The Khan Academy
Date: 2nd July 2018/Monday
This blogpost is inspired from my dive into the Khan Academy, which is a non profit educational organization created by educator Salman Khan in 2006 with the aim to develop online tools to assist students develop a deeper understanding of different taught concepts related to Math, Science, Art and Humanities, Grammar, Economics, exams like SAT, GMAT etc. It is a huge repository of interactive quizzes, reading articles and video based lessons. It is free and anyone can join.
I will begin by briefly describing the joining procedure, creating accounts, creating classes and adding students, assign tasks and monitoring progress reports. I have imported my two classes from the Google Classroom. The resource has been used with kids at both the SOS Children Village and Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation (a school for street children in Peshawar). Mostly used for practicing grammar and different math concepts for grades KG and above.I can always choose to assign different content to both classes and check progress reports accordingly.
Once you login to the website, you will see 3 options to join the Khan Academy, one by either as a learner, second joining as either a parent or teacher. Once you have chosen the option, the page takes you to another page which requires your login details. You can choose to sign in using your Google account credentials, Facebook credentials or email. Once done, you can then add your classes and add students. You have the option to import students from you Google Classroom too. You can add students by either of the following methods, through email invitation, sharing a join code or creating accounts for kids aged below 13 years of age. You can then assign the content , choose the subject, select practice exercises, assign to class , set deadlines for submission, monitor progress etc.
Students can see the assignments on their home age or in the assignment tab. Below the exercise questions they see a marker which opens the sketch pad which students can use for rough work or solving problems. Students can also get prompts in the form of videos along with hints. Using a video will not mark question as incorrect but using the hint will mark it otherwise. A progress tracker below the question gives details of questions answered correctly or incorrectly.
In order to check your class progress report, you need to access the coach dashboard. You can then click on the blue fraction in front of the content and see progress reports, you can choose to see either individually or whole class reports. The individual reports show progress of the whole class question wise. The report also highlights the best score, number of attempts on a problem, date and time completed. It also shows the skill learnt through the practical exercises. Teacher can also download the reports in CSV format and save for future use.
I like the resource for a number of reasons. First, the resource can be used to flip learning in your classrooms. Teacher can assign tasks for class as well as home work. He/She can give more time to students who need assistance in class where as the rest of the class can continue working on the assigned practical tasks in Khan Academy. The resource provides great opportunity for differentiated learning in class. Teacher can assign different tasks to different students. She can group students subject wise.
Second, its a very interactive resource, videos are used to explain the concept in a very to understand and simple language, quizzes are in the form of both open and closed ended questions. As students move to higher levels in a topic questions move from simple to complex. The resource can be useful for all kinds of learners be it kinesthetic, visual or audile. It can give teachers a lot of ideas while designing questions, since these practical tasks are set by different subject experts. These questions do not check memorization of the content rather students understanding of the content and his/her ability to apply the learned content in a different situation.
Third, students learn and progress at own pace. There is no competition. They can select the subjects they want to work on individually. They can even have their own study plan set through the Explore tab but have to complete a diagnostic test which identifies the set of tasks to be completed based on the results in the test. Students who want to appear for the SAT or GMAT exams can also practice using the Khan Academy.
Fourth, you can assign tasks through the Google Classroom. It relieves the teachers of tons of useless administrative tasks which include photo copying and printing resulting in additional expense, managing work in folders, designing extended tasks, assigning tasks ,resolving logging issues etc. Students can directly access the link from their Google Class stream.
Another thing you can access the resource on any platform either your mobile phone, computer, laptop or a desktop computer. You just need your login credentials to access the resource. You can also download the Khan Academy app from the Google play store. No worries your data gets synced between the app and the khanacademy.org so its always updated and shows your current progress.
Last but not the least there is lot of training content available for teachers on the website. Khan Academy offers a 60 min self paced free course for teachers who plan to use Khan Academy between May and August, its a free course and the participant receives an online certificate after completion. There is a lot more content for K12 teachers, Offical SAT practice, Computer programming content and much more that still needs exploration but whats for sure is that the resource is a must try for classrooms, and will surely help in deeper understanding of concepts.
Instead of schools spending huge amounts of money in buying new technology resources, its a better option to try out and use the free ones that are worth it and have a huge impact on the teaching and learning in classrooms. Khan Academy is one just resource not to be missed!
Your turn to dig in a little further and explore the resource till my next blog soon.
Enjoy Reading :)
Regards and prayers
Sheeba Ajmal
References:
1. Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/
Accessed Online 2nd July 2018
2.Khan Academy App on Google Play Store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.khanacademy.android&hl=en
Accessed Online 2nd July 2018
3. Khan Academy The future of Education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxJgPHM5NYI
Accessed Online 2nd July 2018
4. Lets teach mastery and not scores https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MTRxRO5SRA
Accessed Online 2nd July 218
Date: 2nd July 2018/Monday
This blogpost is inspired from my dive into the Khan Academy, which is a non profit educational organization created by educator Salman Khan in 2006 with the aim to develop online tools to assist students develop a deeper understanding of different taught concepts related to Math, Science, Art and Humanities, Grammar, Economics, exams like SAT, GMAT etc. It is a huge repository of interactive quizzes, reading articles and video based lessons. It is free and anyone can join.
I will begin by briefly describing the joining procedure, creating accounts, creating classes and adding students, assign tasks and monitoring progress reports. I have imported my two classes from the Google Classroom. The resource has been used with kids at both the SOS Children Village and Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation (a school for street children in Peshawar). Mostly used for practicing grammar and different math concepts for grades KG and above.I can always choose to assign different content to both classes and check progress reports accordingly.
In order to check your class progress report, you need to access the coach dashboard. You can then click on the blue fraction in front of the content and see progress reports, you can choose to see either individually or whole class reports. The individual reports show progress of the whole class question wise. The report also highlights the best score, number of attempts on a problem, date and time completed. It also shows the skill learnt through the practical exercises. Teacher can also download the reports in CSV format and save for future use.
I like the resource for a number of reasons. First, the resource can be used to flip learning in your classrooms. Teacher can assign tasks for class as well as home work. He/She can give more time to students who need assistance in class where as the rest of the class can continue working on the assigned practical tasks in Khan Academy. The resource provides great opportunity for differentiated learning in class. Teacher can assign different tasks to different students. She can group students subject wise.Second, its a very interactive resource, videos are used to explain the concept in a very to understand and simple language, quizzes are in the form of both open and closed ended questions. As students move to higher levels in a topic questions move from simple to complex. The resource can be useful for all kinds of learners be it kinesthetic, visual or audile. It can give teachers a lot of ideas while designing questions, since these practical tasks are set by different subject experts. These questions do not check memorization of the content rather students understanding of the content and his/her ability to apply the learned content in a different situation.
Third, students learn and progress at own pace. There is no competition. They can select the subjects they want to work on individually. They can even have their own study plan set through the Explore tab but have to complete a diagnostic test which identifies the set of tasks to be completed based on the results in the test. Students who want to appear for the SAT or GMAT exams can also practice using the Khan Academy.
Fourth, you can assign tasks through the Google Classroom. It relieves the teachers of tons of useless administrative tasks which include photo copying and printing resulting in additional expense, managing work in folders, designing extended tasks, assigning tasks ,resolving logging issues etc. Students can directly access the link from their Google Class stream.
Another thing you can access the resource on any platform either your mobile phone, computer, laptop or a desktop computer. You just need your login credentials to access the resource. You can also download the Khan Academy app from the Google play store. No worries your data gets synced between the app and the khanacademy.org so its always updated and shows your current progress.
Last but not the least there is lot of training content available for teachers on the website. Khan Academy offers a 60 min self paced free course for teachers who plan to use Khan Academy between May and August, its a free course and the participant receives an online certificate after completion. There is a lot more content for K12 teachers, Offical SAT practice, Computer programming content and much more that still needs exploration but whats for sure is that the resource is a must try for classrooms, and will surely help in deeper understanding of concepts.
Instead of schools spending huge amounts of money in buying new technology resources, its a better option to try out and use the free ones that are worth it and have a huge impact on the teaching and learning in classrooms. Khan Academy is one just resource not to be missed!
Your turn to dig in a little further and explore the resource till my next blog soon.
Enjoy Reading :)
Regards and prayers
Sheeba Ajmal
References:
1. Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/
Accessed Online 2nd July 2018
2.Khan Academy App on Google Play Store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.khanacademy.android&hl=en
Accessed Online 2nd July 2018
3. Khan Academy The future of Education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxJgPHM5NYI
Accessed Online 2nd July 2018
4. Lets teach mastery and not scores https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MTRxRO5SRA
Accessed Online 2nd July 218
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