I promised our tech department that I'd take notes! Publishing as I go, and, as usual, italics are mine...
With thanks to fellow NSBA conference tweeters, some cons on Khan (pun intended) links first:
On the "robot teacher" model
On why the flipped classroom is a problem
On learning math by video (or not)
(Also, great real-time conversation going on around this under the #NSBAConf hashtag)
California "where his work has been integrated with classrooms"? really?
"for the two or three hands that went up...short montage of the video library"
"a free, world-class education for anyone everywhere"
6 million students a month
"newly minted MBA...had family visiting with me after our wedding"
niece "thinks she's got what it takes"...mother says she's having trouble with math
"how 'bout we get on the speaker phone and we work with each other?"
she did fine, quite accelerated
"there's a theme, the students that they themselves thought they were not good at science or math or what have you, end up getting quite good at it"
writing quizzing software as students had gaps in their knowledge
"when it was just a few, I could have these great interactions" (aha!)
advised to make videos, stick 'em up on YouTube, and see if that works
"I gave it a shot"
"watch these before we have the tutorial, and then we can be more interactive" (aha!)
"Somewhat backhandedly, they said that they liked me better on YouTube than in person"
"they could get the concept when they wanted, as they wanted..."
started getting letters from people he wasn't related to who'd found the videos on YouTube
helpful for children to see it drawn out...
in 2009, quit his job, living off of savings...giving up hope, large donation came in...after seeing the setup, even larger donation
"if kids could learn at their own pace..doing some simulation..."and then Bill Gates recommended at Aspen Festival
"this epic person had said these epic words"
Gates flew him up to Seattle
...also children of Google employees using videos
Gates gave $2 m, Google $2 m..."free world-class education for anyone, anywhere"
knowledge map: each a concept in math..once you've conquered a concept, you go onto the next one
"after fixed amount of time, there's a test..then we move onto the next one, even if it's a turned up weaknesses"
make variable the time and the pace
generate problems until the child has conquered the problem
school district asks what you would do if you were in the classroom?
"teacher sitting beside the student, getting real time information on" which student is struggling with what
record of students "have" which concepts and which students are stuck
"student to valuable time with the teacher ratio"
If the teacher is spending most of the time at the chalkboard, we can increase the amount of time the teacher is spending interacting with the student
(am I alone in thinking that if the teacher is spending most of their time at the chalkboard, we already have a problem?)
"using technology to increase, ironically, the humanity of the classroom"
graphs spec'ed out by teachers
"want to show you the energy level in the classroom..computers enable the interactive part"
"Our product was at a very early place at that time"
comparison with (you guessed it) California standardized testing...from Oakland Unity High School
"a not-for-profit, so we don't have stock options..."
"imagine what it can do for students who don't even have access to a school...at least as valuable in sub-Saharan Africa, India..."
"some of Google's funding was actually to translate the video"
international video montage
new technology like printing press..."true global meritocracy"
Questions
"is there a role or need for Khan Academy to expand into government topics?"
Yes. "It's not that easy to do."
"how awesome would it have been if in my seventh grade history class, a Chilean kid had run in and said 'no, you're an imperialist!'"
"you get the whole world saying, 'no, I disagree with this!'"
Earliest age for this model to be effective?
"our content doesn't go that young" (three, four, five)
"we don't have dancing bears and things on the site"
"catering to fourth, fifth, grade and up"
Receptive teachers?
"we haven't forced it on anyone...we're taking volunteers...selection bias"
low-income, minority, disengaged parents?
"we couldn't change all of the variable"
"It's not as expensive...comes to a couple of dollars per kid per year"
"we have examples of kids getting beat up on their way home if they have a computer...have to have access to computers at home..."
And that's a wrap.
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