(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
So here is what I have learned so far from Khan Academy.
First, my son Benjamin and I reviewed the French Revolution, the rise of and fall of Napoleon the sordid history of France in Haiti in this series of videos.
Next, I learned more about the housing bubble in this series of videos.
My son Jacob, who is in 3rd grade, reviewed two digit multiplication in this video.
Khan Academy covers hundreds of topics, and is adding more. The main menu is here.
A bedrock assumption for any system of schooling, whether public or private, is that knowledge is scarce and must be imparted by trained specialists to students. Knowledge is no longer scarce, and our methods for communicating it have been evolving. Our training of specialists and pairing them with students leaves much to be desired.
I don’t know where all of this is going, but I am anxious to find out.
Sounds like Salman Khan should be nominated for some kind of humanitarian of the year award. But where would we find an award to honor that kind of entrepreneurial accomplishment?
Watched his video on the housing crisis – he didn’t calculate compound interest in his explination to get a monthly payment. He did a simple loan * interest rate / 12 months.
I watched that video as well. I think he was using short hand, and a precise payment calculation was not central to his point.
[…] Jay Greene and his son are enjoying learning online at Khan Academy. (Jay Greene) […]
Khan Academy just won $2 million from Google for program development and translation into major languages.
Good for them (and for us).
Great news!
Having already been greatly impressed at the Khan videos on maths, and being rather lazy (it’s Sunday, I have just had a full cooked dinner,) I was looking for the study of rocks, for my daughter (13) and her homework.
So I Googled ‘Khan Rocks’, which brought me here!!!
I laughed alot. I wonder if Khan could introduce a simple cryptic search, so that Google could find what I am looking for? I know – I’m bad, and just lazy on a Sunday.
Anyways, enuff, I just thought I would add to the other comments. Khan videos are especially cool for kids, (and adults alike), and after a Sunday dinner, when you get into the standard powerful presentations and their customary ‘drawl’, some ‘grown ups, will undoubtedly nod off to sleep……just like some of us did when we were not listening properly as school!! ;o) My advice, show the kids the links, and then start nodding…..
Khan Rocks! Absolutely. TED talks are sometimes quite stimulating too
Peace to all of goodwill.