Khan Academy - not good pedagogy and not #edreform

Last night, 60 minutes did a story on Khan Academy. For those of you who don’t know, Khan Academy is a collection of free video lectures. It was started as a way for the founder, Sal Khan, to help a family member with homework. Many people are saying that Khan Academy is “the greatest thing in education.” I disagree. 

 

Khan Academy is videos of lectures. This is nothing new. They are boring and do not allow the student to interact with the lecturer. They also focus on solving a math or science problem through basic steps, but do not focus on the actual theory behind the problem. The student may be able to solve that problem, but can they apply the concept to other problems and situations? Many of my students who have watched the videos say that they are boring, and even confusing at times, and that they would rather have me show them. I agree. I find the videos boring and not as great as people seem to say. The other sad thing is that there are millions of dollars flowing to Khan Academy to create more boring, teacher centered, lectures. This money could be better spent in schools on truly innovative ideas and projects.

Mr. Khan stated that the purpose of Khan Academy was to have the students watch the lectures at home, on their own, so teachers could do better things in class. How about we get rid of the lectures all together, or use them sparingly in class as an interactive discussion? How about we make sure that students can learn during class time. How about we assign “homework” to students that addresses their interests and needs?


Videos, whether shown in class or watched at home should show and explore something that the student can not see in class. Virtual field trips, animations that explain a concept, etc. are effective videos. Videos of lectures are not effective and should not be thought of as effective education reform.
Khan Academy is not education reform and it is nothing special or new. It is actually bad pedagogy. Learning needs to be interactive and student centered. Video lectures are neither.

One of the movements that are touting Khan Academy is the Flipped Classroom idea. This is where the students watch videos and lectures at home and the teacher does other work with them in class, such as answering questions and helping them do problems that would normally be done for homework. I have a lot of issues with the Flipped Classroom (read more here), including the fact that this increases the amount of time students have to do homework, doesn’t account for students not having access to the technology to view these videos, and does not follow effective pedagogy. I would rather see the entire class changed to project based learning and instead of doing tons of problem sets, have students research and solve real-world problems. Any homework students do should be to get them more interested in the topic and should be relevant to their lives.

I have no problem sharing Khan Academy with my students as one resource that they can use if they want to to help them with a topic. But for people to say it’s the next best thing in education is ridiculous and uniformed. It rates up there with thinking that more standardized tests actually help students learn.


What do you think?


Related:

Khan Academy

Flipped Classroom - what it is and my reservations of it

Flipped Classroom - my thoughts on it, some other ideas, & infographic

Making School Relevant for Students

10 Important Skills Students Need for the Future

Project Based Learning

Create a Personal Learning Network

Should we force students to learn? or How can we change schools to engage students?

Differentiating with Web 2.0 Technologies

Flipped Classroom - my thoughts on it, some other ideas, & infographic

"Flipped Classroom" is a classroom model where the teacher works with students on projects and what would be typically homework instead of a lecture and the students get the "lecture" at home, usually through a video (like from Kahn Academy, or made by the teacher, or from Discovery Education). The proponents of this model say that it offers the teacher more time to work with students on projects and applying the knowledge, rather than spending time delivering that knowledge. The opponents say that it moves too much work to the student at home and many students don't have access to the resources, like broadband internet and a computer, to watch these videos.

In my opinion, this is nothing new. Teachers assigned reading out of the textbook for homework, and now they want to assign video lectures to watch. What's so different? Does it really improve student learning?

Here's my full article on my reservations of the Flipped Classroom Model: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/04/flipped-classroom-what-it-is-and-my.html

I have students who don't have the time, computer, internet access, or ability to watch videos at home. A video is still a lecture. At home, the students have less access to someone to ask questions of.

Instead of making the students watch lectures at home, can we get rid of lectures all together, or at least change them?

I use lectures in my class. They are short, have lots of multimedia and live demonstrations, and lots of interaction between the students, each other, and my self. I use these lectures in different ways. Sometimes I use them to introduce a topic and the main points and then students do labs and projects were they further explore the concept and learn more about it, while learning other important skills. Other times I start with an inquiry lab or project and then the lecture comes later. With these lecture/discussion/demo's I can ensure that all students are getting certain information and that they have a chance to ask questions and discuss the topic.  I use short videos and animations in class. Could some of this be put on the student to do at home? Yes, but it would not be the same learning experience.

I don't assign a lot of homework. My students have sports, part time jobs, clubs, and many do a lot of work at home due to their situations. They do get some homework, but they have time to start it in class to ask for help.

I want my students to learn, but I don't want them spending hours and hours doing homework, or watching videos at night. I want them to have had a learning experience in school that makes them look at the world around them at home, and wonder why?, how? and be able to apply what they learned in school, to something outside of school. I want them to find things that they are interested in, and want to learn more about it on their own. I think we should be focusing on making school time more productive and effective and leave out of school time for the students to explore their own interests and needs.

Related:

10 Important Skills that Students Need for the Future - watching videos and taking tests are not on list

10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have

What I use with Physics classes instead of a Textbook

Project Based Learning

WPI Plan - Great Educational Model for All Schools

Making School Relevant for Students



What are your thoughts?


Here's an infographic summarizing what the Flipped Classroom is and some data they found. I don't endorse this or the data, just sharing it so people can make their own decision.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Flipped Classroom - what it is and my reservations of it

"Flipped Classroom" is a relatively new idea, where the teacher works with students on projects and what would be typically homework instead of a lecture and the students get the "lecture" at home, usually through a video (like from Kahn Academy). The proponents of this model say that it offers the teacher more time to work with students on projects and applying the knowledge, rather than spending time delivering that knowledge.

I have some issues with the "Flipped Classroom" model. The first is that this model leads to a lot of homework for students if they have to watch videos of lectures. This is not only asking a lot of the students to be able to do, but not anything really new or inventive. Students have other obligations and time commitments and watching video lectures is time consuming.

Students may not have access to a computer at home with high speed internet (needed to watch these videos). Many of my students do not have a computer at home, or have a dial up network. Many do not have anywhere quiet to work or listen to these video lectures.

While watching a video lecture, a student has no one to ask questions of. They would have to write down the question and then ask their teacher the next day. This may cause students to get confused early on and just shut off the video. It is very passive - there is no interaction and no discussion with others. This not how we want our students to learn.

I do share video sites with my students so that they can use them as a review or reference (or even different delivery style and explanation). But, it's not required of them. There are some great online videos available for students to use to learn material, but I don't think it should be the primary delivery method for them.

I use "lecture" of a sort in my Physics class. I use PowerPoint, Prezi, animations, demonstrations, and discussions to present material, ideas, content, and such with my students. They can ask questions of me. We can discuss the topic and it's applications. I also show them short videos in class and pause it at different points to answer questions or discuss what's going on with them. The "lectures" are short and give the basic information for a topic. The students then explore the topics in more depth using projects, labs, and virtual investigations and simulations. They get packets for each topic with a summary of the topic and problems (these packets are much better than the textbook). They start these problems in class and then finish them for homework. We go over the problems in class after they complete them. I have a class website and blogs for each class with links and other resources. For students that don't have computer access at home, I share different printed resources with them.

In my AP Physics class, I have to modify things a little. I present the content for each topic via a PowerPoint presentation and we discuss the topics. The students also have a textbook to read, problems to do, and they do projects and labs. These students typically have much more access to computers at home and are more independent learners. I cover the main points in class and they explore the rest on their own. There are some great online lecture videos for AP Physics that they can use for review or reinforcement, but again, they are not required.


The "Flipped Classroom" may work in some schools and with some students, but it is not a good fit for many students and should be used cautiously.