Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Khan Academy (NYT article)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/t...ts-youtube-approach-with-classrooms.html
Online Learning, Personalized
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
SAN JOSE, Calif. � Jesse Roe, a ninth-grade math teacher at a charter school here called Summit, has a peephole into the brains of each of his 38 students.

He can see that a girl sitting against the wall is zipping through geometry exercises; that a boy with long curls over his eyes is stuck on a lesson on long equations; and that another boy in the front row is getting a handle on probability.

Each student�s math journey shows up instantly on the laptop Mr. Roe carries as he wanders the room. He stops at each desk, cajoles, offers tips, reassures. For an hour, this crowded, dimly lighted classroom in the hardscrabble shadow of Silicon Valley hums with the sound of fingers clicking on keyboards, pencils scratching on paper and an occasional whoop when a student scores a streak of right answers.

The software program unleashed in this classroom is the brainchild of Salman Khan, an Ivy League-trained math whiz and the son of an immigrant single mother. Mr. Khan, 35, has become something of an online sensation with his Khan Academy math and science lessons on YouTube, which has attracted up to 3.5 million viewers a month.

Now he wants to weave those digital lessons into the fabric of the school curriculum � a more ambitious and as yet untested proposition.

This semester, at least 36 schools nationwide are trying out Mr. Khan�s experiment: splitting up the work of teaching between man and machine, and combining teacher-led lessons with computer-based lectures and exercises.

As schools try to sort out confusing claims about the benefits of using technology in the classroom, and companies ponder the profits from big education contracts, Khan Academy may seem like just another product vying for attention.

But what makes Mr. Khan�s venture stand out is that the lessons and software tools are entirely free � available to anyone with access to a reasonably fast Internet connection.

�The core of our mission is to give material to people who need it,� Mr. Khan said. �You could ask, �Why should it be free?� But why shouldn�t it be free?�

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Related thread: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....9235/Wired_Magazine_article_on_Khan.html .

Interesting article....My comment on the NYT site is pasted in below. Anyone else trying to use Khan in combination with ALEKS as a replacement for classroom math?

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We are exploring home-use of a combination of the online math program ALEKS and the Khan Academy for our elementary-aged son. He is in a public school, but is far advanced of his class when it comes to math. He loves the Khan lectures, and ALEKS lets him progress from topic to topic at a very rapid rate without undue repetition or drilling, and gives us the ability to track his mastery of each topic.

I think this type of combination, or even just use of Khan lectures with in-class practice, could be very helpful in our public schools, where there is very little true differentiation in classrooms that really need it.

In times of increasing class sizes and shrinking budgets, integration of free tools like Khan Academy into the curriculum should be a no-brainer, at least in schools that have decent technology infrastructures to start with.

I think what makes Khan Academy so great is that you've got an ACTUAL EXPERT teaching in each video. Nearly all of elementary school math is taught by someone with no particular aptitude or training in math. They simply follow whatever book was selected for them.

It seems to me that one very important aspect of this approach is the potential for compacting. Even children who obtain grade skips are potentially being held back, because the material isn't presented at an accelerated rate. Gifted children simply don't need a year to cover a year of schooling. I know that gifted children don't suffer from the gaps of years they skip, but they are forced to compensate, and skipping seems to be only allowed when the student demonstrates knowledge and understanding that is practically beyond the grade they'll skip into. I think we can do better, and I think approaches like this will make it practical.