillion videos to choose from. Which videos depend on knowledge in other videos, and which ones can be done in par…

Khan tends to follow one textbook from front to back while he goes through the videos in a linear order. The order that khan has his videos listed is the order your supposed to follow in a traditional course. They're small enough so you can go back and brush up on one topic or the next. Each subject topic is one full course, or one that is split into several (like calculus 1, 2 and 3). He has computerized tests for a small amount of topics, and he fills out more and more courses as time goes on. Khan academy is a work in progress.

Re: Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

#46

Post by aik »

kamens wrote: post #31
kiba wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about exercises with game mechanics? I think Khan Academy is becoming a whole system of learning rather than just a very large library of free instruction videos.

Bingo. Dismissing Khan Academy because it's currently mostly known for videos is just as dangerous as dismissing any tiny HN startup that's focusing on a core idea and, once lessons are learned, iterating from there. We're not arrogant enough to think we'll start out by building a generic AI solution to education. We do know that we have a) a lot of video content that students are constantly watching, b) dynamically…

Could you expand on what the in-school pilot programs are? In what way are the encouraging? What types of schools are you piloting in? Public?

I haven't yet seen much effective use of technology in the learning environment that touches anything but the periphery of the formal educational experience. I'd be excited to hear about something better going on!

Re: Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

#47

Post by palish »

solipsist wrote: post #5

I haven't exactly been as amazed by the Khan Academy as everyone else has. After watching a few videos, I decided that we need to focus more on the material that we are teaching - rather than the methods we go about doing it. They will obviously go hand by hand, but in my opinion the material that we are teaching is our biggest weakness and therefore needs the most reform. A video that everyone should take the time t…

K-12 isn't generally about learning. It is a daycare for children and young adults.

(I am 23 now. I left school when I was 17 to pursue a career in the gamedev industry. Daycare was not the place for me, and I haven't regretted dropping out.)

Re: Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

#48

Post by kamens »

aik wrote: post #46
kamens wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. Dismissing Khan Academy because it's currently mostly known for videos is just as dangerous as dismissing any tiny HN startup that's focusing on a core idea and, once lessons are learned, iterating from there. We're not arrogant enough to think we'll start out by building a generic AI solution to education. We do know that we have a) a lot of video content that students are constantly watching, b) dynamically…

Could you expand on what the in-school pilot programs are? In what way are the encouraging? What types of schools are you piloting in? Public? I haven't yet seen much effective use of technology in the learning environment that touches anything but the periphery of the formal educational experience. I'd be excited to hear about something better going on!

Brief summary: Los Altos school district, 5th and 8th grade classes using KA as the primary tool for math curriculum, being compared to other 5th and 8th grade classes in the same school district (those not using KA). Lots of freedom given to teachers to experiment w/ various KA use. Sal, Shantanu, Jason, and I have been regularly visiting classes to watch students and teachers use KA. Feedback has been invaluable.

Much more in various posts of mine (http://bjk5.com/post/2071068737/khan-academy-in-the-classroo...), and more importantly, you can read direct feedback from teachers and students on their Khan Academy blog: http://lasdandkhanacademy.edublogs.org/

...obviously, many more observations will be published when the pilot is done.

Re: Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

#49

Post by cwb »

kamens wrote: post #26
dwc wrote: post #16

As an autodidact interested in exploring more mathematics, of course I learned about Khan Academy. One look and I was impressed, but that didn't last long. Though the videos are well done all around, there's no clear curriculum to follow. Or if there is a curriculum, it's not obvious. Instead, I have a bazillion videos to choose from. Which videos depend on knowledge in other videos, and which ones can be done in par…

Completely agreed (on Khan Academy team). If you check out the video from that article ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw5k98GV7po ), you'll see a lot of the strides we're making in the areas of individual assessment (mathematics only at the moment), guidance (full breakdown of hints for every problem we dynamically generate), alternate explanations where comprehension lacks (list of all relevant videos next to ever…

Indeed. Video lectures can be helpful -- in particular for mechanics and manipulation -- but no reason to be overly excited (there was great hope for educational use of TV in its early days, unless I'm mistaken). A good book is usually more effective/efficient if you have patience to actually study it.

What few people seem to get is that we don't need to fix education, we need to fix learning. And for that, we need exercises (as any mathematician would tell you; also see deliberate practice). It turns out digital exercises afford a range of interesting opportunities (both the video and article highlight several) for making learning more effective.

Interfaces can change relatively easily so there'll be a bunch of experiments. The exercise model is harder. And more interesting. (I've been trying to figure that out for a while now and discovered a bunch of local minima.) I'm very curious to see how this exercise model works out -- it seems promising from what I can tell.

Regardless of how this works out (not to say I think it won't), this development will raise the bar and the expectations -- both of which has been too low for too long. That is incredibly valuable.

Re: Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education

#50

Post by psykotic »

solipsist wrote: post #20
psykotic wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we're talking past each other. Could you explain your goals with this curriculum? Are you trying to reduce the teaching of mathematics to a bare minimum so people can get on with what you see as more essential subjects? My stance is that mathematics is first of all useful in the small for normal people. Everyday arithmetic, basic accounting, that sort of thing. But beyond that we need to teach mathematics for t…

One of my goals with this curriculum is to make teaching mathematic more efficient. This does not necessarily mean teaching a bare minimum. Rather, students should be taught a great amount more at a younger age. In fact, I think mathematics is probably one of the most essential subjects out there. Unfortunately, the way it is taught now is inefficient and gives it a bad name. The rudimentary basics are important for…

By the time an ambitious student finishes high school, they will have learned some manipulations in linear algebra and calculus by rote but they won't have any real understanding. If they enter college and study some further mathematics, the first task of their professors will be to undo the damage.

We don't need to teach more, we need to teach better. We should not chase nominal accomplishments such as whether students have "covered" differential equations and discriminants by high school's end. There is already too much of that. The same is even more true for the foundational material taught in middle school. If you skate across the basics in an effort to cover more, earlier, you risk serious damage to the students' development in mathematics and science.

The problem all comes down to 10% curriculum and 90% teachers. Curriculum only seriously concerns me when it overconstrains good teachers and prevents them from doing their job.

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