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Khan Academy Pilot Educators On Khan Academy
theodp writes "In what may surprise Khan Academy backers Google and Bill Gates, educators from the Los Altos School District where KA was initially piloted and implemented have responded to some recent KA critiques with a blog entry which notes, 'Teachers in our district have determined that the greatest value of the Khan Academy lies, not in the videos, but in the exercise modules and data generated as students work practice problems.' Not too surprisingly, when it comes to revolutionizing student learning, teachers are bullish on teachers. 'Key to this revolution are the Los Altos teachers,' the educators conclude. 'Teachers in our district are highly valued for their pedagogical perspective, content knowledge, experience, and creative abilities. When district administrators put tools in the hands of teachers and give them room to work, amazing things happen for students. Tools will come and go, but it's the teachers who create meaningful learning experiences that challenge students to grow.'"
A family member of mine quit high school a year ago when she was just beginning 11th grade. At that time, she didn't even understand fractions and could only do the most basic of basic math. Still, she got to grade 11 just by memorizing material, regurgitating it on a test, and then forgetting it. After she quit (she convinced her mother to let her learn math on her own), she started using Khan Academy. She's currently learning calculus and actually seems to understand the material (unlike many public school students). While Khan Academy may not be revolutionary or perfect, it's an extremely useful resource. You can't, however, just watch the videos passively and expect to learn. You have to actually think about the material, do things on your own, and attempt to understand it.
It also isn't nearly as good as a real teacher at inspiring students, and when a student doesn't get it, a video can't think of an alternate way to explain the same issue, or find an analogy the student understands.
This hatred of teachers becomes a downward spiral. We hate them, so we won't raise their pay, so fewer good people are inclined to take up the job -- who needs the hatred and the low pay? -- and so the quality gets worse, and down it goes.
Khan Academy is great, but it's only assistive technology, not a substitute for the real thing.
I piss off bigots.
It depends on the student really. Some kids have the get up and go to do it themselves, others don't, for various reasons. I think their parents and family can play as much of or even a far more important role in encouraging learning. Really we need to ingrain a personal responsbility ethic into the education system, it would be beneficial in many ways. I could see teachers changing from knowledge dispensers to effective tutoring aides over time though.
E-learning does work. It works well in developing countries too, where local teachers may be weak and lack even the most basic skills. However research consistently shows that having a real teacher is superior (for a variety of reasons) to just relying on some static videos or interactive tutorials on a computer. Interestingly, training teachers in developing countries is still much cheaper and sustainable than deploying e-learning technology (ie. computers). Bill Gates has many technology initiatives in developing countries, but dig a little deeper, they have accomplished little (well, aside from getting some schools free Microsoft products).
I loathe watching videos. Hate hate hate. Videos are not effective for general learning. And I know, some people "have different learning styles", but everybody and their brother thinks that it's a good idea to make invariably-shitty videos about things that people want to learn. I want to read something with pictures. I don't want to watch a damn video.