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Khan Academy Spread it around

Hash Zeppelin

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www.khanacademy.org


This concept is Genius. It can help everyone of any age. It is free. It is better than paying for tutoring if you are a student or if your kid needs a tutor. It has no political Agenda.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy

The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization created in 2006, by Salman Khan. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 2,300 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and economics.

Salman Khan was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is of South Asian descent; his father is from Barisal, Bangladesh and his mother was born in Kolkata, India. Khan holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin Nadia in mathematics using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutorial, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the tutorials on YouTube. Their popularity there and the testimonials of appreciative students prompted Khan to quit his job in finance in 2009 and focus on the Academy full-time. Bill Gates once said that "I'd say we've moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job."

As of December 2009, Khan's YouTube-hosted tutorials receive a total of more than 35,000 views per day. Each video runs for approximately ten minutes. Drawings are made with SmoothDraw, which are recorded and produced using video capture from Camtasia Studio. Khan eschewed a format that would involve a person standing by a whiteboard, desiring instead to present the content in a way akin to sitting next to someone and working out a problem on a sheet of paper: "If you're watching a guy do a problem [while] thinking out loud, I think people find that more valuable and not as daunting." Offline versions of the videos have been distributed by not-for-profit groups to rural areas in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. While the Khan Academy's current content is mainly concerned with pre-college mathematics and physics, Khan states that his long-term goal is to provide "tens of thousands of videos in pretty much every subject" and to create "the world's first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything."

The Khan Academy also provides a web-based exercise system that generates problems for students based on skill level and performance. Khan believes his academy points an opportunity to overhaul the traditional classroom by using software to create tests, grade assignments, highlight the challenges of certain students, and encourage those doing well to help struggling classmates.

The success of his low-tech, conversational tutorials — Khan's face never appears, and viewers see only his unadorned step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard — suggests an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.

The project relies on donations for funding. Several people have made $10,000 contributions; Ann and John Doerr gave $100,000; total revenue is about $150,000 in donations, and $2,000 a month from ads on the Web site.[8] As of September 2010, Google announced they would be providing the Khan Academy with $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages, as part of their Project 10
 
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MMJcali

Member
awesome. in the long run would help non profits, too. Instead of wasting months training aid workers to teach a specific subject, they'd just have to train them to project the videos in front of a classroom...and voila, good education to Africa and the middle east.
 

BlueBlazer

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Sorry . . . couldn't help myself.


Sounds like a damn fine idea. Good read.
34853_thumbup.gif
 

Hash Zeppelin

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I saw it on Colbert Too; and feel it is my duty, as someone always bitching about American education levels, to spread this info around.
 

immaculate

Member
I saw it on Colbert Too; and feel it is my duty, as someone always bitching about American education levels, to spread this info around.

Why, because if you sit people in front of an LCD monitor with a talking head, you'll achieve the same results as in the classroom? Education is too industrialized, that's the problem. Sure, its a great resource for someone with the desire to learn, but without the money. But it isn't going to replace that necessary interaction and dialogue that must occur between teacher and student. We need to encourage more personal and focused education opportunities. Smaller classrooms, a less diverse curriculum, different scheduling, etc.


Please watch this.
 
M

mugenbao

My kids have been using Khan Academy for some time now, and absolutely love it. They were home-schooled at the time, so it was a daily resource for them. They took their college entrance exams a little while ago, did absolutely fantastic, and have been doing great in school since (both having received Academic Excellence awards). They definitely credit Khan Academy with helping them get ready for the transition. I know several other parents who love it just as much as we do!

Interestingly, my son is an aspiring game developer, and discovered that many of the math lessons (linear algebra, trig, etc.) have direct applications to game programming, and is always enthusiastic about explaining how what he just learned relates to what he's trying to do.
 

Hash Zeppelin

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Why, because if you sit people in front of an LCD monitor with a talking head, you'll achieve the same results as in the classroom? Education is too industrialized, that's the problem. Sure, its a great resource for someone with the desire to learn, but without the money. But it isn't going to replace that necessary interaction and dialogue that must occur between teacher and student. We need to encourage more personal and focused education opportunities. Smaller classrooms, a less diverse curriculum, different scheduling, etc.


Please watch this.

Dont come and troll here. just leave, or get on board. Maybe I would respect your opinion if it was one based off of, knowing what the fuck you are talking about; but you didn't even make an effort to actually read what this is. You just made a bull shit assumption based on previous biased, and posted your opinion. I watched your video which makes very good points, and if you watched the TED video you would realize that this is along the same lines but khan academy actually does something instead of just talk. Also you have one video versus Khan's 2,500 videos and a entire non profit organization funded by Bill Gates. NOW READ!

The Creator of Khan Academy, Salman Khan, graduated from MIT and Harvard, and then was a Hedge fund analyst. He is not some idiot with a bachelors in teaching.

You obviously do not understand the concept at all. If you watched the TED video you would realize that he IS achieving BETTER results than the traditional class room.

The Idea is the Kids watch the lecture at home for home work. they can pause it and watch it as many times as they need to until they get it. The way he presents the lesson is also much more human in demeanor than your average teacher. Then the kids go into the class room having already heard the lecture and they do the work. The teacher now does not have to give a lecture and may work with the kids 2 to 3 times more than they could have before.

Next the teachers enter information into a matrix grid on each kids progress on individual concepts of each lesson. Then they can see what kids get what, and where they need help specifically. thus making things more efficient.

the end result they discovered is slow kids are usually not slow, they are just stuck on one thing and once they get past it they excel. Also the program only has mastery or no mastery. you either get all of it or you dont. there is no passing c grade. kids to not move onto the next thing with out truly mastering the foundation.
 
S

Secretweapon

Thanks for reminding me that this existed, nice quick reference!
 

immaculate

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All that shit

Wow...that post is as one dimensional as the entire website. I apologize for my dissenting opinion. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.

I'd rather watch Harvard, Yale, MIT lectures given by renowned professors. Shit, you even get the FULL course...(www.academicearth.com)

Where are the sections on writing, literature, philosophy, history, the classics, art, etc.?

You, my friend, don't know what you're talking about.

Let's pump out little human calculators - formulate, regurgitate. Because we're all destined to be hedge fund managers one day...remember: it's all about the bottom line.

Look, it's a great supplement, particularly for anyone unwilling to read a textbook or develop an interpersonal relationship with a professor (just read all the comments on Khan's videos). It's also a good indication of where things are headed (major universities going the Phoenix Online route). KA caters only to a specific type of education and educational philosophy. Perfect for engineers and statistics majors.

I think that these types of things should be seen as an accompaniment and enhancement of the classroom experience, not as a sufficient replacement.
 

hashit

Member
Khan academy lectures got me through cal2 and probably/stats for engineers. Very good supplimental material.
 

OvergrowingKiwi

Active member
I've been using khan academy for the past year or so since I decided go back to school.

The way it works makes sure you only learn what you need to. Great for those wanting to go back and fill in the gaps.

Indeed worthy of a bump on this fine forum.
 

Hash Zeppelin

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Wow...that post is as one dimensional as the entire website. I apologize for my dissenting opinion. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.

I'd rather watch Harvard, Yale, MIT lectures given by renowned professors. Shit, you even get the FULL course...(www.academicearth.com)

Where are the sections on writing, literature, philosophy, history, the classics, art, etc.?

You, my friend, don't know what you're talking about.

Let's pump out little human calculators - formulate, regurgitate. Because we're all destined to be hedge fund managers one day...remember: it's all about the bottom line.

Look, it's a great supplement, particularly for anyone unwilling to read a textbook or develop an interpersonal relationship with a professor (just read all the comments on Khan's videos). It's also a good indication of where things are headed (major universities going the Phoenix Online route). KA caters only to a specific type of education and educational philosophy. Perfect for engineers and statistics majors.

I think that these types of things should be seen as an accompaniment and enhancement of the classroom experience, not as a sufficient replacement.

You obviously didnt do any research on this AGAIN and still completely missed the point. To begin with the whole thing is still a work in progress. they will get to art eventually. I am an artist my self and I seem to be able to get passed that there isn't art yet.
Next, It is not meant to be a replacement. It IS meant to supplement. It is not meant to be your entire education No one is saying you don't need a teacher. That is great that you can watch a whole lecture from those other professors, but the Khan Academy isn't just for college graduates. It is meant to be for everyone and be adaptable to supplement everyone's systems. The simplicity of it is part of the beauty.

You didn't hurt my feelings, I just have no tolerance for people that insist on bringing everything down just because it isn't perfect yet; not that you are one of them, it just came across as a put down on the Khan site. also that link you posted is great. Why couldn't you just post that up to begin with and say, hey this is cool too check it out. there was no need to bash on this other great resource. I might have misinterpreted constructive criticism for bashing, if so..... my bad
 
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