I watch Khan Academy videos because they explain topics like mathematics in an easy-to-understand way. But it's just one tool in a student's arsenal. Khan Academy is by no means the one-stop-shop for education and should not stop learners from inquiring, constructing, expressing, and communicating as part of their learning journey. I hoped that the author would at least make that distinction a bit more in their article because it seemed a little unnecessarily critical. I _think_ the article makes the assumption that most students are just passively watching videos and _are_ using Khan Academy as the one-stop-shop and that the site (and Khan) are missing out on an opportunity to provide a better experience that is more in line with John Dewey's principles of learning.
Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
111–120 of 126 posts
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#112Overall, I do agree with the thesis but: > Now… how does Sal Khan want my kid to learn? > Watch a video. I find this a little uncharitable. I learned a lot of math at a young age from Sal Khan's early videos (back when he used to erase by switching to a black pen and scribbling across the entire screen) and, to put it in the author's terms, it served as an easy-to-digest scaffolding on top of which to build a deeper…
The attacks on Khan here personally irked me. I grew up in a small rural town where math teachers were rare and good ones were nonexistent. I still remember watching Sal Khan's videos on calculus after struggling to get any grip on it from my frustratingly uninterested teacher who was forced into the position after our actual teacher retired. After I saw them I came back with a fire in me because for the first time h…
> "Sometimes all students need is to see what caring looks like to ignite it in themselves."
Excellent point, well expressed.
(Also, IMHO the sarcasm in your final sentence detracts from your comment.)
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I very much agree and it saddens me often when I see folks dial it up to 1.5x or 2x "because it is boring otherwise". They might think they just get as much, only in half the time, but I'd hypothesize that they retain less because the mind needs some time to digest. Similar with the trend to auto-cut pauses that speakers make, just to cram in more text into a youtube video. Destroys not just the pacing but any chance…
When I’m understimulated by a teacher, my mind wanders. I’ll start thinking about something else entirely. When my mind comes back, I’ll have missed a couple minutes of content. I can overcome this with willpower, but doing so is exhausting. Playing videos at 1.5-2x fixes the problem entirely. My attention is held without any effort. If a concept is new or difficult enough, I just slow the video back down or pause it…
> When I’m understimulated by a teacher, my mind wanders.
A good solution to this is to train focus. By giving in to the dopanine craving you are depriving your mind of the space it needs to process.
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
I very much agree and it saddens me often when I see folks dial it up to 1.5x or 2x "because it is boring otherwise". They might think they just get as much, only in half the time, but I'd hypothesize that they retain less because the mind needs some time to digest. Similar with the trend to auto-cut pauses that speakers make, just to cram in more text into a youtube video. Destroys not just the pacing but any chance…
I'd argue (as the article does), that you don't 'really' learn from watching stuff, fast or slow, but from actually working with and doing. This is completely obvious in the physical domain. You could take a ten year course on the basketball free throw and watch a billion hours of video on it, but then when you get on the court and actually do it - you're going to shoot pretty much like somebody who's never shot befo…
Indeed, well put.
It is a spectrum. If you give your mind some space, it will start churning through the key ideas, fill in gaps, turn things upside down, ask questions. That starts during the explanations and their pauses. And ideally you have some empty time right after to think about it, maybe do an exercise, maybe try to explain it to somebody. Work it, like a good dough.
2x listening suffocates this process. Like too little sugar or too low temperature or too little rest for your yeast dough. It might "feel" good but you are missing out so much...
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I very much agree and it saddens me often when I see folks dial it up to 1.5x or 2x "because it is boring otherwise". They might think they just get as much, only in half the time, but I'd hypothesize that they retain less because the mind needs some time to digest. Similar with the trend to auto-cut pauses that speakers make, just to cram in more text into a youtube video. Destroys not just the pacing but any chance…
I don't think you can make blanket statements. Consider: 1. Teacher 1 speaks at 100 words per minute. 2. Teacher 2 speaks at 50 words per minute, for the exact same content as Teacher 1. You're not really losing anything by playing Teacher 1 at normal speed vs Teacher 2 at 2x speed. For every learner, there will be an optimal teaching speed for a given topic. This may mean listening to some audio at normal speed, som…
Those two teachers will rarely say the same words. Chances are, teacher 2 chooses their words more carefully, and gives you then space to absorb that higher information density. In the end, both may communicate the same amount of information.
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I very much agree and it saddens me often when I see folks dial it up to 1.5x or 2x "because it is boring otherwise". They might think they just get as much, only in half the time, but I'd hypothesize that they retain less because the mind needs some time to digest. Similar with the trend to auto-cut pauses that speakers make, just to cram in more text into a youtube video. Destroys not just the pacing but any chance…
I think there was a study omparing watching an educational video in 1x speed and watching it two times back to back in 2x speed equating the time spent on the material, which found the second group faired better.
Interesting, I'd like to read that study.
Though it's not the question I asked. Would the second group fair somewhere close to the first if it only had listened once?
(I don't buy the argument that this would not be fair since they would use the extea time to watch more stuff ... because that's rarely what people do with their extra time. Especially not watching the same thing again.)
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I originally learned linear algebra from Gilbert Strang's OCW videos, and I was only able to stick with them by 2x'ing the playback rate; at this point, hearing Strang at his normal speaking rate sounds to me like hearing him after a Robitussin bender.
I wish YouTube let you increase the speed of videos past 2x. I play almost everything at 2x now, and I have no problem comprehending videos at that speed. I’d like to try 2.5x or 3x but the ui doesn’t have that option.
I think youtube premium lets you hit up to 4x
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree that it is unfair and perhaps even unnecessary to focus solely on Khan here. But I think it must be acknowledged he has caused (intentionally or not) a ton of damage to the state of education. He sparked a movement of “innovation” and “disruption” that managed to push a lot of unproven teaching methods that ran against standard pedagogy which made a lot of entrepreneurs a lot of money. I don‘t think Khan is s…
These platform exists because traditional methods are failing students in education. Some of them are scam but blaming it on Khan is BS.
Traditional methods are failing because of austerity and capitalism. Pedagogy is a science which has expert studying these things. And most teachers are well aware of the science and know what works. Stuff like instant feedback has been known to work better since behavioralism in the 1950s. Problem is that whenever these solutions are applied they are used to cut corners and make education cheaper, resulting in a net loss. This is a problem of austerity.
Note that I was explicitly not blaming this on Khan, I was merely stating that he is the face if this movement and as such will get a lot of the blame, regardless of how much he deserves it.
My personal feelings about him is that he is actually an excellent teacher, and has independently discovered what pedagogical scientists have known for decades. He however allowed his discoveries to be packaged as a neat capitalist solution, and then has watched as his “discoveries” were used to excuse austerity (and made a bunch of money doing so). At best he is naive, and at worst he is an active participant. Either way he deserves at least some of the blame (though personally, I would rather blame the system, and point to him as being a part of it)
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#119Education is a very difficult problem. People like to learn and people want to learn. Mostly improve themselves over their friends and society, and they want to do it quickly and easily. This proven by the countless influencer videos and influencer culture present in youtube on topics such as finance, health and many others.
However, true education is really hard. It requires hard work, sticking with something beyond when it gets boring and difficult. Being stubborn to get it right. These qualities are not very common and instilling this is extremely difficult from outside.
What author is asking is, he wants Khan Academy to be a true education platform , while dismissing it was video platform. He is wrong in both counts.
Khan Academy is a gateway for a student to draw the map or scaffold as the initial phase. The start of the education happens when the student works on the exercises, and tries it again and again to get it right. They are driven by the mastery based education which they try to ask the student to do.
A good general article on education, but weirdly wrong when it comes taking a dig at khan academy platform. And w.r.t to AI use in Education, students who know how to use AI are using it exceeding well for their true education.
Re: Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
A couple of days ago it was Ghandi instead of Gandhi. I understand it's not a big deal. But it's also not a big deal to get the spelling right.
I think it's because these "h"es are silent in (most?) dialects of English, so both spellings would result in the same pronunciation. English doesn't really have a 'kh" /x/ sound, or an unaspirated k, or an "ahn", or a "dh" sound. So Kahn and Khan both get read as /kan/, Gandhi and Ghandi both get read as /gandi/. If anything the "h" just seems to hint that the vowel isn't pronounced /æ/. So folks remember that there…
I’m preferring to the spelling; not pronunciation.