Excellent teaching method

[paralleloscope]

_http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy?feature=watch
_http://www.khanacademy.org

This guy Salman Khan has produced numerous masterful teaching videos from the most basic to advanced academy subjects. He speaks with a smile, humour and easy intuitive perspectives. Excellent for homeschooling, adult learning and as the TED video explains; a reform on regular school teaching/learning.

Personally I've been bogged down with lousy teachers as probably most people have, that only know to explain from a very rigid perspective, I thought that they were missing an ability to relate to their students specific understanding. After learning from this guy on a youtube platform I see that the main missing element is a relay through simple external consideration of not trying to mix or overshoot the level in focus. One is not intimidated by the teachers attitude as he is having fun conveying and being with his material. It seems he builds from a simple approach, much like the way Laura and this group does it, with the (paraphrased) thought that "if you cannot explain it like you would to a 5 year old, you neither understand nor can teach it."

 

[Gimpy]

_http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy?feature=watch
_http://www.khanacademy.org

This guy Salman Khan has produced numerous masterful teaching videos from the most basic to advanced academy subjects. He speaks with a smile, humour and easy intuitive perspectives. Excellent for homeschooling, adult learning and as the TED video explains; a reform on regular school teaching/learning.

Personally I've been bogged down with lousy teachers as probably most people have, that only know to explain from a very rigid perspective, I thought that they were missing an ability to relate to their students specific understanding. After learning from this guy on a youtube platform I see that the main missing element is a relay through simple external consideration of not trying to mix or overshoot the level in focus. One is not intimidated by the teachers attitude as he is having fun conveying and being with his material. It seems he builds from a simple approach, much like the way Laura and this group does it, with the (paraphrased) thought that "if you cannot explain it like you would to a 5 year old, you neither understand nor can teach it."

Hubby stumbled across this site a while ago, and we've been sending the link on to the folks we know that teach High School. My sister is a High School Science teacher, and she loves it too.

FWIW, I learned more going through that site than I ever did in a regular class.

 

[truth seeker]

_http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy?feature=watch
_http://www.khanacademy.org

This guy Salman Khan has produced numerous masterful teaching videos from the most basic to advanced academy subjects. He speaks with a smile, humour and easy intuitive perspectives. Excellent for homeschooling, adult learning and as the TED video explains; a reform on regular school teaching/learning.

Personally I've been bogged down with lousy teachers as probably most people have, that only know to explain from a very rigid perspective, I thought that they were missing an ability to relate to their students specific understanding. After learning from this guy on a youtube platform I see that the main missing element is a relay through simple external consideration of not trying to mix or overshoot the level in focus. One is not intimidated by the teachers attitude as he is having fun conveying and being with his material. It seems he builds from a simple approach, much like the way Laura and this group does it, with the (paraphrased) thought that "if you cannot explain it like you would to a 5 year old, you neither understand nor can teach it."

I just viewed one of the algebra videos. Really brings back memories. I could have used this back in school. :/ Thanks much for the link! :)

 

[paralleloscope]

FWIW, I learned more going through that site than I ever did in a regular class.

Me too :) , IMO it's amazing how this angle of simple elegance garnered with philosophic mirth will set stuff straight that brokenly got steamrolled into you.

I just viewed one of the algebra videos. Really brings back memories. I could have used this back in school. :/ Thanks much for the link! :)

Pleasure. Yeah, it could have brought 'learning is fun' in at a much earlier stage. It's still very good for adults wanting to fill in the gaps. I'm using the algebra series for getting up to date for a programming course, and chemistry series in preparation for recommended alchemical litterature.

 

[3DStudent]

_http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy?feature=watch
_http://www.khanacademy.org

This guy Salman Khan has produced numerous masterful teaching videos from the most basic to advanced academy subjects. He speaks with a smile, humour and easy intuitive perspectives. Excellent for homeschooling, adult learning and as the TED video explains; a reform on regular school teaching/learning.

Personally I've been bogged down with lousy teachers as probably most people have, that only know to explain from a very rigid perspective, I thought that they were missing an ability to relate to their students specific understanding. After learning from this guy on a youtube platform I see that the main missing element is a relay through simple external consideration of not trying to mix or overshoot the level in focus. One is not intimidated by the teachers attitude as he is having fun conveying and being with his material. It seems he builds from a simple approach, much like the way Laura and this group does it, with the (paraphrased) thought that "if you cannot explain it like you would to a 5 year old, you neither understand nor can teach it."

I just viewed one of the algebra videos. Really brings back memories. I could have used this back in school. :/ Thanks much for the link! :)

Yeah, thanks for this. There are so many videos there! I watched an algebra one too. I wasn't good at Algebra in school and I remember the C's saying it was important to know it.

 

[Zadius Sky]

I just viewed one of the algebra videos. Really brings back memories. I could have used this back in school. :/ Thanks much for the link! :)

Yeah, thanks for this. There are so many videos there! I watched an algebra one too. I wasn't good at Algebra in school and I remember the C's saying it was important to know it.

I just watched one of the videos as well. He spoke very clearly enough for me to understand. It would be useful and easier to have him as a teacher back then. But, algebra was never part of my high school curriculum. So, it's still on my subject-to-learn list.

Referring to Cs' on algebra:

Q: (L) Well, you are suggesting that I CAN tell others such things?
A: You can convey, but suggest it be done in a subtle fashion.
Q: (L) Well, how subtle can it be? I mean, 'hello folks, you know the words munch, crunch, yum yum???'
A: It is not all that way, and you know it! Most are not eaten, just manipulated. Knowledge protects in the most amazing ways. Mathematics are "taught' in your realm in such a way that only a select few will learn. And mathematics is the language of all creation. For example, advanced math studies, such as algebra, provide the keys to unlocking the doors between the matter and antimatter universes. Suggest those present who still need to, learn algebra.
Q: (L) Okay, you suggest that those present learn algebra...
A: Who need to.
Q: (L) Are you saying that we can unlock doors between matter and anti-matter universes? Is that what you are getting at here?
A: Maybe...

 

[Mikey]

This is an excellent idea and resource, thank you for posting!

 

[truth seeker]

Yeah, thanks for this. There are so many videos there! I watched an algebra one too. I wasn't good at Algebra in school and I remember the C's saying it was important to know it.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm interested in taking it up again.

The other is because back in high school, I had a difficult time with algebra in particular - so much so that I had to go to summer school which was a first for me. Basically, I felt stupid. When I went, the teacher there taught it in such a way that made it seem simple. It was at that point that I realized that there were teachers who didn't necessarily know how to teach to everyone. Looking back, I also realize that not everyone learns in the same way. Being able to cross that barrier made me see that perhaps I wasn't deficient. Of course the next year, unfortunately I had similar problems with geometry (theorems and such). For better or worse though, I think I was passed on a curve system. I was never so happy to have that be my last math requirement but sadly, I think from then on, I labelled myself as someone who couldn't 'do math'. So nice to be able to have the opportunity to try again. :)

 

[Ðekel]

this is great.

thanks for posting this. :)

 

[seek10]

Thanks parrellel for the sharing. Amazing website indeed. Just watched for 5minutes about DNA video.. I should say this is amazing. All the PTB bigwigs are eyeing on this website and donating it, so pretty soon this will be hijacked . Already these vulture capitalists are shutting down the public schools towards private schools and they are going to fill up schools with this type of videos while charging top dollars. For these people like Bill Gates, this like a chinese goods. for 10 cents investment for $20 toy. He produced 2700 videos in 5 years with technical team making software and team gathering the subject matter , team making videos and team supporting the Millions of visitor traffic to the website . Reminds me of yesterdays wizards , amazon, google, facebook, wikileaks, wikipedia and we know where all this ended.

 

[SeekinTruth]

Yeah, thanks for this. There are so many videos there! I watched an algebra one too. I wasn't good at Algebra in school and I remember the C's saying it was important to know it.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm interested in taking it up again.

The other is because back in high school, I had a difficult time with algebra in particular - so much so that I had to go to summer school which was a first for me. Basically, I felt stupid. When I went, the teacher there taught it in such a way that made it seem simple. It was at that point that I realized that there were teachers who didn't necessarily know how to teach to everyone. Looking back, I also realize that not everyone learns in the same way. Being able to cross that barrier made me see that perhaps I wasn't deficient. Of course the next year, unfortunately I had similar problems with geometry (theorems and such). For better or worse though, I think I was passed on a curve system. I was never so happy to have that be my last math requirement but sadly, I think from then on, I labelled myself as someone who couldn't 'do math'. So nice to be able to have the opportunity to try again. :)

When I was in grammar school and high school, I liked math because I could get top grades if I could listen to the important concepts in class, understand it, and never do any homework or studying after, just use the understanding on the tests. Well, it worked great if I had a good teacher.

But in 7th grade, we learned algebra. The teacher was one of the worst I've had. Really narcissistic and self-important and unable to explain anything in a reasonable way. Although I got very good grades, I didn't learn anything useful. This was the case with many non-math classes, as well. Very rare that I learned something really useful later in life.

So in sophemore year in high school, we learned strictly geometry. It was essentially Euclidean geometry and is only useful for classroom learning and exercises and doesn't have much real life application (unless you live in a 2 dimensional world :P). But during the course, I realized how much I hadn't learned anything in algebra and actually learned algebra quite well in the geometry class. I still use many common basic algebra formulas and have been for decades -- such as for photography, filmmaking, and mechanical / engineering problems, you often need to use algebra to figure certain things out.

Same thing happened later, in my senior year in high school. I took a math class called Trigonometry and Advanced Math and also AP Calculus and AP Physics classes. The Calculus teacher was also one of the worst I had and I didn't learn much. However, in the Advanced Math class I had a much better teacher and many overlapping lessons, and the same in the Physics class and I ended up learning quite a bit of calculus because of these other two classes.

So I ended up learning algebra pretty well in geometry class (years after having taken an algebra course) and learned quite a bit of calculus in another math class and a physics class (all the same school year) and learned next to nothing in calculus class. So I started getting suspicious that in order to learn a particular subject in the public school system, you had much better chances to learn it if you took a class in a different subject -- and it would probably happen inadvertently. :P

Any way, thanks for that link, I think I'll be looking into a bunch of videos to brush up on and learn a whole bunch of things.

 

[paralleloscope]

All the PTB bigwigs are eyeing on this website and donating it, so pretty soon this will be hijacked .

Seems like it already has been in a sense. If one plays the learning game on the site; A big structural tree of quizzes with point and badge system (which could be said to be a healthy game mechanic apart from the competition dynamic) one can only register an account via ones facebook or google account, which means that the PTB's Supercomputer has even more accurate readings to map the IQ and reaction times of their subjects. If one considers that these readings are already known to 4d, the sting of handing over this data to the 3rd density mappers is buffered, but still...

 

[Ðekel]

i personally stopped short of signing up exactly because of this need to sign up via gmail or facebook.
it just seemed weird.

you can still access all the videos and learn quite a bit there though.

it's just too bad they don't cover these topics;

-Self Work
-Multidimensionality
-STS / STO
-Health / Diet / Wheat / bigPharma

etc'

 

[paralleloscope]

Found some criticism on Khan academy, FWIW. It relates to the budding movement of 'flipped classroom', which is basically having web based video lectures at home, learning the thory at ones own pace and classroom time is used for hands-on experiments. Essentially skipping isolated homework and instead doing the essential psycho-motoric affective learning and homework in collaborative practice. Which sounds like a really good idea if you ask me.

About Karl fisch who is one of the pioneers
_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/7996379/Daniel-Pinks-Think-Tank-Flip-thinking-the-new-buzz-word-sweeping-the-US.html

What does this have to do with Sal Khan?: In the words of Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D.

It is important, though, not to be seduced by the messenger. Sal Khan is very charismatic and has produced good videos to explain some complex mathematical concepts. With the growth of open education resources via Youtube and Creative Commons, it is important to note that excellent video lectures have been and are freely/easily available The Flipped Classroom concept, though, was not developed and articulated by Khan but by teachers such as Karl Fisch and Jon Bergman/Aaron Sams.
The problem is that educators, as a group, know how to do and use the lecture. When educators are asked to replace their in-class lectures with videotaped ones (either their own or others) that learners watch at home, educators may not know what to do with this now void in-class time. Those who advocate for the flipped classroom state that class time can then be used for discourse and for providing hands-on, authentic learning experiences. In a recent interview Khan stated. “If I was a teacher, this is exactly the type of class I’d want to teach, I don’t have to prepare in a traditional sense. But I do have to prepare for projects and all that, so I have to prepare for creative things” (Meet Sal Khan).AsFrank Noschese notes:

Sal Khan is not showing any examples about what students and teachers are doing beyond Khan Academy. The news stories are not showing the open-ended problems the kids should be engaging with after mastering the basics — instead they show kids sitting in front of laptops working drills and watching videos. The focus is on the wrong things. Khan Academy is just one tool in a teacher’s arsenal. (If it’s the only tool, that is a HUGE problem.) _http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/khan-academy-my-final-remarks/

In other words, the message being given is that teachers can do what they want to during class time. Now educators have time for engagement and interaction with the learners (#EdCampChicago presentation).
A major roadblock or barrier to the implementation of this model is that many educators do not know what to do within the classroom, what to do with that “whatever they want to do” time. For educators, who are used to and use the didactic model, a framework is needed to assist them with the implementation of the Flipped Classroom. In other words, the message to teachers to do what they want during classroom is not enough to make this transition.

_http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/the-flipped-classroom-model-a-full-picture/

So Bil Gates/TED are presumably using Khan to detract from a potential revolution of schooling. It may be a small issue in the scope of the bigger picture, but worth a notice imo.

 

[paralleloscope]

I was moved by Sal Khan's talk below, a 1½ hour talk at his old school MIT. He talks about how the idea for KhanAcademy grew, what they are doing now and what he sees about the future of education. In a few ways he is trying to bring back the trivium (libereral education, though no mention of the old standard in specific). He touches on the unrelating, seperated and mangled ways topics are taught, how important visceral learning is. He has a nice sentence going something like: "The system we've been indoctrinated into is about having a fixed amount of time to learn a concept, and the variable is how well you learn it. Used as a way to place value judgement on you. Let's make the constant how well you learn it and the variable about how and when you learn the concept."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9JCpMCQ5qM&feature=related