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Khan Academy
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Khan Academy is an online learning platform that teaches a variety of topics through the use of educational videos and interactive learning. Since its inception in 2008, Khan Academy has delivered over 440 million lessons to students around the world.[1]
Background
Beginning in 2004, Salman "Sal" Khan used the internet and telephone as a means to tutor his cousin in mathematics. Other family members became interested in his help, but due to his busy work schedule, Khan was unable to teach them consistently. As a solution to this problem, Khan recorded his lessons and posted them on YouTube, where others could view them. As he got more viewers and more requests for different topics, Khan continued to make videos and eventually turned Khan Academy into a fully-fledged nonprofit organization. After receiving significant donations from several organizations, including Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Khan was able to expand his reach to over 200 countries worldwide.[1][2]
From 2010 to 2012, Khan Academy videos have been viewed over 200 million times. The videos were viewed by over 6 million unique students each month who, as of 2012, completed about 2 million (math) problems a day. The curricula have been used in over 20,000 classrooms throughout the world, and have been translated into over 24 different languages.[3]
Operations
| Advertisement for Khan Academy, published August 2014. |
As mentioned above, Khan Academy uses a combination of videos and interactive learning activities to deliver information. The videos are available on YouTube and the Khan Academy website, but the interactive activities are available only on the latter. While the videos are self-explanatory, there is a variety of different activities that can be completed on the Khan Academy site. One of the primary tools is the "personal learning dashboard," a feature that keeps track of what videos an individual watches and offers advice for further learning. For instance, after a learner watches a video on algebra concepts, the dashboard will recommend practice problems that match what was just presented in the video. The dashboard also contains coaching tools that other educators can use. This makes it easier for teachers to use Khan videos in traditional classrooms as a part of a [[Blended learning|blended learning]] approach.[1][4]
All of Khan Academy's services are offered for free. However, because of the popularity of the platform and its potential positive influence on education, Khan Academy has garnered immense financial support from various sponsors. These sponsors include, but are not limited to, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Bank of America and the O'Sullivan Foundation. Donations are also accepted from individuals who wish to support the mission of Khan Academy.[5]
Criticism
Khan Academy has achieved much renown in a short period of time. However, many people, including education experts, have criticized Khan and his approaches to some education topics.
One article, written by mathematics experts Christopher Danielson and Michael Paul Goldenberg, discusses how Khan's videos lack what they refer to as "pedagogical content knowledge," or PCK. According to Danielson and Goldenberg, PCK is what gives educators the ability to address problems that students have while learning. It is the knowledge that allows teachers to understand what students aren't learning so that later content can fill in the gaps. Without PCK, Khan and his videos leave students with certain problems that education professionals would be able to address. Danielson and Goldenberg argue that Khan never addresses these problems.[6]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term 'Khan + Academy
See also
- Online learning
- Interactive learning platform
- Blended learning
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Khan Academy, "Fact pack," accessed September 26, 2014
- ↑ Khan Academy, "How did Khan Academy get started," accessed September 29, 2014
- ↑ Forbes.com, "One man, one computer, 10 million students: How Khan Academy is reinventing education," accessed October 16, 2014
- ↑ YouTube.com, "Khan Academy," accessed September 29, 2014
- ↑ Khan Academy, "Our supporters," accessed September 29, 2014
- ↑ The Washington Post, "How well does Khan Academy teach?" accessed October 16, 2014
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