Math Education Game-Changer: Khan Academy Math

Features of Khan Academy Math       

• It's Free!   [Financially supported by Bill Gates, Google, and others who care about genuine math education.]
• It's available 24 hours a day, every day.
• It's exactly the math that students should learn. There are no constructivist math distractions.
• It completely covers all important math topics:  elementary school math, middle school math, high school math, and college math.
• Every important math topic is covered with one or more internet videos.
• A typical video is 10 to 15 minutes long.  This fits the average child's attention span.
• The student hears the instructor (usually Salman Khan), who is not seen, but appears to be sitting to the left of the student.
• The unseen instructor speaks and writes as he explains the current math topic.
• Salman Khan believes that viewing the instructor's face is an unnecessary distraction for the student.
• Each video is linked to exercises that are designed to test the student's understanding of the video.  
• Each exercise comes with multiple hints.  After each hint, the student can request another hint, until the problem is completely solved, typically after 3 or 4 hints.  
• The student can request exercise after exercise, without ever seeing an exercise repeated.
• The student can easily move back and forth from the video to related exercises.
• There's a "knowledge map" and other orientation features that: 
• Show how the current video relates to other videos (including prerequisites for the current video).
• Shows the student what is possible next, based on what the student has already done.  What is possible next is not limited by the student's age.
• The Khan system "remembers" what videos the student has viewed and how the student has performed on the exercises.  
• Multiple features encourage the student to move beyond initial understanding to full mastery (long-term remembering concepts and methods).  
• You don't know what you don't remember.  
• There are user interfaces for students, parents, coaches, and teachers.   
• It's far superior to classroom learning. 
• Each student works at his or hers own pace, at any time and in any place.  
• Each student can take all the time needed to master each topic.  Unlike classroom learning, there's no need to move on because the teacher is ready to move on.
• Learning is not limited to the content traditionally covered in the "grade" associated with the student's age.  
• There's no fear of making a mistake in front of a teacher or peers.
• There's no multiple hours delay between a lesson and "homework." The student can easily switch back and forth from a video to exercises related to the math content covered in the video 
• The student can repeat a video, rewind to any earlier point in the video, or fast forward over points already understood.
• The student can easily fill in gaps by using videos that cover content from earlier grades.
• In some ways, it's superior to tutorial learning.  
• The student doesn't have to remember what the tutor said. 
• The student isn't pressured by a tutor's questions.
• The student isn't distracted by the tutor's face or behavior.
• And it's free!

Copyright 2015 William G. Quirk, Ph.D.