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Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

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Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#251

Post by leaflets2 »

tkgally wrote: post #167
huitzitziltzin wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me your secret. Is there anything you do differently, relative to in person? Or do you just end up with a selected sample of super motivated students? This in particular: > The class discussions have been meatier... is a literal miracle. I think it might be this: > I am fortunate to teach small classes of motivated students with good study skills. I teach an honors and a regular section of one of my class…

> Is there anything you do differently, relative to in person? I call on students more systematically rather than just waiting for volunteers to raise their hand. When I taught in-person, it was usually the same few students who spoke up a lot, while others never said anything. Now everyone contributes, making for an overall better discussion. With my larger online classes, I will sometimes throw out a discussion que…

Thanks for explaining! (I'm a different person)

I can understand why this gives a better learning experience and results (for most students). Hmm, also depends on the subject -- they're saying and discussing things? Eg social sciences? Whilst in maths, maybe there is less to discuss and talk about, and the positive effects you're seeing wouldn't be there?

Seems to me all this can be done in real life too -- but requires more discipline, since the "default", that the more talkative students speak out loud when they want, is what comes naturally? Rather than writing questions and thoughts on paper and handing in, and you read them.

Would be interesting to try IRL with pencils and paper :-) I'm not a teacher though.

Edit: what do you teach? / What do the students study

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#252

Post by tkgally »

leaflets2 wrote: post #251
tkgally wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there anything you do differently, relative to in person? I call on students more systematically rather than just waiting for volunteers to raise their hand. When I taught in-person, it was usually the same few students who spoke up a lot, while others never said anything. Now everyone contributes, making for an overall better discussion. With my larger online classes, I will sometimes throw out a discussion que…

Thanks for explaining! (I'm a different person) I can understand why this gives a better learning experience and results (for most students). Hmm, also depends on the subject -- they're saying and discussing things? Eg social sciences? Whilst in maths, maybe there is less to discuss and talk about, and the positive effects you're seeing wouldn't be there? Seems to me all this can be done in real life too -- but requi…

I teach courses on various topics related to language and second-language education. Recent course titles include Ideology and Language Education, Ethics and Language Education, Language and Society, and Topics in Second-Language Education. I start the semester with only a general outline of each course, and the specific topics covered week by week are decided based on where our discussions go. Nearly all of the students are themselves multilingual and many have studied linguistics or related subjects, so they have the interests, experience, and backgrounds that enable them to contribute productively to the discussions. I learn as much from them as they do from me.

You’re right that the same method wouldn’t work with some other subjects and some other types of students.

I did take a mathematics class as an undergraduate, though, in which our teacher—Paul Halmos—had us work together in small groups on problems throughout the semester, with guidance from him only when we got stuck. That could presumably be done online, too.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#253

Post by txsoftwaredev »

azinman2 wrote: post #11
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?

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.

Do you believe that kids that do online learning never leave their home or have any friends? That's a pretty ignorant view. There are tons of opportunities for kids to have positive social interactions with peers as well as younger and older children, as well as adults. Being forced to interact with a handful of kids around their age in a public school is not a great way to socializing.

My kids are all homeschooled, including parent taught as well as online education, and have friends of different ages with caring parents that are all very involved. They have outside activities including, music, PE, play time with friends at the park, zoo trips, museums etc.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#254

Post by leaflets2 »

tkgally wrote: post #252
leaflets2 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for explaining! (I'm a different person) I can understand why this gives a better learning experience and results (for most students). Hmm, also depends on the subject -- they're saying and discussing things? Eg social sciences? Whilst in maths, maybe there is less to discuss and talk about, and the positive effects you're seeing wouldn't be there? Seems to me all this can be done in real life too -- but requi…

I teach courses on various topics related to language and second-language education. Recent course titles include Ideology and Language Education, Ethics and Language Education, Language and Society, and Topics in Second-Language Education. I start the semester with only a general outline of each course, and the specific topics covered week by week are decided based on where our discussions go. Nearly all of the stud…

Ok :-)

> I learn as much from them as they do from me.

Sounds like a nice job :-)

Paul Halmos, cool to have had such a person as one's teacher. (Was that in the US? I wonder how he was like, as a teacher and person)

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#255

Post by skyde »

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 (…

why do you care about student "coming to class and doing homework" if they can learn the subject and get 100% of the exams without it ?

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#256

Post by tkgally »

leaflets2 wrote: post #254
tkgally wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I teach courses on various topics related to language and second-language education. Recent course titles include Ideology and Language Education, Ethics and Language Education, Language and Society, and Topics in Second-Language Education. I start the semester with only a general outline of each course, and the specific topics covered week by week are decided based on where our discussions go. Nearly all of the stud…

Ok :-) > I learn as much from them as they do from me. Sounds like a nice job :-) Paul Halmos, cool to have had such a person as one's teacher. (Was that in the US? I wonder how he was like, as a teacher and person)

I seem to have bragged before about studying with Paul Halmos:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

He seemed a bit formal and intimidating at first, but he turned out to be a warm, considerate person. He and his wife had me and several other students over to their house for dinner a couple of times, and he enjoyed talking with us about whatever youthful nerdish topics we were interested in.

I was about twenty years old then. I just realized that he was in his early sixties, a couple of years younger than I am now.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#257

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Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#258

Post by odessacubbage »

photochemsyn wrote: post #147
bnralt wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, in-person educators often do a rather poor job with online education. There's often a lot of effort to emulate in-person learning, instead of an acceptance that online education is its own thing. They also often approach online education with a bias against it, which I doubt helps things. In-person educators trying to do online learning, getting poor results, and then saying it's the fault of online…

In both online and inperson, a major choke point occurs when students get stuck on a problem and have nowhere to go to get help, or when students don't get useful feedback after submitting their work. This is directly related to the teacher-student ratio, regardless of whether it's online or not. I imagine a huge factor is also parental involvement, when it comes to encouraging students to set aside several hours eac…

part of the problem is that homework is just treated as a given obligation rather than something students should be able to do voluntarily, as-needed. combine this with teacher quotas [students MUST do 10-20 hours of homework a week] you end up with bloat and students being tasked with just as much unneeded busywork as actual crucial practice for the areas they are struggling. this also exacerbates the treadmill effect where students who are struggling are perpetually falling further and further behind under a pile of red marked assignments they simply do not understand. the best model i experienced as a student was where homework (and class for that matter) were treated as entirely opt-in and classrooms served more as a centralized hub for ad-hoc tutoring/study hall. in this model, in person class time primarily served as a resource for unstucking and freed up everyone else to get on with their day. also what no one wants to hear is that good study habits are primarily driven by student investment in what they are learning and said investment is the product of learning things they actually care about.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#260

Post by raarts »

bnralt wrote: post #125
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 (…

In my experience, in-person educators often do a rather poor job with online education. There's often a lot of effort to emulate in-person learning, instead of an acceptance that online education is its own thing. They also often approach online education with a bias against it, which I doubt helps things. In-person educators trying to do online learning, getting poor results, and then saying it's the fault of online…

I teach CS in college (in NL, not the US). In the discussion about online teaching many forget to take age into account. Age differences are huge. Let me repeat that: Age makes a huge difference. Especially below 21.

Take my 18-yo and 22-yo students. They have responded to my online teaching in a very different way. The 18 year olds responded much better to physical teaching - most vocally preferred it - while older students generally preferred online. I could write a lot more about the details here but I'm on my phone

My daughter teaches math in high school and what she sees can be summed up as: kids are social and need supervision, and a different approach depending on age.

12-year olds are basically still kids but as soon as puberty kicks in kids are overwhelmed by a series of physical, psychological and social changes. This makes life hard to navigate for them and for this reason they need guidance.

So in my opinion remote learning (without local adult supervision) is the worst option for high school.

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