Monday, February 14, 2011

What KHAN be done with it!


Last night we received an e-mail from our Head of School inviting us to read this posting by Aaron Saenz: Yes, the Khan Academy IS the Future of Education.

He asked for creative ideas of how to leverage the power of Khan Academy in our school.

I believe that Khan Academy can be integrated in our school in two major ways: asynchronous and synchronous. Here are my ideas of what KHAN be done with it:

ASYNCHRONOUS USE
Asynchronous learning is a student-centered teaching method that uses online learning resources to facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place.

Students access Khan Academy outside of the classroom:

1. Khan Academy as a Digital Textbook
The Khan Academy videos contain background information, problems and examples clearly explained with simple but neatly done illustrations. The videos can be used by Middle School and Upper School students.
The Academy covers almost every single topic for each of the following subjects:
Mathematics: Arithmetic, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics, Pre-Calculus, Calculus
Science: Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Selected topics in European History

2. Khan Academy as a Virtual Tutor
Students can watch the videos anytime, anywhere. This includes mobile devices that can access YouTube or directly with this I-Phone app: Khan Academy: A Classroom in your Pocket

3. Khan Academy as a repository of Review Materials
a. To review for topics, access additional problems and exercises and get another explanation for a particular concept.
b. To prepare for quizzes or tests.
c. To prepare for the AP Exams: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Calculus.

4. Khan Academy for Reverse Instruction
Flip the classroom by having students use Khan Academy to study the content at home then use face to face instruction for deepening into topics, allowing for more practice time, classroom discussion, additional hands-on activities and problem-based learning.
Excellent resources:
Reverse Instruction in the English Classroom

5. Khan Academy as a Summer Academy
A course can be structured having the students access the selected topics to learn the content and go through the Exercises section.
The Khan Academy Exercise Software is a powerful learning platform that allows students and teachers to track their progress through the Profiles. Students complete Challenges and can earn Energy Points and various levels of Badges. It offers an amazing variety of interactive visualizations (knowledge maps, timelines, focus charts, exercise progress reports, etc.)
A Summer Academy can also be part of a Blended-Learning school component where a teacher acts as a facilitator setting goals and expectations and tracking the students’ progress through the Exercise Software.

6. Khan Academy for Enrichment Courses in Blended-Learning:
Students can have access to courses not offered in traditional core curricula:
- Organic Chemistry
- Cosmology and Astronomy
- Differential Equations
- Linear Algebra
- Finances
Students can study the material at their own pace using the Khan Academy Exercise Software.

7. Khan Academy for Math Remediation
Students that are transferring from other schools and need to acquire or refine their math skills can work through a set of exercises until they demonstrate the level of mastery required.
The students can be motivated by completing the challenges and earning a series of badges.
(Suggested by @mmmcewen)

SYNCHRONOUS USE
Synchronous learning refers to a group of people learning the same things at the same time in the same place.
Students access Khan Academy in the classroom:

1. Khan Academy for Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated Instruction is a teaching strategy based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to different readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles of students in the classrooms.
The three key elements of differentiated instruction are content, process and product.
The Content refers to the curricular materials to be learned by the students. The Process consists of the activities through which students develop their knowledge and the Product refers to the array of options through which students can demonstrate what they have learned.
Using Khan Academy for differentiation:
a. Teachers can facilitate differentiated learning by Content and Process having the students use a laptop in class to learn or review the material at their own pace.
b. Teachers can facilitate differentiated learning by Product having the students research a topic and creating a reflecting artifact such as a blog posting, a digital presentation (Glogster, Prezi, video).

2. Khan Academy as Teaching Assistant
Teachers can divide class time into three activities as follows:
I. Using laptops or the computer lab the students access Khan Academy to work through the material and practice problems and exercises.
II. Students present a quick wrap-up of the topic.
III. The topic can be used for a deeper classroom discussion or students can work individually or in groups on new problems and exercises.

3. Khan Academy as Substitute Teacher
Teachers can create a generic lesson plan that involves students using Khan Academy for a lesson and then completing the Exercises section. The work of the students is recorded for teacher verification.

4. Khan Academy for Snow Days
For the winter months: January or February, teachers can create and post a list of potential videos that can be used in case of school closings.

5. Khan Academy as a Motivational Tool
Teachers can get inspired to create their own screencasts and introduce reverse instruction in their courses. (Suggested by @Deacs84)

I bet there are countless other ways to use Khan Academy. Would love to hear What you KHAN do with it!

9 comments:

Joshua Sommermeyer said...

Thanks for the great ideas!

Matt Harmless said...

Awesome ideas. I am thinking about using the Khan Academy for some remedial work with students who fail. You have given me some good ideas.

Becky Maher said...

You have such amazing ideas, and you do a fantastic job of sharing with others!

dgende said...

Thank you all for your kind comments!

pduval said...

Great applications. You've just changed the face of snow days!

MrD said...

This revolution in education is giving me sleepless nights! I have written to every headteacher within my local education authority promoting KhanAcademy.org and 'Academic Earth'. I have booked a hall twice, April /May 2011 (London UK) at my own expense, to meetup with local people who might be interested in promoting KhanAcademy.org and AE. No stone will be let unturned. I was made aware of KA only a week ago when I watched, perchance, Ted.com website. Since then I haven't stopped. I desperately needed pause and rewind when I was at school. This generation has even fewer excuses. Thank you all for sharing. Very succinct Delores.

Florent Berthet said...

Great ideas. I'm actually considering starting a school (in France) using the Khan Academy videos as the main teaching resource. The teachers/tutors would be here mainly to:
- help the students who struggle
- make small groups of students of various levels in order to stimulate peer coaching
- start group projects

The daily learning time should be at least twice shorter than what it currently is in our classrooms, so that would leave a lot of free time for the kids to do stuff like sports, music, personal projects, etc. (ideally, the school should be well equipped for these matters).

So I have questions for you and everyone else: do you think it could work for the kids? do you think people would be interested in paying for this, considering the teaching come from free videos?

If you had to do this kind of school, how would you organize it?

Unknown said...

Florent, parent's would be willing to pay for it (or at least they should be willing). Don't compare your price to the price of the Khan Academy. Compare your price to the price of the schools in your area and then compare the price difference to the effectives difference.

Sue said...

I have been using KA in my Algebra II and Precalculus classes all year. It has created a paradigm shift for both me and the students in that mastery now is the only option. The structure of KA doesn't allow failure.
I am anxious to collaborate with others on what their experiences have been. I am in NC but am willing to travel.

Sue

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