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Khan Academy: Computer Science

khanacademy.org

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Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#51

Post by sequoia »

zerostar07 wrote: post #49
frewsxcv wrote: post #45

For the record, Khan Academy is going to eventually scrap all the Python videos. John Resig, creator of jQuery, is going to redo all the videos narrated by him and with the code written in JavaScript.

JS doesn't sound like a wise choice to me.

Yeah that's slightly disconcerting. I'm not a compsci expert, I know enough scripting to get by as a full-time web developer, but javascript seems like it has a lot of hard-to-grasp idioms that would be hell for a beginner. I've read The Good Parts and I still don't totally understand the intricacies of prototypal inheritance. :p

I'd say stick with something a bit simpler, especially given that it's Khan Academy, not Stanford, so it's likely to attract far more casual lay-users who just want to know "a little bit about programming." The casual nature of the engagement means there is probably a very low threshold for quitting if the program is resulting in more confusion/frustration than "aha moments."

I think it's great they're doing it, tho! More people should learn "a little bit about programming."

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#52

Post by fredoliveira »

zerostar07 wrote: post #49
frewsxcv wrote: post #45

For the record, Khan Academy is going to eventually scrap all the Python videos. John Resig, creator of jQuery, is going to redo all the videos narrated by him and with the code written in JavaScript.

JS doesn't sound like a wise choice to me.

Interesting. Care to elaborate on why? Because it seems like a perfect fit.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#53

Post by kamens »

brador wrote: post #31
sosuke wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest to change that? I love Khan Academy as a learning tool for myself but I wouldn't have the first idea on what to do next with it.

Adaptive learning is the way forward. They've been planning it for ages and it's taking way too long to roll out fully. I'm gunning to compete with my own platform, but he's in as a non-profit which means a for-profit doesn't stand a chance, especially with the timescales the sector operates on. The only way to create something to compete and light that fire under their ass would be a "generous donation". I think I c…

FWIW, I am sitting at a desk in the Khan Academy offices and am suffering from severe burning due to all the fires people have lit...ok this joke is weird.

Not sure what you're using to judge "too long to roll out fully," but we're running pilots in tons of classrooms right now where students are using Khan Academy to move at their own pace. We have 1.75MM interactive problems done per school day. We're using our own data more and more (http://bjk5.com/post/10171483254/a-bingo-split-testing-now-o...) to make the process more adaptive and engaging to individual students, and we've added hundreds of interactive math exercises (along w/ tons of new features: http://bjk5.com/post/8826207372/khan-academy-internship-summ...) in way less than a year.

We're nowhere close to where we need to be, and the possibilities for adaptive learning with all of our data make us all salivate for more time. Regardless, I can definitively tell you that every day around here is energized like crazy. We don't lack the fire.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#54

Post by mahyarm »

sosuke wrote: post #23
mahyarm wrote: post #3

Pretty cool! He has to do discrete math / mathematical logic & foundations to fill out the 1st/2nd year of mathematics and most computer science math requirements next.

Does the mountain of other math videos and exercises on the site not already provide that? I'm pretty sure they cover enough. They cover through Calculus and maybe more. Which do you feel is missing?

No, it's missing that section, as I said.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#55

Post by cube13 »

jmlane wrote: post #18
cube13 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starting out programmers, I think it really doesn't matter which language that's used, as long as the language supports strong type safety, the ability to create data structures, and, ideally, also has garbage collection. Java, Python, and Ruby all work for this. In a perfect world, the language would also support C-style pointers, but GC is more important feature for a brand new programmer. Initially, the goal s…

I agree with your short list of goals for students new to programming. Language should not matter for learning the basics of programming and Computer Science concepts. That being said, certain languages do make exploratory programming much easier than others: The biggest issue I've faced with my courses where Java is used to teach the material is having to deal with Java IDEs and boilerplate code required to test tin…

>I agree with your short list of goals for students new to programming. Language should not matter for learning the basics of programming and Computer Science concepts. That being said, certain languages do make exploratory programming much easier than others:

Pretty much. What really needs to be taught is that programming languages are tools. There are pros and cons to every language, so the best language for the concepts being taught should be used. A student that's come out of a good CS curriculum won't be a great programmer immediately after graduating. However, they'll have all the tools that they need to learn how to become a great programmer.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#56

Post by Homunculiheaded »

sosuke wrote: post #23
mahyarm wrote: post #3

Pretty cool! He has to do discrete math / mathematical logic & foundations to fill out the 1st/2nd year of mathematics and most computer science math requirements next.

Does the mountain of other math videos and exercises on the site not already provide that? I'm pretty sure they cover enough. They cover through Calculus and maybe more. Which do you feel is missing?

Usually a basic discrete math course covers: naive set theory, formal logic, functions (khan covers under calc), relations, permutations and combinations (covered by khan),and graph theory. Additionally you'll usually do a lot of proofs with these since an understanding of how to do a proof is essential to being able to study algorithms. Calculus and the like are actually the dual of 'Discrete math', which could be referred to as 'Continuous math'

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#57

Post by thinkbohemian »

Does anyone know how you can become a video contributor to khan? I have several years of teaching experience, two of them with online learning models and have worked with the University of Texas. I've attempted to contact them and offer my free services, but haven't heard anything back. Not even a 'no thank you'.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#58

Post by jerf »

brador wrote: post #31
sosuke wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest to change that? I love Khan Academy as a learning tool for myself but I wouldn't have the first idea on what to do next with it.

Adaptive learning is the way forward. They've been planning it for ages and it's taking way too long to roll out fully. I'm gunning to compete with my own platform, but he's in as a non-profit which means a for-profit doesn't stand a chance, especially with the timescales the sector operates on. The only way to create something to compete and light that fire under their ass would be a "generous donation". I think I c…

First, patience.

Second, "he's in as a non-profit which means a for-profit doesn't stand a chance" is completely nonsensical. If that were true there would be no such thing as a for-profit. For one thing, at any sort of scale, the difference between a "non-profit" and "profit" can be as little as 10%, which is approximately the average profit made by Fortune 500 companies, within a percent or two.

Besides, I think that in the future of distributed, decoupled learning, there's room for many successful curricula. It will eventually be normal to get your history from X and math/physics from Y and English from Z, or even mix and match math modules. If you think you can compete, go for it.

Re: Khan Academy: Computer Science

#60

Post by stevelosh »

Kilimanjaro wrote: post #59

Personally, I don't like videos. So if I had $100M in my pocket I'd create transcripts of all lectures in KA and put them together in the greatest library online, sort of a modern bibliotheca alexandrina.

1. Go to a video.

2. Click subtitles.

3. Click the subtitle widget.

4. Click "subtitle homepage".

5. Hover over "download subtitles".

6. Click txt to download a plain-text transcript.

I'm pretty sure most of the Khan Academy videos have subtitles (at least English ones).

Disclaimer: I work for universalsubtitles.org, the site that handles all the Khan Academy subtitles.

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