This is an interesting one - how can a teacher be hailed as such, when there is no real interaction (questioning from the student's point of view)? The Khan Academy does have its advantages as a very useful prop to specific lessons and concepts, yet the questions posed by any learner should be equally important if effective learning is to take place.
I agree Doreen, furthermore, the Khan Academy cannot be used as a stand alone to teaching, yet as a tool to extend understanding or to reteach concepts
It is a useful tool I agree. Students need to have an understand of a variety of ways/strategies/methods to draw upon in order to gain a full understand of the concepts.
I don't get why they are making reference to Bill Gates I don't believe he has an understanding of teaching. Although these online library can help with understanding but is it really the way we want education to go online teaching??
I belive that the reference to Gates arises from the fact that he's spending a lot of his money attempting to improve schools and universities. That money means that his views on what is good teaching carry significant weight. More so than his qualifications and experience might otherwise warrant.
What is more, his videos reveal an ignorance of how we know students learn mathematics.
The videos were started to help students who were already learning through the school system and needed more help without having to pay for it. A lot of people are complaining about the videos as alternatives to explicit teaching in the classroom, but aren't they great for what they were originally designed for.
All teachers make mistakes, after all, and Khan should not, the reasoning goes, be called out for making the same mistakes we all make.
There certainly are broken models in education, but there is absolutely no evidence that competent knowledge of student learning and thinking is one that teachers can afford to jettison.
researchers are finding evidence that particular kinds of PCK are associated with greater gains in student learning in elementary mathematics.
revolutionize
The equal sign (=) i
Many mathematics educators stress another kind of knowledge necessary to design and deliver quality instruction: pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). PCK refers to knowledge of content as it relates to teaching.
Content knowledge is important, but it doesn't matter how much knowledge a teacher has if s/he cannot teach that content in a way that the students will actually understand it and be able to apply it in future
I agree that content knowledge is important but it is just as important to know your students and how best they learn
The standard American curricular treatment, in which students are instructed to append zeroes to the shorter decimal to equalize the number of digits helps students to perform this task correctly, but fosters its own misconceptions.
he exercises offer no intellectual rigor and do not address our central concern.
PCK knows from both educational research and professional experience
I think frankly, the best way to do it is you put stuff out there and you see how people react to it; and we have exercises on our site too, so we see whether theyāre able to see how they react to it anecdotally.
A teacher must be prepared before entering the classroom
If Khanās videos occasionally popped up in a Google search, we would be content to have him carry on. There is lots of worse information available on the web. But Khan is hailed as āunbelievableā (
Bill Gates) and his work as āsparking a revolution in education
It is up to the teacher to assess whether or not the videos are suitable for his/her students. If the teacher chooses to use the video, then s/her can refer to the teacher information and see which questions the students answered correctly / incorrectly and identify any misconceptions. These misconceptions can then be addressed by the teacher in the classroom
Whether small steps or large, we urge Sal Khan and his funders to put their time, effort and dollars to the best possible ends, particularly when it comes to making decisions grounded in accurate, carefully considered pedagogical content knowledge
discuss the meaning of the equal sign frequently and explicitly, and (2) model correct use of the equal sign.
To quote a fellow student, Lucas Naughton states, 'ICT must be used to enhance and amplify the learning rather then becoming the point of the learning'. I get that there are holes in the Khan videos however if we are using them to enhance learning then why cant the teacher design an entire lesson around one video. They can discuss the missing misconceptions. They can provide other methods/concepts and they can create practice activities all around a Khan video. Remember-enhance and amplify the learning using these ICT's. Cheers Angela Woodward
Wikipedia mentions Khan's education: "Khan attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science in 1998. Khan also holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School" I can't see a Bachelor of Education in there. I would have thought that this would be essential, and the first stepping-stone, to acquire an understanding of PCK and how students learn.
Danielson and Goldenburg state that "content knowledge alone is inadequate for quality instruction" and that many videos are prone to creating further confusion for students. They also go on to say that Khan's explanations are frequently off target in addressing likely student questions that experienced teachers would anticipate and elicit. Maybe a four-year stint at USQ might be in order?
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'd sugest that "it depends" includes consideration of the "somewhere" in which it is being used. The class, the learners, the teacher(s), what is being learned..
But the rationale that I find most disturbing ā despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that itās rarely made explicit ā is the idea that technology will increase our efficiency
The first of the "big three reason". As here, there are arguments aginst this particular reason, or at least for not having it drive the why (not) question
We canāt answer the question āIs tech useful in schools?ā until weāve grappled with a deeper question: āWhat kinds of learning should be taking place in those schools?ā
The "theory" method from the Why (not) framework can help inform this, but you do need to question your deeper assumptions about this question. Of course, the problem you face is that the "way things are done" impacts this greatly and can limit what you can question
Some people seem to be drawn to technology for its own sake ā because itās cool
Why "goodish practice" can be a problem. Often it's what is "cool" that attracts attention.
Despite corporate-style declarations about the benefits of āinnovationā and ādisruption,ā new forms of technology in the classroom mesh quite comfortably with an old-school model that consists of pouring a bunch oā facts into empty receptacles
Far more common, in any case, are examples of technology that take for granted, and ultimately help to perpetuate, traditional teacher-centered instruction that consists mostly of memorizing facts and practicing skills
This is where we can have some argument. There is some value in doing this type of stuff as long as there is amplification going on AND it's part of a broader move from traditional forms of learning to different types of learning.
I'm also troubled by the "one size fits all" approach to this. "Nothing works everywhere".
According to an article in Education Week, āa host of national and regional surveys suggest that teachers are far more likely to use tech to make their own jobs easier and to supplement traditional instructional strategies than to put students in control of their own learning.
Post reflecting on questions of why (not) and how around ICT and Pedagogy. Critiques a lot of what is currently done. Some annotations added to explicitly link with the course.
Post reflecting on questions of why (not) and how around ICT and Pedagogy. Critiques a lot of what is currently done. Some annotations added to explicitly link with the course.
ICTs are used in education in two general ways: to support existing ātraditionalā pedagogical practices (teacher-centric, lecture-based, rote learning) as well as to enable more learner-centric, āconstructivistā learning models. Research from OECD countries suggests that both are useful, but that ICTs are most effective when they help to enable learner-centric pedagogies.
despite rhetoric that ICTs can enable new types of teaching and learning styles, for the most part they are being used to support traditional learning practices.
Experience in EDC3100 supports this. People tend to use ICT to enhance existing methods, rather than for transforming what they do. Especially in Assignment 3 (which is based on Professional Experience).
The existence of formal and informal communities of practice and peer networks can be important tools to support ICT in education initiatives and activities. Such support mechanisms can be facilitated through the use of ICTs.
This is one of the main reasons behind the push for you to create a Personal Learning Network. A PLN is a peer network that can be an important aid to your teaching.
Adequate time must be allowed for teachers to develop new skills, explore their integration into their existing teaching practices and curriculum, and undertake necessary additional lesson planning, if ICTs are to be used effectively
Effective teacher professional development should approximate the classroom environment as much as possible. "Hands-on" instruction on ICT use is necessary where ICT is deemed to be a vital component of the teaching and learning process. In addition, professional development activities should model effective practices and behaviors and encourage and support collaboration between teachers.
A summary of work done by a World Bank supported group. Attempts to summarise what is known about the use of ICT in education -- original shared by Lisa Stewart
This source unpacks 5 components of pedagogical content knowledge for science teaching which includes:
(a) orientations toward science teaching
(b) knowledge and beliefs about science curriculum
(c) knowledge and beliefs about students' understanding of specific science topics
(d) knowledge and beliefs about assessment in science, and
(e) knowledge and beliefs about instructional strategies for teaching science
So in claiming that learning styles do not exist, we are not saying that all learners are the same. Rather, we assert that a certain number of dimensions (ability, background knowledge, interest) vary from person to person and are known to affect learning. The emphasis on learning styles, we think, often comes at the cost of attention to these other important dimensions.
However, when these tendencies are put to the test under controlled conditions, they make no differenceālearning is equivalent whether students learn in the preferred mode or not. A favorite mode of presentation (e.g., visual, auditory, or kinesthetic) often reveals itself to be instead a preference for tasks for which one has high ability and at which one feels successful.
However, in order to persuade us to devote the time and energy to adopt a certain kind of differentiated teaching, the burden of proof is on those who argue for the existence of that description of students' cognitive strategies
a good rule of thumb is that we should only bring ideas from the laboratory into our teaching if (1) we are sure that the laboratory phenomena exist under at least some conditions and (2) we understand how to usefully apply these laboratory phenomena to instruction
Some research that I need to follow up with and ponder how it might be integrated into EDC3100
We shouldn't congratulate ourselves for showing a video to engage the visual learners or offering podcasts to the auditory learners
we should realize that the value of the video or audio will be determined by how it suits the content that we are asking students to learn and the background knowledge, interests, and abilities that they bring to