A Critique of Khan Academy—Is It Deserved?
Katie Ash of EdWeek writes about a critique of Khan Academy that’s gone viral:
“By now, you’ve probably heard of Sal Khan, the educator who began by creating videos to explain math to his cousins, which has grown into a library of over 3,000 assorted educational clips with more than 150 million views on YouTube. The resulting Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization that aims to provide students with free access to all those resources, has received grant funding from educational philanthropy giants like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
However, not everyone is thrilled with the concept. In June, two associate professors from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan—Dave Coffey and John Golden—posted a video in the satirical style of Mystery Science Theater 3000 critiquing a Khan Academy video explaining how to multiply and divide negative and positive integers. The professors criticized Khan’s inconsistency with positive and negative signs in the video, and pointed out areas where he could improve his pedagogy, generally poking fun at the Khan Academy and its trove of videos.
The professors’ video went viral and is now up to over 20,000 views on YouTube. In response, the Khan Academy immediately pulled the math video in question and posted two separate videos explaining the concept, implementing many of the changes suggested by the professors in their satirical video. A few days later, the Khan Academy released yet another video dealing with the same subject and addressing more of the professors’ concerns.
But as Dave Coffey explained on his blog, it is the pedagogy of the lecture model and Khan’s emphasis on how to complete the mathematical procedures he’s explaining instead of the conceptual framework behind those procedures (the why of education) that is at the heart of the criticism.” Read more here.
Have you watched Coffey and Golden’s video? What do you think of Khan Academy, and does it deserve the professors’ criticism?
Seems to be a straw man, since the critique focuses on the videos and not the overall learning cycle, which is videos, exercises, projects, peer learning in a self-paced environment. The opposition must recognize the research is largely in favor of KA. Equating sound pedagogy with constructivism shows a narrow view of teaching and learning.
I think anyone in education should be subject to critique. If Khan Academy aims to be part of the future of education, shouldn’t they be open to constictive criticism in order to have better content? In my opinion, it would be wise to open themselves up to critique from the teachers who use their materials. Why not strive to be better? Isn’t that the mark of a great educator?
I do think that some kids prosper in the traditional classroom environment but some may do better learning from websites such as KA or MathTV.com.
Sal Khan: Compliments, Critiques and a Complement for Him
The comments and suggestions in this article are from a retired physician who has spent thousands of hours watching online tutoring videos from a variety of sources and tutors.
The Threefold Nature of a Salman Khan
The Creator was in an ambitious mood the day he made Sal:
• Body – pre-eminent cerebral circuitry
• Soul – unrivaled passion to learn
• Spirit- global generosity and love toward his fellowman
The confluence of these three human components eventually produced a guy who believes all people should have the right to a world-class education regardless of socio-economic and geographic barriers. If you review the various rationales for the awarding of the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize on Wikipedia, you’ll see it’s not implausible that Sal could join that list one day.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found a desire to make amends to myself regarding my earlier education. Although I had usually performed well on tests, I was nothing more than a pseudo-intellectual thug. My grades were acquired through “muscle-mindedness”: using brute memorization to covet facts, figures and formulas; focusing on how to get the right answer instead of understanding why a given concept gives the right answer.
So a few years ago, I started my online pilgrimage to find video tutors who could walk me through concepts that had eluded me all my life, especially math and physics. Eventually, I came across Sal with his paternal vibe. When I watch Sal’s videos, I feel like a kid who is hiking through an enchanted forest with his enthusiastic dad pointing out all the interesting “fauna and flora.”
No one has given me more “Eurekas” than Sal; I wouldn’t change a thing about his intuition-based teaching style. I’m so grateful and privileged that he freely shares his marvelous mind with me. It’s hard for me to constructively criticize a person who has been so generous, but ………
Sal, no “dad” can teach his “child” everything.
I’ll expound below.
“No Child and No Concept Left Behind”
Although Khan Academy’s mission statement is “to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace”, I also recall Sal emphasizing something else: No concept should be left behind by any student.
A student may understand 95% of all concepts in a given subject, but those 5% that slip by could be critically pre-requisite for other subjects and consequently other career tracks. Sal, as do I, believes that a student can eventually grasp 100% of course concepts if they go at their own pace and utilize the right resources. My contention is that Khan Academy’s current menu of resources is inherently designed so that most students who rely on the videos will never grasp 100% of their targeted concepts because Sal is essentially the only tutor presenting material.
I have watched hundreds of Sal’s videos for over three years, and although he is the most enjoyable, effective and brilliant teacher I’ve ever known, his style is usually informal– and sometimes informal is not what I need. Furthermore, it is impossible for any person to consistently create videos that always resonate with every student’s predominant mode of learning: visual, audial, kinesthetic.
I know, on the KA website it says, “The intent for Khan Academy has always been to expand faculty beyond Sal.” Yes, I’ve seen a tremendous expansion of support services offered to KA students over the years, but frankly, the scope of collaboration with other video faculty has been disappointingly small. Also, there are two directions for video expansion: (1) Increasing the breadth of topics offered and (2) Increasing the depth of topics already taught by Sal- i.e. providing alternative online tutors that complement Sal’s videos would increase the depth.
Of course, I have the excess time and resources to seek alternative online videos when necessary, but what about all those students who have limited time and access to the internet? Shouldn’t KA expedite a student’s search for additional video tutors when the occasion arises by having a supplementary video library on their website to complement Sal’s library? At the very least, I would like to see the KA website provide a list of KA-approved free video links for the topics that Sal has already covered.
Bill Gates led Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg and others to collaborate and form The Giving Pledge: The campaign that encourages the wealthiest people in the United States to make a commitment to give most of their money to philanthropic causes. Why can’t Khan Academy become the clearing house for the “wealthiest” philanthropic minds? Sal’s academic successes and philanthropic drive are tantamount to Bill Gate’s business successes and philanthropic drive—- he could make this happen— The Goodwill Tutors’ Pledge.
A Perfect Complement to Sal’s Math Library: Mathispower4U.com
As I mentioned, I have watched thousands of hours of online educational videos and many were very good, but recently I discovered a seasoned math teacher who blew me away. His name is James Sousa, his website is Mathispower4u.com, and he is the reason I wanted to write this article. There are two things that come to mind when I watch James’ videos:
(1) This guy is totally committed to creating videos that maximize the probability the student will successfully learn the lesson. He addresses every nuance of the student’s video-watching experience. James works with the precision of a disciplined chemist who is trying to create a perfect enzyme (video) to catalyze the intended reaction (elucidate the concepts).
(2) In my opinion, he is the perfect math-tutor complement to Sal:
• different personalities (Einstein vs Max Planck)
• different teaching styles (jelly vs peanut butter)
BUT…
• both are massively invested in helping anyone who wants to learn new concepts
• both aren’t driven by money.
I believe that if KA collaborated with Mathispower4U, the probability that a student would leave no concept behind would be dramatically increased. It’s basic synergistic math: 1+1=3 (PB&J)
For me to try and specify what James Sousa’s does would trivialize the 2100+ videos he has made with unwavering consistency. He’s had almost 3 million hits in just a couple years of exposure. Please, check him out!!
http://mathispower4u.yolasite.com/
Khan Academy.org: Cyber-Flagship for a Fleet of Goodwill Tutors
Flagship: a ship, especially in a fleet, aboard which the commander of the fleet is quartered
I believe that as a species, we have been spiritually evolving upward. Not too long ago, when distant, disadvantaged cultures saw a fleet of ships arriving on the shores of their continents, it usually meant malevolent men were coming to take gold/silver/slaves and leave disease/death/destruction. Now, when distant, disadvantaged people look over the cyber-seas they see a benevolent man, Sal Khan, sailing on his website toward their shore bringing the gifts of knowledge and endless opportunities for a better life.
My hope is that in the near future Khan Academy will evolve from a single vessel to a flagship with Sal leading a huge fleet of Goodwill Tutors.
Thanks for your time,
Jon Grossman, MD