Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school • Hacker News Board

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#101

Post by Claude_Shannon » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:20 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #36

vincentmarle wrote: post #2

The concept of an online high school may sound terrible, but sooner or later it’s bound to happen: quality education will keep consolidating until there’s one super school left. Outlier is doing the same thing but on the college level: why deal with a mediocre local math teacher if you can get taught by the best?

> why deal with a mediocre local math teacher if you can get taught by the best? Because…you actually can’t. Static media (like books and non-interactive lectures) scales easily, but that’s not teaching (even if, especially in large lower-division courses, that’s what university faculty essentially does.) Human interactivity, which is what teaching fundamentally is, doesn’t scale, which is why those large lecture cla…

But you don't learn by by attending lectures. You pick up book and you do all the exercises, no need for teachers.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#102

Post by trompetenaccoun » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:23 AM UTC

barry-cotter wrote: post #14

Arnavion wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may accept students from around the world, but whether it counts as a high school for the purpose of continuing on to higher education is country-specific, which (I assume) is why 2Gkashmiri asked what they did. Also, based on the About Us page, the requirements for submitting an application are quite US-centric ("Student must be proficient in Algebra 1", etc). I did not try to fill out an actual application to…

> Tuition for all students does include the opportunity to take two university courses per semester and earn college credit. Even the most irritatingly bureaucracy obsessed box ticking country, i.e. Germany, would accept a transcript with two college courses per semester as a university preparatory high school.

In Germany there's mandatory schooling meaning the students have to visit a school in person. Online learning or home schooling is illegal for those students.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/27/german-home-sc...

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#103

Post by abrax3141 » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:27 AM UTC

A lot of the problem is that Kahn is just not a great teacher, but he sets the tone for the whole thing. So instead of being a platform that amplifies great teaching, it amplifies mediocre teaching. It’s a leadership problem where the leader doesn’t realize that he’s not the best in the world, but instead of using his pulpit to reach out and amplify the best in the world, he just amplifies himself.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#104

Post by huitzitziltzin » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:32 AM UTC

Very favorable comments all around from the very online crowd who comments here. I’m much more skeptical.

I have no doubt this will work well for some students, but as someone who taught online for the better part of two years I can say with certainty that the experience is very different and (for the wide majority of students) worse than being in person.

My colleagues and I can attest to both general learning loss (ie., forgetting specific subject matter information) and a loss of broader “studying skills” (ie., coming to class and doing homework) after the pandemic.

In intro classes in our department, mean grades have been a whole standard deviation lower than the long run pre-pandemic average. That’s a huge effect!

This is also not just specific to our department or university but has been written about widely in the higher ed press.

People have been confidently predicting that online education “is the future” since the 1990’s. IMO the lesson of the pandemic is “no it’s not and it’s never going to be.”

If online works for you, awesome. Enjoy! There are great resources out there. But I don’t think you are in the majority.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#105

Post by bsenftner » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:33 AM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #87

umangrathi wrote: post #35

I am looking forward to the day, when quality formal education is available online to all which you may complete at your own pace instead of going with a strict semester and class system. Also, along with offline schools for supporting social learning and helping classes which require offline components like labs, in person support classes, interest based study groups etc.

Unless we automate teachers in the near future, I wouldn't hold my breath. Educational content on the internet is paradigm-changing, don't get me wrong: with access to the internet you can access a virtually unlimited set of learning materials: high-quality encyclopedias, books in the public domain, (books outside the public domain if you're willing to pirate), endless videos on virtually any language, any musical in…

We can't automate teachers, in any effective manner. To teach requires an empathetic comprehension of the student's misunderstanding. That right there requirements an AI goal so far a head of our current capabilities, it may as well be called impossible. Modern AI has no capacity whatsoever for comprehension, and that is about as big a failure as something called an artificial intelligence can fail.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#106

Post by jcalabro » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:34 AM UTC

abrax3141 wrote: post #103

A lot of the problem is that Kahn is just not a great teacher, but he sets the tone for the whole thing. So instead of being a platform that amplifies great teaching, it amplifies mediocre teaching. It’s a leadership problem where the leader doesn’t realize that he’s not the best in the world, but instead of using his pulpit to reach out and amplify the best in the world, he just amplifies himself.

I actually disagree with this; when I was in high school, some of his very early videos where he was speaking and digitally drawing helped me quite a bit with calculus. I'm not sure he makes any claims to be the best teacher in the world, but he does try to push the state of the art.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#107

Post by password54321 » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:35 AM UTC

andrewinardeer wrote: post #46

DocTomoe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we all know the best way to learn about how to deal with people is putting them in a group of incompatible people in a high-stress, prison-like environment. What could possibly go wrong? As long as high schools are facilities that push some people to extreme actions I think the 'social education' you would get there is too expensive for society as a whole.

I find that your first paragraph is very negative and has an insular posture. Dealing and managing with other people who are incompatible with your ethics and morality is an important skill to learn. Not only does it help you learn asseriveness and diplomacy it also allows one to gain an insight into your own personal bias and teaches you how to respond and not react. A lot of grown, so called 'adults' still need to…

In a perfect world that's what school teaches you. What gets you through high school in a lot of social circumstances is nothing close to any sort of diplomatic behaviour or assertiveness. The louder more aggressive person usually came out on top. Maybe a lot of people here went to some private school where somehow logic, analytical ability and being polite is what got you through but that certainly doesn't describe where I went and can't imagine a public school being this way.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#108

Post by MrBlueIncognito » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:38 AM UTC

agent008t wrote: post #73

Kosirich wrote: post #21

In my mind a "better high school of tomorrow" would be the one that utilizes the best available classes and material available online in a physical class room environment, except for classes that are unique to the national curriculum. So a school would have people employed in some new role of mentor/teacher with whom you take the classes online with help and guidance. What would be the stoppers from implementation of…

I think a competitive, decentralized system is the way to go. Basically, you would have independently set and assessed requirements. In the case of universities, it would be admission requirements, that the universities set and independently assess. Students, that want to get to these universities, then use any resource available to them to learn to those requirements. This could be through a mix of online and offlin…

> Schools should also do all they can to emphasize academics and de-emphasize sports, to counter-balance the natural tendencies of teenagers.

You are over-generalizing. This “natural tendency” does not apply to good portion of teenagers, they are all very different.

More importantly, if they show an inclination towards sports, then why must we nudge them away from that? Is there something fundamentally wrong about teenagers engaging in sports?

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#109

Post by ekanes » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:41 AM UTC

huitzitziltzin wrote: post #104

Very favorable comments all around from the very online crowd who comments here. I’m much more skeptical. I have no doubt this will work well for some students, but as someone who taught online for the better part of two years I can say with certainty that the experience is very different and (for the wide majority of students) worse than being in person. My colleagues and I can attest to both general learning loss (…

> My colleagues and I can attest to both general learning loss (ie., forgetting specific subject matter information) and a loss of broader “studying skills” (ie., coming to class and doing homework) after the pandemic.

No disagreement that grades are lower, but is it possible we are in some ways measuring the wrong things?

In a modern age, “remembering information” or “doing homework” don’t seem so applicable to the future.

Being in person can be important, but it’s for mostly social reasons, not the ones you stated.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#110

Post by PretzelPirate » Wed, Apr 27, 2022, 11:42 AM UTC

huitzitziltzin wrote: post #104

Very favorable comments all around from the very online crowd who comments here. I’m much more skeptical. I have no doubt this will work well for some students, but as someone who taught online for the better part of two years I can say with certainty that the experience is very different and (for the wide majority of students) worse than being in person. My colleagues and I can attest to both general learning loss (…

We’re researchers able to separate the negative effects on children of online learning from the negative effects from other causes such as global panic and uncertainty, the inability to see friends, etc…?