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Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

asuprep.asu.edu

21–30 of 263 posts

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#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 this that are not bureaucracy and rent seeking by existing structures... or just pride?

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#22

This is just another paid MOOC, and it seems very expensive for students from outside AZ/the U.S.? I find it kinda disappointing that the Khan folks are getting involved in this kind of thing, as schools might now have reason to start distrusting their previously-successful model of just offering content and support to students and educators in a fair and non-discriminatory way.

Given the war on math happening in public school systems in multiple states, this is a fantastic antidote for anyone who can afford it.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#23
post #19

This is just another paid MOOC, and it seems very expensive for students from outside AZ/the U.S.? I find it kinda disappointing that the Khan folks are getting involved in this kind of thing, as schools might now have reason to start distrusting their previously-successful model of just offering content and support to students and educators in a fair and non-discriminatory way.

> I find it kinda disappointing Khan Academy is still free, but it looks like Khan World School has actual humans. > Much of the learning and assessment happens through in-depth discussion with teachers, peers and industry experts. https://asuprep.asu.edu/khan-world-school/academics/

> Khan Academy is still free, but it looks like Khan World School has actual humans.

Yes, but there are real questions of self-imposed incentives and broader optics. What will the Khan folks actually be focusing on going forward? Will they be trying to pivot their Khan Academy offering into a "freebie" funnel, steering their students towards this paid-for MOOC? I'm not saying that this is going to happen, I'm just saying that many schools, educators etc. might naturally worry that it might happen and want to avoid reliance on Khan Academy as a result, perhaps staying away from it altogether.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#24

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?

This is indeed the future of education. It is something the governments should do now in countries with substandard educators. A few superstar rockstar teachers can replace millions of average teachers. The offline physical teacher will be there to merely solve doubts(and ensure kids are actually watching stuff) while the online teacher streams live to millions of students. The biggest challenge will be to make the experience so immersive that kids can learn online. VR might be able to help in this regard.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#25

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…

Students! Many of them actually want and need to sit in a classroom and have someone teach (!) them.

Having a shared syllabus is not really the problem.

(I am teaching... I wish more people would actually study independently and I could just mentor them, but in my experience this isn't the case for many students. You may claim it's a matter of habits and education but that's not bureaucracy)

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#26

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…

Virtual learning will cause massive unemployment among teachers given a virtual teacher can replace the millions of chalk and board teachers. So there's that big lobby who will always oppose such digitalization. Secondly online education is not that good right now. Kids with tiktok attention spans haven't really been thriving in online schools during covid.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#27

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…

Virtual learning will cause massive unemployment among teachers given a virtual teacher can replace the millions of chalk and board teachers. So there's that big lobby who will always oppose such digitalization. Secondly online education is not that good right now. Kids with tiktok attention spans haven't really been thriving in online schools during covid.

One-on-one tutoring with a mastery-learning approach can raise educational outcomes by two sigma compared to mass lecturing with no differentiation. There will always be plenty of work for good teachers.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#28

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?

> quality education will keep consolidating until there’s one super school left.

Right, we are all graduated from Harvard here.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#29
post #4

the accessibility widget in the site is probably the sweetest thing I've ever seen on the internet.

Actually -- these are not good for accessibility [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. These companies have raised millions in funding on the false premise that they make your website accessible. This is of course not the case and these companies are currently part of large lawsuits.

Source: I built of them [6] many years ago.

   [1] https://adrianroselli.com/2020/06/accessibe-will-get-you-sued.html (about this particular one)
   [2] https://silktide.com/blog/accessibility-overlays-dont-work/
   [3] https://level-level.com/blog/accessibility-overlays-common-sense-and-nonsense/
   [4] https://www.accessibility.works/blog/avoid-accessibility-overlay-tools-toolbar-plugins/
   [5] https://www.siteimprove.com/blog/seen-through-the-eyes-of-a-blind-user-why-overlays-are-not-the-answer-to-web-accessibility/
   [6] https://oswaldlabs.com/platform/agastya/

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#30

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?

Because there’s more to high school than just classes. It’s important to learn how to deal with people as well. A purely virtual high school experience sounds extremely lonely and thin for the soul.

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.

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