John Resig joins the Khan Academy • Hacker News Board

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#41

Post by FrojoS » Tue, May 03, 2011, 9:56 PM UTC

te_platt wrote: post #14

tworats wrote: post #4

It is awesome that Khan Academy has attracted so much top talent. Has the potential to make a real difference in world education and thus in human potential. Goes to show how much effect a relatively small investment can make when joined with amazing, driven, talented people.

I agree except for "Has the potential". It is making an improvement right now. It is hard to describe how it feels to watch my 9 year old pop off months worth of school tedium in one morning, moving up through long division into simple algebra equations. Or my 14 fill in gaps that had been confusing her for years. Comments like "oh, I get it now" or "that's not hard at all" are common.

Awesome to hear! Can you give us any information on how their grades have developed? Of course, kindling fun and excitement for education and science is already a great, if not the most important, achievement. But I'm curious about the effect, that was discussed here before [1]. Derek Muller claims [2], that these videos give a false illusion of understanding. If I get him right: If your kids don't feel a bit confused and overwhelmed afterwards, they might have reinforced their prejudice about how think are and work.

Anyway, its great to see good people choosing a career in education!

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348476 [2] https://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/khan-academy-and-...

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#42

Post by aik » Tue, May 03, 2011, 10:03 PM UTC

GonzoVeritas wrote: post #21

Bill Gates calls this the future of education. I think he is correct. I am doing a project involving corporate training and this method has vast implications for my work. I also have three school age children, and they will be "attending" Khan tonight. This is the very first post I've read on HN and I'm overwhelmed by its significance. Thanks!

That's great. When you say "this method", could you explain what you mean? How does it have vast implications for your work?

In addition, I agree that it will make a great impact in the future. However isn't labeling it as "THE future" is going a little too far for now anyway? I would like to see a study on the type of person this type of study works for. If I'm not mistaken, it's not everyone?

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#43

Post by nhebb » Tue, May 03, 2011, 10:39 PM UTC

I'm happy for John, and this is great news for the Khan Academy. But I have to admit my reaction was mixed about his initial plans to focus on the iPad. On one hand, this is tantamount to saying you want to ensure that rich kids have better access to educational materials. Relative to the rest of society, children of parents who can afford an iPad are probably the least needy re educational tools. On the other hand, they're probably the ones who will make the most use of the tools.

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#44

Post by ig1 » Tue, May 03, 2011, 10:44 PM UTC

nhebb wrote: post #43

I'm happy for John, and this is great news for the Khan Academy. But I have to admit my reaction was mixed about his initial plans to focus on the iPad. On one hand, this is tantamount to saying you want to ensure that rich kids have better access to educational materials. Relative to the rest of society, children of parents who can afford an iPad are probably the least needy re educational tools. On the other hand,…

You don't plan for today, you plan for five years down the line. Tablet computers are likely to become as ubiquitous as desktops or laptops, it's purely a matter of time.

Tablets are a much more useable form factor in classrooms, etc.

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#45

Post by huherto » Tue, May 03, 2011, 11:02 PM UTC

gary4gar wrote: post #5

Noble Cause. But I am curious to know will Khan Academy give a basic salary or he working for free? in which case, I salute you Congrats!

Even if he is being payed, it is very admirable to put his talent on this.

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#46

Post by MJR » Tue, May 03, 2011, 11:07 PM UTC

nhebb wrote: post #43

I'm happy for John, and this is great news for the Khan Academy. But I have to admit my reaction was mixed about his initial plans to focus on the iPad. On one hand, this is tantamount to saying you want to ensure that rich kids have better access to educational materials. Relative to the rest of society, children of parents who can afford an iPad are probably the least needy re educational tools. On the other hand,…

You're assuming that it was his plan and his decision to focus on the iPad. Kahn will be his employer, so I imagine they have a hand in deciding what is important enough for him to work on. It doesn't seem likely that he just up and decided that he'd build them an iPad app and made the decision without needing any approval.

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#47

Post by sshconnection » Tue, May 03, 2011, 11:11 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #44

nhebb wrote: post #43

I'm happy for John, and this is great news for the Khan Academy. But I have to admit my reaction was mixed about his initial plans to focus on the iPad. On one hand, this is tantamount to saying you want to ensure that rich kids have better access to educational materials. Relative to the rest of society, children of parents who can afford an iPad are probably the least needy re educational tools. On the other hand,…

You don't plan for today, you plan for five years down the line. Tablet computers are likely to become as ubiquitous as desktops or laptops, it's purely a matter of time. Tablets are a much more useable form factor in classrooms, etc.

I agree that tablets are going to be ubiquitous in the future, but it may not be iPads that get into the most hands. I'd like to see John put his incredible javascript knowledge to work on a great cross platform web application rather than a native iOS app.

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#48

Post by nhebb » Tue, May 03, 2011, 11:16 PM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #44

nhebb wrote: post #43

I'm happy for John, and this is great news for the Khan Academy. But I have to admit my reaction was mixed about his initial plans to focus on the iPad. On one hand, this is tantamount to saying you want to ensure that rich kids have better access to educational materials. Relative to the rest of society, children of parents who can afford an iPad are probably the least needy re educational tools. On the other hand,…

You don't plan for today, you plan for five years down the line. Tablet computers are likely to become as ubiquitous as desktops or laptops, it's purely a matter of time. Tablets are a much more useable form factor in classrooms, etc.

That line of reasoning makes sense. He specifically mentioned iPad - not tablets in general. When I think of the educational needs of tomorrow, I think of school districts like Los Angeles, where the drop out rate is ~33%. It's really hard for me to imagine a scenario where tablets are wide spread among students in the lower income areas of that district.

Hopefully the iPad is just a kickoff point. One of my philosophies is that at least some part of your job should give you joy, and out of that great things can happen. Maybe iPad development is just something he wants to do for the joy of it.

NB: I know that John's not a one man army, and I'm not trying to lay this all on his shoulders. I'm just thinking out loud on HN.

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#49

Post by code_duck » Tue, May 03, 2011, 11:21 PM UTC

nhebb wrote: post #43

I'm happy for John, and this is great news for the Khan Academy. But I have to admit my reaction was mixed about his initial plans to focus on the iPad. On one hand, this is tantamount to saying you want to ensure that rich kids have better access to educational materials. Relative to the rest of society, children of parents who can afford an iPad are probably the least needy re educational tools. On the other hand,…

The iPad is the only established tablet, and surely anything they do on their can go onto the Playbook, Android tablets, etc. when the platforms and Khan are ready. I'm sure we'll be seeing tablets in the Netbook price range soon. As far as digital devices go, it's hard to get much cheaper than that.

Re: John Resig joins the Khan Academy

#50

Post by evilduck » Tue, May 03, 2011, 11:30 PM UTC

aik wrote: post #42

GonzoVeritas wrote: post #21

Bill Gates calls this the future of education. I think he is correct. I am doing a project involving corporate training and this method has vast implications for my work. I also have three school age children, and they will be "attending" Khan tonight. This is the very first post I've read on HN and I'm overwhelmed by its significance. Thanks!

That's great. When you say "this method", could you explain what you mean? How does it have vast implications for your work? In addition, I agree that it will make a great impact in the future. However isn't labeling it as "THE future" is going a little too far for now anyway? I would like to see a study on the type of person this type of study works for. If I'm not mistaken, it's not everyone?

I think "this method" is letting people absorb the main lecture/explanation at their own pace, freeing up teachers to focus on one on one assistance, identifying people who are struggling, focusing classes on mastery instead of minimum level competence (C students pass, but obviously have knowledge gaps), etc.