After reading the Cuban article I was shocked to read that some classrooms used to use radio as a teaching method. But then when I was reflecting on the article I remember that some of the classrooms that my classmates in California were observing were using a lot of Khan academy videos in their classrooms.
Khan academy is now a database of videos of different lessons in math and some of the sciences. It started out just as youtube videos that a Salman Khan was posting to help his nephew with math. The Gates foundation figured out what he was doing and started funding him. Now the Khan academy has over 4,000 videos online all for free. Their mission is "a free world class education for anyone anywhere".
After our fist day of class when Rory was talking about how there are a lot of people out there who would like to see classrooms turn mostly over to computer and have teachers become obsolete. The Khan academy would be a perfect way to do this. So I have been thinking, what is this revolution all about? is it about giving kids more access and information to the world around them and allowing teachers to have more resources in there lesson? or is it about having all lessons online and taking the standard classroom teacher out of the equation? I am studying to be a high school math teacher and I am in no way advocating for less teachers, but what do you guys think, can we have classrooms that operate with students watching these videos and learning? is this a useful tool?
If you would like some more information on the Khan academy here are some links!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk
http://www.khanacademy.org
Sarah! I have never heard of the Khan Academy. That is so cool! Have you ever used their video database? Having resources like that is what scares me about becoming a teacher. However, I do think that even though these videos exist someone needs to be in the video doing the teaching. Also, there maybe a specific topic in a subject you aren't too familiar with but students are asking about and this video database might be a good (and cheaper) way to teach students a little bit about something we're not familiar with. With budget cuts these days schools probably cannot afford a guest speaker to talk about something like 'French Slang' vocabulary so searching for a video might be the next best option. It still does not take away from the discussions that I think are very important for learning to occur. These videos present the information but there is still a teacher needed to actually teach it to the students and ensure that the material is grasped. All-in-all I think educational videos (à la Bill Nye the science guy) can be incredibly useful tools if used to supplement an actual teacher and not to replace the teacher.
ReplyDeleteDestiney I agree that videos cannot replace teachers and if they ever do it would be a terribly sad day! I have never used the data base in teaching, I have used it to tutor and I have seen teachers use them in their classrooms kind of as a jumping off point or as a reference point. It is helpful to have a different way of explaining a topic that kids are struggling with. I know right now the data base is only for math and science and I do not know of a similar thing for the social sciences classes but I think it would be interesting to see something like that develop.
DeleteI haven't heard of Khan Academy either, I'm going to check it out when I have some spare time (ha ha). I find this idea of replacing teachers with videos very interesting because I used to work in a Waldorf/Steiner school (staff, not faculty) and there is a push to keep kids away from the tv/computer screen during the school week. They are coming at it from a developmental position that I can't speak to very well but I think it's interesting to think of the possibilities on both ends of the spectrum: no screen time -> virtual instruction. Until I watch these I can't form much of an opinion but my knee-jerk reaction is that I would use this sort of thing to enhance a student's experience but I would fear the video teacher could easily become a babysitter...
ReplyDeleteI read an article titled, "Computers Can't Replace Real Teachers" by Wendy Kopp for CNN. It was an interesting article about the possibility of teachers being replaced by computers. You can take a look at it at www.cnn.com/2013/04/08/opinion/kopp-kids-real-teachers. It's an interesting concept, students focusing on a screen in the classroom without a teacher present and facilitating the learning in the same room. The French-Nicaraguan School in Nicaragua has some of its classes taught that way, but it is not the general norm. The classes worked well, according to some students that I spoke too. Apparently, there was no classroom chaos, kids focused on their work and could get extra help from a tutor if there was any confusion. It definitely seems easy enough and the students were fine with it - I see it as working more for math or science classes, but not so much for English / language arts.
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