Khan Academy Group Blog

Our group chose to research Khan Academy as our tech topic today.  Khan Academy is an online learning resource that creates lessons and videos on a wide range of subjects and topics. It was created in 2008 by Salman Khan, and aims to provide free education for students everywhere. The website states, “Our mission at Khan Academy is to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” The lessons are done in the form of videos, with an instructor drawing about and explaining the topic. There are also opportunities to be tested. The main courses offered are Math, Science and Engineering, Arts and Humanities, College, careers and more, and economics and finance. Within each of these topics there are more specific subjects.

Educational technology such as Khan Academy helps make education and support accessible to all learners. When using this kind of tool, it is important to consider the pros and cons, as well as privacy issues that you may need to be aware of.

Pros:

– help teach students on their own

– easy to access

– wide range of topics/subjects

– you can learn at your own pace

– there are ways to test your learning

– many different questions to ensure you understand

– free, nonprofit

– when students need further explanation about a topic, if the teacher is not easily available for one on one help, Khan Academy can be a resource for that extra guidance.

– can be a good studying tool

-encourages UDL and individual pace of learning

Cons:

–  no real classrooms

– teachers are not present

– still very conventional (SAT MCAT prep)

– students must have access to an electronic device and internet connection

– innate differentiation between students

– sometimes you have to sort through many different examples to find one that suits your specific needs/learning style

– when learning from video examples, it can be difficult to replay the same video to go over a specific aspect of the video, as the system tries to move forward onto the next video, however if you access it from another source, the video will play.

– loss of collaboration

– only one teaching style

– the videos could be to fast for some students to follow

– cannot ask specific questions about a subject. The videos are good but if you are not sure about something explained there is no way to clarify

– Students can work ahead of where their class is if they have a strong interest in a subject and then when they are in class they are bored and can start causing disruptions

Link to Khan Academy:

https://www.khanacademy.org/

Privacy Policies:

https://www.khanacademy.org/about/privacy-policy

By: Lauren T, Alison, Meghan, Kiya

Field Trip to PSII

On Tuesday Jan 28 2020 our EDTech class went downtown to see how PSII, an inquiry based school works. Here, the learner decides the direction of their learning and what it is that they want to explore learning about. The school follows a Zone of Proximal Development Model. Often students are presented with material that is either too challenging or too easy. Either of these situations can create a sense of frustration or a lack of interest. The zone is the difference between what a learner can do with help and without. At this school, there are different abilities, age groups and there are no assignments. Learning is personalized.There are no formal classes, and time with teachers are booked as needed. Although, students do meet with a teacher on a daily basis just to ensure they are on their path and won’t fall through the cracks. This shocked me to learn as I still wonder how a system with so little structure works as well as it seems to. According to Jeff, the Principal, flexibility is what apparently helps it work so well. An example that was given by one of the students involved comparing a typical math class in a public versus math at PSII. A typical 1hr 15min math class has approximately 28 kids in it.  The lesson is usually explained over the course of the class with 15 minutes or so in time left for problem solving/asking and answering questions. In a class that size there is not enough time left for the students to ask all the questions they need to of the teacher which leads to some kids going home feeling lost because they don’t understand and haven’t been given enough time and attention to figure it out. At PSII, the learners come in and plan their day. Ie: How much time is independant vs how much time is collaborative? They can work on their own, or seek help from one another, and teachers are available for drop in help. There is always more than one teacher to help with math as there are many different ways in which a student can approach a problem. With regards to the curriculum, it is student directed, and they can take their time doing it…..as in weeks, months, years. As for homework, the belief is to not create homework, but instead encourage the students to pursue ideas and interests in school time. According to the Principal, the system adapts well for all different styles of learning and student anxiety is reduced. When asked about teacher to student ratio, funding and sustainability, the Principal stated that the ratio is 96 kids / 7 teachers, which is greater than in public schools. As for funding, he said they receive about 50% funding, but are mandated to operate at par with public schools or they lose their funding. Tuition is $7200.00 per student but each student gets a laptop and a Y membership. This is actually below the cost per student in the public system. When I asked Jeff, despite how great everything sounded, how this was possible in the typical public system today, he said it’s not. He said the public system would have to change its entire model. He said there is a lot of interest both locally and internationally, with delegations from Australia and the Netherlands having come to learn from their model, as well as local school districts looking at possibilities surrounding this as well. I still can’t help but wonder, despite the positive outcomes PSII is experiencing,  how entire schools and districts are going to change their entire model of Education?

In our ed tech class, we watched the documentary RiP! Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor.  It essentially talks about the concept of copyright in the music world. In it he follows Girl Talk aka, Greg Gillis who lives as a bio-medical engineer by day and a dj/mashup artist by night.  Despite its popularity, Gillis has found himself in hot water over the music he produces because  he takes samples of other peoples music, plays with it to create a sound he likes and mixes it with other music and sounds. Though he acknowledges using other peoples creations within the body of his work, to him, he is creating his own music.  Gillis has stated that he feels sampling is like an instrument. “There are no original music concepts anyways,” he said. “Even if it’s subconscious, and even if your music isn’t sampled, it’s still based on another idea. Sampling is an original idea, except with more blatant influence from other ideas. It’s really all about how you present your idea in its context” (The Tartan, 2006).

The major problem with his music is that he is using someone else’s songs/someone else’s property to produce his. This potentially entails copyright infringement. With the technology available today, it is so easy to share information. However, the moral dilemma surrounds it being shared legally.  Gillis would argue differently as stated above when he said, “There are no original music concepts anyways,” he said. “Even if it’s subconscious, and even if your music isn’t sampled, it’s still based on another idea.” (The Tartan, 2006) Gillis’ lawer has even argued that sampling off the internet is a form of “literacy for a new generation” (Rip!: A Remix Manifesto, 2008).

I understand that if he is careful to use only 10 seconds of allotted music before he violates copyright laws,  the artists do not have claim to any financial benefits. 10 seconds isn’t a lot of time and he does a lot of work himself remixing the sounds to create something “new.” Part of me doesn’t get why it is such a big deal as in my opinion he actually is creating something new. Yes, an acknowledgement of the use of other;s work would seem appropriate, but how far does the law of copyright extend and how far should it?  It’s not  totally  un similar to taking recipes and trying new spices and cooking temperatures to improve upon or even create a new recipe.  Is there copyright infringement here? It’s just an opinion, but unless someone has stolen /plagiarized the bulk of someone elses’ work and benefitted to the detriment of the original owner, it seems pretty stifling to me.

https://thetartan.org/2006/11/20/pillbox/girltalk

https://www.nfb.ca/film/rip_a_remix_manifesto/

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Marilyn Ferguson, an American writer said, “Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.” I have decided that is the case with my EdTech class. I walked into class thinking I would be fine as long as I followed along and paid attention. Wrong! I couldn’t even remember how to log in to whatever it was we were supposed to be logging into. (Honestly I couldn’t even remember important points about the video we watched until other students commented on the prompts we were given.) I had to ask both classmates and my instructor for clues. While everyone was typing away, finding links and proper screens, I had to ask for assistance with almost every one. Time to create a notebook that contains links and hints to all this techy stuff I am supposed to be using but can’t seem to remember ever seeing it before. We have projects coming up and thankfully someone took pity on me and asked me to join their group. I must admit, even I wouldn’t have invited myself into a group. I honestly can’t remember one thing about how I signed in to Trello today, except I had to write the word week 39 times. I need to figure out a way to relax and let some of this information sink in. My poor instructor is so patient, but I feel lost and don’t know what to do except keep plugging away, and hope that Marilyn is right, that this is just where things get worse, but with effort on my part and patience on the part of my Instructor and classmates, things will soon start to get better.