Teacher Tech Talk

The Colbert Report had a very interesting guest on the other night–Salman Khan, the founder of the Khan Academy.  He’s been featured on PBS recently as well for his non-profit online learning venture.   This guy started out tutoring his cousins in algebra across the country by conducting video lessons over the Internet just because he thought it the videos might be helpful.  Now with the heavy financial backing of two tech behemoths, Google and Microsoft, his library of online video lessons has grown to over 2,100, covering scores of topics across math, science, and the humanities. As his library grows, many believe that his little project to help his relatives do better in algebra could end up changing the way we teach.

There’s a funny exchange in this interview with Colbert, where Stephen suggests that the Khan Academy could be a great way to crush teachers in places like Wisconsin, but it turns out that nothing could be further from the truth.  Instead of making teachers expendable, Salman Khan’s videos have encouraged many teachers to “flip” their classrooms. Instead of teachers lecturing on new information or presenting students with new learning concepts during class lessons, teachers assign the video lessons/lectures for homework.  Then what used to be homework can now be done in the classroom the next day, where students can get the teacher support they need–something huge that was previously unavailable to students at home.  Because the lessons are not live and are all hosted on YouTube, learners can stop and rewind the videos, allowing them to learn at their own pace.

Visit the Khan Academy site and browse through its library of educational videos.  The breadth of topics is very impressive. And if you find one that covers a topic or concept you teach, maybe you could try flipping your classroom for a day.  If you give it a shot, let us know how it goes by leaving a comment below.

Now watch this video in which one teacher discusses how he has been “flipping” his classroom.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 1:30 pm and is filed under 21st Century Learning, Web Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.