Posted
on October 11, 2013
(And
happy birthday to me, too!)
 |
| Several people have made "Star Trek" references, talking about "The Math of Khan." |
It
is interesting to me that, nowadays, some of the most important and
influential educators in the world are men who did not study
education in college, who did not start their careers as teachers,
who kind of backed into education through a side door.
I
am talking about physicist and computer network specialist Sugata
Mitra, who is more widely known for his work in education and
cognitive science, and former hedge fund analyst Salman Khan, who
studied math, electrical engineering, and computer science, but who
is famous for his work in creating education videos. Today's birthday
boy is also the founder of Khan Academy.
Khan
is a nice guy who was willing to help his younger cousins with their
math homework. He was doing his tutoring long-distance, using Yahoo's
Doodle notepad. But then other relatives and friends asked for
tutoring, too—and Khan realized that it would be better for him to
upload YouTube videos so that multiple people could see his
presentations, but he only had to do each explanation one time!
This
time-saving idea ended up creating a whole other career for Khan. His
short videos on topics such as exponents and linear equations ended
up getting so many hits, Khan became the Number 1 provider of free
course material on YouTube! Khan quit his job in finance and
concentrated on making videos, and for a while he accepted
advertising on his website so that he could keep all the learning
videos free. His “academy” got so popular, some wealthy people
heard about Khan and decided to make some hefty donations. Khan was
able to remove the ads, hire helpers, and make his free online
tutoring service into a kind of free, online school that offers
thousands of micro-lectures on a wide range of topics. The lessons
are even available in at least 28 different languages!
Cosmology?
Got it!Micro-economics? Got it?
Math
in Urdu? Got it! In Turkish or Xhosa?
Got 'em both!
Art history in Norwegian? Got that, too!
Badges?
We can earn badges?
One
of my daughters dearly loved earning Girl Scout badges (and she
earned every single badge and sign it was possible to earn as a
Junior Scout!). My guess is that a lot of other kids love earning
badges, too, because the Khan Academy decided to create a system of
badges that can be earned.
Check
out the Khan Academy. I have to tell you, I personally prefer
learning in other ways—from reading books, for example, or from
watching fascinating and beautiful videos (rather than these plain,
practical videos)—and I know that many other people also wonder
what all the fuss is about, once they see their first Khan video.
However, a great many people, including many kids, love Khan's
stripped-down, relaxed teaching style, and they love being able to
learn what they want to learn, when they want to learn it, using the
Khan Academy. I would think it would be more important to be able to
ask questions during an explanation, but many people hate asking
questions and love being able to control the speed and repetition of
the explanation.
Also
on this date:
Plan
Ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
Happy Birthday ~~~
ReplyDeleteRegards, www.lonelyreload.com (A Growing Teenager Diary)