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Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

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Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#31

Post by zmmmmm »

This man is certainly one of my heroes. I love this part from the FAQ on the Khan Academy:

    What topics do you plan to cover?

    My goal is to cover everything. Yes, everything! 
    ... My goal really is to keep making videos until the day I die 
    (which will hopefully not be for at least another 50 or 60 
    years). Should give me time to make several tens
    of thousands of videos in pretty much every subject."

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#32

Post by ikujythujik »

solipsist wrote: post #16

I've heard countless people rave about Salman Khan and his teaching methods - both here and away from HN. The truth is, I had no idea why he and his teachings were such a big deal... until now . I had seen some of his videos before and read some of the articles about the Khan Academy, but had never given them my full attention. To me, it was just another guy with his own teaching methods. But when I see him talk at T…

Lecturers were necessary in the middle ages because of a shortage of books - so there weren't enough copies to go around. The teaching profession does occasionally take a while to catch up.

This isn't exactly revolutionary - we have been doing it for centuries we call them tutorials.

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#33

Post by arjn »

solarmist wrote: post #28
arjn wrote: post #23

Khanacademy is neat but I find it odd that people on HN either aren't aware or dont care about other earlier sources such as : - MIT's OCW - USNW eLearning channel on Youtube (esp Richar Buckland) - TIMMS (Germany, possibly the first of the video resources) - UCBerkeley youtube channel - Dr. Adrian Banner (Princeton) - Harvard (esp Michael Sandel's lectures, amazing) The above can be easily searched for and are hardl…

I'm a big fan of OCW and other online resources, but they just move the traditional style into an online format. And I'm especially excited for the OCW scholar site to get more material (plus, I'm excited to go through their Physics courses, I was never satisfied with my physics classes). My favorite Harvard lecture series is the Science & Cooking Public Lectures ( http://seas.harvard.edu/cooking ). But all those sit…

I love OCW too and I don't agree with the evolutionary/revolutionary statement. Revolutionary would be OCW or TIMMS as they started this free online video lecture thing (there could be an earlier initiative which I'm not aware of). I also dont really like the 5-15 minute thing but thats individual preference.

If we consider views proportional to impact, then a glance at the viewcount of some OCW or Richard Buckland's lectures on youtube show they're in the same popularity range as KA.

Also, I should've mentioned the Stanford youtube channel in my list. Its pretty good, covers several undergrad/grad courses and also available via iTunes.

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#34

Post by solarmist »

arjn wrote: post #33
solarmist wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big fan of OCW and other online resources, but they just move the traditional style into an online format. And I'm especially excited for the OCW scholar site to get more material (plus, I'm excited to go through their Physics courses, I was never satisfied with my physics classes). My favorite Harvard lecture series is the Science & Cooking Public Lectures ( http://seas.harvard.edu/cooking ). But all those sit…

I love OCW too and I don't agree with the evolutionary/revolutionary statement. Revolutionary would be OCW or TIMMS as they started this free online video lecture thing (there could be an earlier initiative which I'm not aware of). I also dont really like the 5-15 minute thing but thats individual preference. If we consider views proportional to impact, then a glance at the viewcount of some OCW or Richard Buckland's…

I think the biggest difference in making it revolutionary vs evolutionary is the target audience. OCW and their kin are all targeted at people that are highly motivated (and generally highly educated already) to learn something new.

While Khan academy is targeted at a mass audience. I think both serve their target audiences very well too. I'm nearly addicted to OCW, but it's heavy stuff, not something you can sit down with for 10 minutes at a time and make progress.

In regards to your comment on impact. Khan academy in its current form has only been around for months while OCW has been around for over 10 years. In my daily life I've only met one or two people that have even heard of it, while the Khan academy is already being mentioned by people I know independent of my experience with it.

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#35

Post by dmvaldman »

As a university math TA, my students would often say "you're so much better than the teacher, why don't you teach the class?"

Hearing this is definitely an ego stroke, but what the student really means is that he learns better by practicing problems than by listening to theory. I feel this is even more true in a younger school environment.

The teacher's and TA's roles are simply different in this respect, so I take no credit for "being better than the teacher".

But what Khan Academy does is really interesting, because now the teacher takes the role of the TA. I feel this is a much more effective way to teach. And ultimately the student will benefit. Thumbs up to this philosophy.

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#36

Post by chsonnu »

The record keeping is a double edged sword. Maybe one day institutions will start using your Khan record as a metric for employment/admissions. And that's the day people will start cheating. I guess this means standardized tests like the SATs and GREs aren't going anywhere.

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#37

Post by solarmist »

dmvaldman wrote: post #35

As a university math TA, my students would often say "you're so much better than the teacher, why don't you teach the class?" Hearing this is definitely an ego stroke, but what the student really means is that he learns better by practicing problems than by listening to theory. I feel this is even more true in a younger school environment. The teacher's and TA's roles are simply different in this respect, so I take n…

I think this is a really keen observation.

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#38

Post by GeorgeTirebiter »

zmmmmm wrote: post #31

This man is certainly one of my heroes. I love this part from the FAQ on the Khan Academy: What topics do you plan to cover? My goal is to cover everything. Yes, everything! ... My goal really is to keep making videos until the day I die (which will hopefully not be for at least another 50 or 60 years). Should give me time to make several tens of thousands of videos in pretty much every subject."

Very Asimovian, don't you think?

Isaac Asimov wrote either 506 books (or 515, say some sources) in his 72-year lifetime. (Jan 2, 1920 - Apr 6, 1992)

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#39

Post by patio11 »

arjn wrote: post #23

Khanacademy is neat but I find it odd that people on HN either aren't aware or dont care about other earlier sources such as : - MIT's OCW - USNW eLearning channel on Youtube (esp Richar Buckland) - TIMMS (Germany, possibly the first of the video resources) - UCBerkeley youtube channel - Dr. Adrian Banner (Princeton) - Harvard (esp Michael Sandel's lectures, amazing) The above can be easily searched for and are hardl…

Superior products launched earlier ignored for lack of effective marketing, while an arguably less innovative and minimalist but attractively packaged product geared towards a grossly underserved niche succeeds in capturing attention because the competition in that niche is ossified and terrible?

One could almost try to extract a lesson out of that...

Re: Khan of Khan Academy at TED (video)

#40

Post by arjn »

keiferski wrote: post #24
arjn wrote: post #23

Khanacademy is neat but I find it odd that people on HN either aren't aware or dont care about other earlier sources such as : - MIT's OCW - USNW eLearning channel on Youtube (esp Richar Buckland) - TIMMS (Germany, possibly the first of the video resources) - UCBerkeley youtube channel - Dr. Adrian Banner (Princeton) - Harvard (esp Michael Sandel's lectures, amazing) The above can be easily searched for and are hardl…

Khan Academy is miles better than any of those when it comes to design and ease of use, especially when it comes to presenting the material to elementary/middle school aged children. I certainly don't think a MIT lecture will appeal to 5th graders.

All the links I posted are undergrad-grad level which is what I'd expect most HN visitors to be interested in. I assume not many 5th graders frequent HN (perhaps I should account for parents of 5th graders).

While KA is definitely well organized, esp. for kids, "miles better" is hyperbole. There are other resources for young learners such as mathvids, brightstorm.com (and others) with little or no mention on HN.

There are also cheap/paid/freemium resources for kids - eg. mathtv.com and yourteacher.com (I think yourteacher has been around for a while.

My overall point is that - regarding this topic, HN seems to have a rather narrow view or is completely unaware of existing resources.

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