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Open letter to Sal Khan

christopherdanielson.wordpress.com

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Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#51

Post by 1O0101ll100O »

ColinWright wrote: post #40
stiff wrote: post #27

This is the exact same kind of shit that got thrown at every person ever who successfully challenged a rusty status quo, especially when job security was at risk. Quoting the original piece in Washington Post: We have great respect for the stated goal of Khan Academy — “A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” Yet, we have some serious concerns about the quality of the instruction providing this education…

Look at it another way. You train for years. You spend more years, perhaps decades, working in a classroom. You read the research, you know just how hard it is to get kids to understand decimals. You work and work to find the right way for each child to understand this concept that trips up so many. Then someone else comes along, teaches it badly, and gets lauded for doing wonderful things. Well, it's true that KA is…

I know it is a hard pill to swallow that such a pedagogical luddite such as Sal Khan is having such a broad and important impact on learning when the professionals are struggling mightily.

Maybe, just maybe, he's on to something that despite years of institutional training 'real' teachers are missing.

Maybe it's important for a student to be able to interact with a lesson over and over again in order to catch a key point they might have missed the first pass.

Maybe it's important for a student to be able to ask other students how they caught on to something on their time scale and in a way that is pseudo-anonymous.

Maybe what makes Khan a great teacher is his breadth and depth of knowledge and context thanks to being a triple undergrad from MIT with backgrounds in math, computer science, and electrical engineering AND a Harvard MBA.

Maybe the institution of teaching is due for an evolutionary shake-up and Khanacademy is it[or at least a taste of things to come].

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#52

Post by mikeleeorg »

I think the problems many educators have with Sal Khan can be traced back to the media. And, perhaps, what Bill Gates said.

If Khan Academy were just some obscure YouTube channel with instructional videos, the OP wouldn't have wasted his time writing this letter. He would have just moved on and selected another source of instructional videos.

Did you know there are 60+ alternatives to Khan Academy? As well as several easy ways to record your own Khan Academy-style videos? Alternatives abound.

Unfortunately, most aren't aware of these alternatives. The media has, for better or worse, made Khan Academy seem like the de facto choice. And therein lies the real source of the criticism KA has faced, in my opinion.

You know what will be really cool? When someone creates a really good rating, review, and curation service of instructional videos. (I've heard from a few who've said they are working on this already, BTW. So hopefully it's coming soon!)

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#53

Post by stiff »

ColinWright wrote: post #40
stiff wrote: post #27

This is the exact same kind of shit that got thrown at every person ever who successfully challenged a rusty status quo, especially when job security was at risk. Quoting the original piece in Washington Post: We have great respect for the stated goal of Khan Academy — “A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” Yet, we have some serious concerns about the quality of the instruction providing this education…

Look at it another way. You train for years. You spend more years, perhaps decades, working in a classroom. You read the research, you know just how hard it is to get kids to understand decimals. You work and work to find the right way for each child to understand this concept that trips up so many. Then someone else comes along, teaches it badly, and gets lauded for doing wonderful things. Well, it's true that KA is…

There is plenty to be criticized about KA, but this has politics written all over it, if the above Freudian slip doesn't convince you, consider the following bits:

Behind paywall, but someone at Khan Academy is an NCTM member, right? Right? If not, shoot me a note. We’ll get a copy to you.

Or from the other article:

Khan could tap into any number of existing networks of exemplary teaching, perhaps from recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching or the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. He could seek these teachers’ advice and collaboration on issues large and small.

Meaning, they are not interested in contributing in any way, but they are feeling pity he did not ask for their permission before starting KA.

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#54

Post by miweiss »

I really respect what Sal Khan is doing. I think his methodology for creating videos and exercises great because of how adaptable his process is, and how he gets creators who have real teaching experience to create the content.

That being said, it makes me a little happy inside that the company I work for addresses the specific criticism in the article, although it doesn't go to the lengths that Khan Academy does in terms of video and more interactive exercises:

http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-5/compare-decimal-numbers

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#55

Post by why-el »

MikeCapone wrote: post #39
stiff wrote: post #27

This is the exact same kind of shit that got thrown at every person ever who successfully challenged a rusty status quo, especially when job security was at risk. Quoting the original piece in Washington Post: We have great respect for the stated goal of Khan Academy — “A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” Yet, we have some serious concerns about the quality of the instruction providing this education…

This. From what I know, teaching is broken in the U.S. (and probably in many other places), and the way incentives and the balance of power is set up, what matters for most decisions on how things work is what is best for teachers, not what is best for students (the documentary Waiting for Superman shows a lot of this). So it's not surprising to see teachers fighting back and trying to discredit KA, because success f…

This reminded me of a quote by Joe Armstrong, creator of the Erlang language. He said, referring to language design in general: "What you get right, nobody mentions it; What you get wrong, people bitch about."

Though I think the original author is making a valid point here, don't get me wrong, and Khan should address the issue.

[1]http://joearms.github.io/2013/05/31/a-week-with-elixir.html

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#56

Post by foobarbazqux »

stiff wrote: post #53
ColinWright wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at it another way. You train for years. You spend more years, perhaps decades, working in a classroom. You read the research, you know just how hard it is to get kids to understand decimals. You work and work to find the right way for each child to understand this concept that trips up so many. Then someone else comes along, teaches it badly, and gets lauded for doing wonderful things. Well, it's true that KA is…

There is plenty to be criticized about KA, but this has politics written all over it, if the above Freudian slip doesn't convince you, consider the following bits: Behind paywall, but someone at Khan Academy is an NCTM member, right? Right? If not, shoot me a note. We’ll get a copy to you. Or from the other article: Khan could tap into any number of existing networks of exemplary teaching, perhaps from recipients of…

What is the Freudian slip you are talking about? Do you mean the "if we were supervising" bit? A Freudian slip is a misspoken word that reveals unconscious intentions, often with a sexual implication. For example, you're sitting with someone who's eating a muffin and you ask, "Can I have a bite of your mother?"

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#57

Post by resu_nimda »

ScottBurson wrote: post #48
MikeCapone wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. From what I know, teaching is broken in the U.S. (and probably in many other places), and the way incentives and the balance of power is set up, what matters for most decisions on how things work is what is best for teachers, not what is best for students (the documentary Waiting for Superman shows a lot of this). So it's not surprising to see teachers fighting back and trying to discredit KA, because success f…

I am thrilled that KA exists. I have read Khan's book and recommended it to others. I don't see anything in this post about "discrediting" KA. I think the author is making a completely valid point and I hope that KA addresses it soon.

> What we see in these two girls’ thinking is precisely the problem you set out to solve with Khan Academy. But you aren’t solving the problem, Mr. Khan. You are perpetuating it.

> Mr. Khan, you have a team of teacher advisors. If none of them can identify these gaps for you, you need to ask for help from the larger community (and then to reexamine your hiring practices).

> Or you could educate yourself (as we require of all licensed teachers) on what is known about how people learn mathematics.

Which of these contributed to his point? The whole thing is just entirely unnecessarily snide and personal. He has a simple and straightforward point that could have been explained in a concise and conciliatory manner, but he chose to use it as a platform to grind an axe. Also the "open letter to Sal Khan" title is confrontational linkbait. This is just not constructive.

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#58

Post by geonz »

stiff wrote: post #27

This is the exact same kind of shit that got thrown at every person ever who successfully challenged a rusty status quo, especially when job security was at risk. Quoting the original piece in Washington Post: We have great respect for the stated goal of Khan Academy — “A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” Yet, we have some serious concerns about the quality of the instruction providing this education…

Khan Academy is putting out really flawed videos and spending millions and millions on 'em. Think VHS / Beta...

Guess what -- this is not a letter to you -- it's to the Khan Academy.

It's questioning its quality. Since you obviously can't address the well-grounded claim that it is very poor quality, you have to find something else to bring up.

It's 'way easier to say "you're a poor loser' than to address the actual claims, isn't it? Much harder stunt.

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#59

Post by geonz »

stiff wrote: post #53
ColinWright wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at it another way. You train for years. You spend more years, perhaps decades, working in a classroom. You read the research, you know just how hard it is to get kids to understand decimals. You work and work to find the right way for each child to understand this concept that trips up so many. Then someone else comes along, teaches it badly, and gets lauded for doing wonderful things. Well, it's true that KA is…

There is plenty to be criticized about KA, but this has politics written all over it, if the above Freudian slip doesn't convince you, consider the following bits: Behind paywall, but someone at Khan Academy is an NCTM member, right? Right? If not, shoot me a note. We’ll get a copy to you. Or from the other article: Khan could tap into any number of existing networks of exemplary teaching, perhaps from recipients of…

Where is the politics?

Maybe you can find some between the discussion of the pedagogy, because you obviously aren't comfortable with that.

Re: Open letter to Sal Khan

#60

Post by jpwagner »

IMHO, KA aims to solve the education-accessibility-gap and does not aim to academically discover the most ideal explanation (as the open letter writer seems to think).

As one KA person mentioned earlier, they're just following "Common Core math standards".

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