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

[romlins at rc.unesp.br]

This has been a current topic of conversation around here, too.

For one thing, all the videos I watched are plain ugly, visually. Maybe it
is simply a strategy meaning to get 'closer' to the public, rather than
using more specialized computational tools. But I am sure he could at
least increase the pen's definition...

As to the presentation style, it seems the site is to be as a reference
elctronic book; as long as no wrong statement is made, there is no major
harm done. I believe we all sometimes look for short, direct explanations,
say, of formulae or theorems.

It would certainly be unwise, in my view, if some teacher decided to use
the videos as the basis for his/her teaching. _However_, I regularly get
requests from teachers for videos like those 'straight to the point'; it
seems there is, here in Brazil, a group planning or already doing
translations of Khan's videos, and another group producing their own
material.

But what is actually intriguing me is why Bill Gates gave Khan a million
dollars.

all the best
Romulo

> 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