[Maths-Education] Re: Khan Academy
NICHOLSON J.
j.r.nicholson at durham.ac.uk
Mon Mar 19 13:32:11 GMT 2012
Peter,
I was distinctly underwhelmed when I looked at some of the statistics ones a while back - I felt there was very little insight into what the motivation was for any of the techniques, and quite a long time was spent in doing trivial things e.g. ordering a list of times in order to draw a box and whisker plot took for ever, his description of what graphs could be used to represent the data was weak, and there was nothing about what the shape of the B&W plot told you - or why the restaurant owner might want to represent his data in such a graph (in that particular example).
The same sort of criticisms, but more important and more severe would apply to videos on hypothesis testing - tells viewer what to do moderately well but little communication of key ideas of what the principles are.
best wishes
James
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: The Khan Academy (Tanner, Howard)
2. Re: Fwd: The Khan Academy (romlins at rc.unesp.br)
3. Re: Fwd: The Khan Academy (Alexandre Borovik)
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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:04:02 +0000
From: "Tanner, Howard" <howard.tanner at smu.ac.uk>
To: Mathematics Education discussion forum
<maths-education at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Maths-Education] Re: The Khan Academy
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<F7D1322D80FF8E479D4C893B9588B5204F20F7 at PLEIADES.sid.sihe.ac.uk>
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Inspirational teachers can find ways of making effective use of even the most mundane of resources.
Any evaluation would need to take account of the wide range of potential strategies and practices into which such resources could be incorporated.
Howard
________________________________________
From: maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Tanner, Howard
Sent: 18 March 2012 16:48
To: Mathematics Education discussion forum
Subject: [Maths-Education] Re: The Khan Academy
Reading some of the blogs, it seems that some pupils are "inspired" to find other ways of learning the maths so that they can avoid watching the videos. This includes forming study groups to find ways to solve the exercise questions.
This may be quite helpful and the issue becomes an ethical one.
Is being forced to watch the videos a cruel and unusual punishment?
Howard
________________________________
From: maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Peter Gates [Peter.Gates at nottingham.ac.uk]
Sent: 18 March 2012 07:59
To: Maths. Education
Subject: [Maths-Education] Fwd: The Khan Academy
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 <http://www.khanacademy.org/> <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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------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:36:24 -0300
From: romlins at rc.unesp.br
To: "Mathematics Education discussion forum"
<maths-education at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Maths-Education] Re: Fwd: The Khan Academy
Message-ID: <7f5afb73261826fe4b4257b68e4ef1a0.squirrel at ms.rc.unesp.br>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
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 <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
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:09:26 +0000
From: Alexandre Borovik <alexandre.borovik at gmail.com>
To: Mathematics Education discussion forum
<maths-education at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Maths-Education] Re: Fwd: The Khan Academy
Message-ID: <4F66DBA6.3020609 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
Some time ago I posted a post in my blog "Mathematics under he Microscope",
"An ?average word problem? in the Khan Academy":
http://micromath.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/an-average-word-problem-from-the-khan-academy/
with analysis of randomly chosen problem from the Khan Academy website.
It appears to be relevant for the current thread.
With best wishes -- Alexandre
--
Professor Alexandre Borovik * University of Manchester
Web: http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/~avb/
Wordpress: http://micromath.wordpress.com/
Academia: http://manchester.academia.edu/AlexandreBorovik
On 18/03/2012 22:36, romlins at rc.unesp.br wrote:
> 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 <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
>
>
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.
>
> This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
> may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system:
> you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the
> University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.
--
Professor Alexandre Borovik * University of Manchester
Web: http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/~avb/
Wordpress: http://micromath.wordpress.com/
Academia: http://manchester.academia.edu/AlexandreBorovik
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