Stanford Medical School, which allows its students to take lectures online if they want, summoned Mr. Khan to help its faculty spice up their presentations.I am happy Salman Khan exists. I'm glad he's doing what he's doing; I hope he keeps on doing it. His SAT videos weren't helpful in our case (though I can imagine they would be to many others), and he talks too fast in the one distributive property video I watched for me to use it with my middle school math student (who is now distributing the negative rather well, thank you for asking). I have high hopes for the videos on the American-Chinese Debt Loop, however.
Online Learning, Personalized
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: December 4, 2011
But here's the question.
In what universe is Salman Khan the person you summon to "spice up" a presentation?
Surely not the one I'm living in.
I recently realized that over the past few years I have been watching a semi-astounding number of TV shows (and movies) in which central characters are dead and don't know it.
ReplyDelete(American Horror Story is on tonight, fyi. We're fans.)
Anyway, a week ago or so, I was contemplating some crazy, topsy-turvy aspect of the edu-world, which now escapes me. It was the kind of situation where entire public school institutions were dedicated to doing **exactly** the wrong thing, and were being breathlessly jubilant in their wrongheadedness without seeming to have the faintest recognition that the wrong thing they were doing was not working.
And I suddenly thought: maybe a meteor hit the Earth in 1985 and we just don't know it.
We've died and entered an after-world in which Not Teaching is universally conceived to be Teaching and Salman Khan is a person you summon to spice up your presentation.
I probably sound like I'm losing my marbles, but I assure you I am not.
ReplyDeleteIn what universe is Salman Khan the person you summon to "spice up" a presentation?
ReplyDeleteHa. Ben Stein was busy?
But speaking of celebrity lecturers and classroom flipping, what about hiring Robert Picardo to do all the public school math videos? If you throw in enough artifical intelligence software, you could replace all the school teachers in America. Stubborn cases can be referred to low-paid Indian tutors working with tablet computers and Skype.
Ha. Ben Stein was busy?
ReplyDeleteoh-my-god----I'm not just laughing, I'm HORSE laughing!
Stubborn cases can be referred to low-paid Indian tutors working with tablet computers and Skype.
ReplyDeleteYou must have missed that post.
I like this theory!
ReplyDeleteI was talking to a teacher friend the other day and he was lamenting that the curriculum is going to change yet again and that if they follow what they say they want to do, they'll move everything to a grade earlier.
Mind you, this is an urban district with not great scores. Mind you, they spent years with EM which is likely the worst way to teach kids who come in without number sense, without support for education at home, and without a parent who can figure out what's being asked and more importantly, what's being missed.
But, the new big idea (again, this is really part of the idea of spiraling) is that if kids aren't getting, 5th grade math in 5th grade it means you really need to teach those concepts in...4th grade! Brilliant! Bravo! Imagine how much better they'll do at it, not learning it at an earlier age!
Now kids coming into K and 1st grade without any number skills, 1-3 years behind other kids of middle class, well-educated parents, will be expected to be getting through 1-3 more years of math in their first few years of school, too. It's genius!
What teacher can't take 25-30 elementary students who are starting behind and teach them 2-6 years of math in a year? Whiner slacker teachers, that's who!
Jen, my mother complains about this all the time -- the list of what her kids are supposed to be able to do after kindergarten is insane, especially for many of her kids who have no academic skills at all coming in.
ReplyDeleteIn what universe is Salman Khan the person you summon to "spice up" a presentation?
ReplyDeleteMaybe they couldn't book Dan Meyer (aka Dy/Dan)?
Maybe they couldn't book Dan Meyer (aka Dy/Dan)?
ReplyDeleteMore Horselaughs!