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The Dangerous Mr. Khan

nas.org

1–10 of 253 posts

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#3
I think the conventional "educators" are feeling threatened because concise education in tolerable chunks is looking more attractive than toiling in lectures and massive tomes for hours over minor details. The Internet age has destroyed verbose teaching finally.

Facts are important. Details are for the interested.

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#4
Okay, so the first part of this is nitpicking the obviously impossible task of summarising the history of the world (perhaps it was Khan's intention to simply get students interested in the subjects so that they could study them further), and then the second part verges on parody by putting together some poorly connected thoughts and trying to pass them off as an argument.

If this is representative of the type of person against the Khan Academy, I'm for it even more.

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#5
On the facts reported in the submitted article, I would have to suggest that Mr. Khan bring some expert historians (preferably of multiple cultural backgrounds and different nationalities) on board his project to produce the history videos. He could well devote his own time to producing more videos on more elementary levels of math, as elementary mathematics is still very poorly taught in much of the English-speaking world.

http://math.berkeley.edu/~wu/

ftp://math.stanford.edu/pub/papers/milgram/report-on-cmp.html

http://www.math.wisc.edu/~askey/ask-gian.pdf

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#6
So, their biggest problems with Khan are that he doesn't go into enough detail and that he doesn't pick sides in the wars?

Wow, that -is- dangerous. He might teach children to think for themselves or something!

As for the Skinner Box, the internet is anything but. Yes, you tend to only see things you want to, etc... But there is nothing stopping you from seeing other things, and most sites will step out of your comfort zone quite a lot.

They honestly believe that somehow Khan's videos could become the -only- resource for learning about history. Not a chance.

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#7
The comments thus far show exactly what is wrong with HN. HN has become an echo chamber where we all love certain people/companies/ideas and immediately dismiss any counter viewpoint.

Instead of immediately discrediting the linked article because they're "haters" or "threatened", try reading it and understanding their point of view. I love Khan's work and what he's doing, but at the same time the article raises some valid points. You learn a lot more by examining both sides of a story than being a fanboi.

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#8

So, their biggest problems with Khan are that he doesn't go into enough detail and that he doesn't pick sides in the wars? Wow, that -is- dangerous. He might teach children to think for themselves or something! As for the Skinner Box, the internet is anything but. Yes, you tend to only see things you want to, etc... But there is nothing stopping you from seeing other things, and most sites will step out of your comfo…

It's challenging to think for yourself when you don't have enough information to make reasoned decisions.

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#9

The comments thus far show exactly what is wrong with HN. HN has become an echo chamber where we all love certain people/companies/ideas and immediately dismiss any counter viewpoint. Instead of immediately discrediting the linked article because they're "haters" or "threatened", try reading it and understanding their point of view. I love Khan's work and what he's doing, but at the same time the article raises some…

I welcome opposing opinions but this itself doesn't present both sides of the argument, nor any context to the one example given, and sounds to me purely like a bashing exercise.

Re: The Dangerous Mr. Khan

#10
While this article does argue against Mr. Khan being the one and only teacher, it does not refute the effectiveness of his teaching.

This is exactly why every teacher should be delivering their course content in the same format as Khan. I am in the process of building a platform for any teacher to manage learning online in the same way that Khan has been so successful. I've been fortunate to be receive support on this transformation in education as recipient of the Thiel Fellowship: 20 Under 20. Visit http://ingenic.com to follow my progress.

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