3.16.2011

Khan Academy

Knowing my interest in education, my good friend CMV shared this video with me last week-- I've been so busy I had not had the chance to watch until yesterday.



If you don't have 20 minutes to watch this now the gist of it is that Salman Khan (a former hedge fund analyst) began Khan Academy by simply posting math tutorial videos on YouTube to help his cousins.  When the videos gained popularity, he decided to found Khan Academy.  His website Khan Academy has videos teaching math concepts ranging from basic addition to Calculus and beyond (I bet they would have helped my first year of college in the bear that was Statistics...).  He is currently expanding the website to cover other content areas and suggests that teachers use the technology to "flip" the classroom:  Assigning the video lectures as homework, and doing traditional homework problems in class.

Last semester, in my master's level "Teaching Elementary School Math" course I learned that math is now taught very differently than when I was a younger student.  More emphasis is placed on the use of different and multiple processes to finding solutions, rather than simply following one method to the correct answer.  Technology and hands-on manipulatives are also incorporated much more frequently.  This newer, more radical approach is beneficial to many students!

Even better, the icing on the cake is:  Khan Academy offers all these videos (as well as other services such as data collection for teachers) completely FREE!

What do you think of Khan Academy?  Would it have helped you?  Why not try it now-- learn something new!

What modern innovations do you think would have made school more accessible and fun for you?