About 9 months ago, I stumbled upon a list of websites a blogger found useful for homeschooling his children. I was curious and checked them out one by one. Most were tacky, or cutesy and made for younger folks (makes sense). I suspect most would actually fit well into a home-school curriculum for an elementary to middle-school aged child, with games, quizzes, and instant feed-back. One website, however, caught my attention, and has held it ever since.
It's called Khan Academy, a non-profit educational web-service founded by Salman Khan in 2006. Originally an analyst at a hedge-fund, Mr. Khan began his education career tutoring cousins over long distance using Yahoo! doodle pad. He then put these tutorials on Youtube, which grew so popular that he eventually quit his hedge-fund job and started making video tutorials full-time. Ranging from basic arithmetic to differential calculus, geometry, algebra, statistics, chemistry, biology, physics, finance, healthcare, programming, astronomy, history, test-prep, and more, the website has over 4,200 video tutorials and exercises, all available for free.
I have personally reviewed videos relating to statistics and chemistry while taking those classes, and found them exceedingly helpful. The format allows for self-paced learning, such that one can repeat videos as many times as needed, and go back and review older concepts that did not stick the first time. I remember taking physics several years ago, and finding how costly forgetting certain algebra and trig rules could be when the subjects became complex. Being able to go back and review those concepts might have made a huge difference. Now that I know about the resource and use it frequently, I feel more confident taking on challenging classes in the fields of science and mathematics.
Now some may argue that video lectures are a form of dehumanizing education, but Mr. Khan makes a convincing argument to the contrary. If anything, he says, video tutorials actually humanize education, because they "flip the classroom," making more time available in class for individualized attention. When he says "flip the classroom," he means having most of the lecturing done at home, while having what is traditionally considered "homework" done in class, with peers and teachers close at hand to advise, direct, and answer questions. Within this model, the "one-size-fits-all" lecture is done through a video tutorial that can be repeated as many times as need be, and linked to other tutorials on related or important concepts (such as algebra and trig functions from my example with physics). By taking most of the lecturing out of the school day, more time is then available for interaction and applied problem-solving.
It's an interesting concept, and I'll be curious to see how it pans out in time (check on this youtube video for a 2011 talk by Mr. Khan on the subject). But the main reason I'm writing about this eminently useful website is just that...it's useful! Given time, an internet connection, and some patience, one can teach themselves all the mathematics most of us will ever want to know (or if current labor-market trends continue, need to know), or gain an enlarged understanding of some of the major fields of human inquiry today. As a tool for school-aged kids, it's like having a first-rate tutor available on demand...for free. For adults who want or need to go back to school, it can serve a similar function. So if you're struggling with a math, science, finance, or economics (or humanities, though I haven't examined those videos closely as yet), or just feel like learning something new, Khan Academy is a fun, free, and effective tool for meeting those needs.
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