By now many of us may have heard
of Khan Academy. Only now it is not just math, science, and computer sciences
that are available. The broad list of subjects available, are Math, Science, Economics
and Finance, Arts and Humanities, Computing, and they even have an S.A.T, and
other test prep sections. Their mission is to provide a world class education,
for anyone, anywhere. If you have not tried Khan Academy, it is defiantly worth
it. The way that Khan Academy works is that, they allow learners to not only
work at their own pace, but they also track what areas a student is excelling
in, and where they still need improvement. This is great, because sometime the
only thing holding someone back is one or two small concepts. Khan Academy allows
you to continue to work on those areas that you may be struggling with.
As teachers it is our job to recognize,
that students learn at different paces, in different ways. It can be hard to
meet the needs, of both children who are stuck, and those who are ready to move
ahead. If you are a teacher (or even if you home school your kids), Khan
Academy now has a coaches section. When you register as a coach, you can set up
classrooms, and either create logins for your students that are under 13, or
set up your classroom by entering student’s emails. You can then either watch
videos on your topic in class, or assign them as homework, and allow students
to work through problems related to the tutorials. As their registered coach,
you will be able to see who needs extra attention, and who is flying through
the lesson. You could even encourage those who are excelling to guide other
students. This would allow those students to further cement what they have
learned.
My one problem, is that you are
only able to track math and computer sciences, through coach at this time.
Hopefully soon, the other areas will be available as well. Even without being
able to track where my students are at, as a future history teacher there are
still many tools available. You can incorporate the original Khan Academy videos,
as well as find crash course videos. Crash course is like a quick review, on a
broad range of historical subjects. The narrator John Green is engaging and
down to earth. I would say they are good review videos, maybe at the beginning of
the week, or just before a quiz. Using this website, along with my regular
curriculum, I will be able to even more closely understand where my students
are struggling and excelling.
This is a crash course video on how World War 1 stared, just so you can see what it is.
Are they charging for the "coach" function? I had read rumor that they were moving in that direction.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be harder to do the coaching for other disciplines. It requires a clear and linear breakdown of skills. I will be curious how they make those curricular decisions.