[Maths-Education] Re: Fwd: The Khan Academy

[Christian Bokhove]

Dear Peter (not sure if this is posted to everyone),

Khan Academy (KA) is often associated with a "pedagogy" denoted as
"Flipping the classroom", which denotes that instruction shifts towards
"outside the classroom" through the use of videos, freeing up time for
useful classroom discussions, making exercises ín the classroom. Personally
I don't see the novelty in that, as many (good) teachers already use many
ways to motivate students. However, at least in de US people seem to take
up the movies especially in a homeschooling setting, so perhaps this
engagement could be seen as a positive thing. It also depends on the math
ed culture in a country.

The movies vary greatly in quality, both mathematically as esthetically.
Khan himself has said that the "ugly" movies often were most succesful.
Recently -also see documentary 60 minutes- there have been some indications
that the movies aren't watched that well. To improve the content KA has
joined up with people like Vi Hart (see
http://vihart.com/blog/announcement-khan-academy/) whom we know of the
great Pi & Shakespeare movie. As mentioned before, Bill Gates, has taken on
Khan as his protege. providing him with ample funds. Because of this
backing I think KA probably will have more of a chance to survive the
hausse in digital mathematics tools.

A second part of the academy is the exercise section. Good learning
analytics, and a great visual map for presenting dependencies and progress
in a curriculum. Still, this is the part I am underwhelmed with. A bit too
"drill and practice" to my taste. Only answers. This interactive part
should, imo., be improved much more.

So, as with many things, a critical view is necessary, but not without
acknowledging the positive things.

Regards,

Christian Bokhove
St. Michael College

2012/3/18 Dylan Wiliam <dylanwiliam at mac.com>

> Of course the Khan Academy videos will never be as good as the best
> teaching, but I think the more important question is whether they can be
> used to improve mathematics teaching on average. I think the idea that
> students spend time at home (or at a homework club) viewing the
> presentation, and then spend time in class in discussion of what they learn
> would be a considerable improvement on much of what happens in mathematics
> classrooms. That said plausible ideas have turned out to be wrong, so
> what's really needed is an evaluation...
>
> Dylan
>
>
>
> On 18 Mar 2012, at 12:19, Hugh Burkhardt wrote:
>
> > The general view in the US seems to be that the videos are examples of
> clear expository teaching - greatly needed in a country where that is rare.
>  (Not a problem we have here, of course)
> >
> > Among the more preceptive it is recognised that, for many students,
> clear expository teaching (+ lots of practice, of course) does not deliver
> competence.
> >
> > Hugh
> >
> >> Colleagues. I wonder if anyone has an informed view on "The Khan
> Academy" a website which seems to have hundreds of maths instruction videos
> on YouTube.
> >>
> >> http://www.khanacademy.org
> >>
> >> Its been suggested to me as "inspirational " but I've looked at some
> and have been quite underwhelmed. Am I missing something here?
> >>
> >> Peter Gates
> >> University of Nottingham
> >>
> >>
> >
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