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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

#81

Post by abrax3141 »

hhmc wrote: post #78
abrax3141 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s like 500 way better online resources for any given KA topic. Take any KA video and compare it with the same topic from Numberphile, VSauce, or even just a random person who knows how to teach.

> Numberphile, VSauce I just looked at the video listing for these creators and there's nothing but pop-science. I don't understand how it's at all comperable to KA?

A. You didn’t look very hard. B. Okay, try PBS space time, Dr PhysicsA, 3Blue1Brown, Strand’s MIT series, Red&Blue. There are so many wonderful resources online to learn from that just need to be meta-organized, KA is the bottom of every heap except for the meta-organization. (And, BTW, many of the others have internal meta-organization.)

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#82

Post by grapeskin »

abrax3141 wrote: post #74
Marcan wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you say that? Can you elaborate? As far as I'm concerned, it is a great free online resource which makes learning accessible to everyone. Sal Khan is also an excellent teacher.

There’s like 500 way better online resources for any given KA topic. Take any KA video and compare it with the same topic from Numberphile, VSauce, or even just a random person who knows how to teach.

You’re comparing short entertainment videos vs something meant to break down subjects and teach them bit by bit.

Nobody is using Vsauce to help them study a college course. The videos simply don’t exist, and I say this as someone who’s watched the channels you mentioned.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#83

Post by visarga »

gsatic wrote: post #75
dalbasal wrote: post #39

Online learning resources are amazing. Compared to pre-internet, the depth, quality and accessibility is amazing. It really does open an opportunity route for a lot of people. However... Institutional learning, whether it's K-12, colleges, techs or whatnot have barely changed. The same fundamental dynamics exist, whether it's tertiary sorting and prestige or primary teaching methods. Education still serves and fails…

Online resources are not very different than having access to good libraries. Great libraries have existed for thousands of years but you won't find examples, anywhere in the world, where kids are just left at the library to learn. One of the fundamental aspects of learning is practice. Teachers/coaches/guides and mentors play a big role in keeping kids on track. It's not just about the best quality content. Or getti…

> It's about keeping ppl on track when the repetition and practice gets boring.

That's the missing ingredient for online learning. I think being part of a class, having friends there, and not wanting to be left behind plays a huge role.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#84

Post by langsoul-com »

I reckon this is great for anyone who already can self learn when they were in high school.

The cons is that how many people were self motivated in high school? I certainly wasn't. Online highschools fail those who need mentors and teachers to push them forward.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#85

Post by panick21_ »

dalbasal wrote: post #39

Online learning resources are amazing. Compared to pre-internet, the depth, quality and accessibility is amazing. It really does open an opportunity route for a lot of people. However... Institutional learning, whether it's K-12, colleges, techs or whatnot have barely changed. The same fundamental dynamics exist, whether it's tertiary sorting and prestige or primary teaching methods. Education still serves and fails…

I always liked the Khan model where you do the theory at home and in school you do the work on online platform.

The teacher can focus on helping the people who need help, or ask a more advanced student to help out the struggling student.

The also allows that in school you could do more interesting stuff then just the teacher giving the same boring lectures over and over.

For me, I would have blown down the math part of the whole thing like 3 years early and would have had so much more time on French. Not that I would have enjoyed that but still.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#86

Post by abrax3141 »

grapeskin wrote: post #82
abrax3141 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s like 500 way better online resources for any given KA topic. Take any KA video and compare it with the same topic from Numberphile, VSauce, or even just a random person who knows how to teach.

You’re comparing short entertainment videos vs something meant to break down subjects and teach them bit by bit. Nobody is using Vsauce to help them study a college course. The videos simply don’t exist , and I say this as someone who’s watched the channels you mentioned.

Apparently you haven’t. DrPhysicsA is literally ALL of physics. Strang is ALL of linear algebra. For any topic there’s someone who’s done it better then KA. I agree that it requires meta-organization, and that’s a valuable contribution, but KA should stick to that par, bcs their teachers are uniformly soporific.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#87

Post by andrepd »

umangrathi wrote: post #35

I am looking forward to the day, when quality formal education is available online to all which you may complete at your own pace instead of going with a strict semester and class system. Also, along with offline schools for supporting social learning and helping classes which require offline components like labs, in person support classes, interest based study groups etc.

Unless we automate teachers in the near future, I wouldn't hold my breath. Educational content on the internet is paradigm-changing, don't get me wrong: with access to the internet you can access a virtually unlimited set of learning materials: high-quality encyclopedias, books in the public domain, (books outside the public domain if you're willing to pirate), endless videos on virtually any language, any musical instrument, lectures by illustrious thinkers on topics from economics to physics. You cannot overstate how big this is, most of it would be unthinkable that anyone on earth could access it.

But learning needs teachers, and it needs teachers in small groups (classroom sizes of 20-30 are far too big). You cannot solve this with tech alone.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#88

Post by andrepd »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #62
umangrathi wrote: post #35

I am looking forward to the day, when quality formal education is available online to all which you may complete at your own pace instead of going with a strict semester and class system. Also, along with offline schools for supporting social learning and helping classes which require offline components like labs, in person support classes, interest based study groups etc.

My school made foreign languages completely unappealing to me by teaching them in the most dull, tick-box way possible in a school where even the top set contained pupils who massively cut into teaching time by behaving like animals, if you've ever seen the UK series The Inbetweeners my school was basically that but with grotty 1950s asbestos-chic buildings that hadn't really been upgraded since they were built. I th…

You would be mistaken if you think that is not by design.

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#89

Post by [deleted] »

shreyshnaccount wrote: post #37
umangrathi wrote: post #35

I am looking forward to the day, when quality formal education is available online to all which you may complete at your own pace instead of going with a strict semester and class system. Also, along with offline schools for supporting social learning and helping classes which require offline components like labs, in person support classes, interest based study groups etc.

That, and the education structure guided by actual research instead of politics, is the holy grail

[deleted]

Re: Khan Academy launches Khan World School online high school

#90

Post by andrepd »

dalbasal wrote: post #50
dragonwriter wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why deal with a mediocre local math teacher if you can get taught by the best? Because…you actually can’t. Static media (like books and non-interactive lectures) scales easily, but that’s not teaching (even if, especially in large lower-division courses, that’s what university faculty essentially does.) Human interactivity, which is what teaching fundamentally is, doesn’t scale, which is why those large lecture cla…

I don't think you can usefully define what teaching fundamentally is. Learning is the anchor, not teaching. Teaching is defined relative to learning. Anything that enables, delivers, structures or otherwise makes learning happen. For me, classroom teaching was never helpful. I zoned out in classes from first class to university (where I just didn't attend lectures). I had a little private tutoring in 12th class that…

>I had a little private tutoring in 12th class that was very helpful. In college, small group tutorials where we reviewed homework problems also worked for me.

Isn't this exactly what the person was saying?

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