The video about Khan Academy in the “Supplemental Material” for Chapter One of our textbook is hands down my favorite things in this course so far. I have already put the information there to my own personal use.
Since this is an on-line course, it seems especially fitting for us to watch a video about on-line learning. To me, Khan is a genius who has taken on-line learning to a new level. When I went on the website for Khan Academy (click here: http://www.khanacademy.org/) , I clicked on the green “Play a Video” box because I wanted to see for myself what Khan's lectures are like. Since I am taking Evolution this semester, I decided to see if Khan had any videos that might help me out there. Clicking on the “Play a Video” box was very enlightening. When Khan says he has lots of videos, he is not kidding. It is dazzling to think that he has personally done so many of them. They are mostly in math and sciences, but there are also a few in business and some other areas. I found videos on various Evolution topics under “Biology” and decided to watch the one on DNA to see if it would clear up my rather foggy understanding of this topic from reading my current textbook. All I can say is, “Wow!”
These videos are relatively low tech. I guess I was expecting to see Mr. Khan himself writing on a white board. Instead, you don’t see Mr. Khan. You hear him. What you see is a white board on which he writes, not too much but not too little, as he calmly explains the basics in a way you wish you had seen years ago, before the first biology chapter you ever encountered on this subject. The handwriting that appears is a bit messy, but legible, and it sems somehow to add to the charm of the lecture. I found the DNA lecture very easy to follow and more interesting than reading a textbook chapter that gave me way too much information for one sitting. I think it would be great to watch a Khan video first, and then read the text. I haven’t had time yet (busy with some Blog assignments for another course!), but I plan to see what happens when I click on the “Practice with an Exercise” box for the subject of DNA. I also watched the video entitled “Introduction to Evolution and Natural Selection” which had that same wonderful “clarifying” effect. I was glad to see that the Khan Academy has several more videos available on Evolution topics. I even won three badges, once I figure out how to log in and claim them, just as he promised!
I can really see how something like the Khan Academy could revolutionize the institution of education. Khan's comment that his cousins prefer the digital version of him to the real guy when they are trying to learn something really rang true. This technology makes it possible to repeat and relearn without embarrassment for either the student (for failing to learn) or the teacher (for failing to teach). It will be interesting to see how long this idea takes to hit the mainstream of American education, if it ever does. There will probably be numerous interest groups and organizations that feel threatened by it and may work against its acceptance and spread. Yet on-line education in general represents a great potential for improving the results of our educational system and for extending educational opportunities to those who do not enjoy the luxury of face-to-face learning opportunities for any number of reasons. Khan’s comments about the potential for globalization of education through this concept were also enlightening. Globalization of education in general and one-on-one interaction between a student and a tutor across borders also seems like intriguing ideas for the 21st Century.
The Khan Academy is an example of the rapidly changing face of education in light of new and evolving technologies. In talking about our social institutions, our textbook says that “although the effects of changes can be felt at the organizational and institutional levels, they are ultimately initiated, implemented, or rejected, and, most important, experienced by individual people (Newman, 2010, p. 29). Education is no exception. Mr. Kahn has certainly been an individual agent of change in the social institution of education, and I, as an individual, have experienced the results of his efforts to change this institution myself by listening to his lectures. The possibilities seem exciting and endless.
Side note:
Click here (http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/129995903.html) for an interesting reader editorial “Online education offers as much (if not more)" that appeared in the September 19, 2011 Minneapolis Star Tribune. This editorial is in counterpoint to a commentary entitled “On-line education doesn’t measure up” which appeared in the August 29 Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Work Cited:
Newman, D.M. (2010). Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. 8th Ed. Pine Forge Press: Thousand Oaks, California.
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