

Khan Academy Is Not The Progressive Model You Are Looking For (2011) - ColinWright
http://edte.ch/blog/2011/12/06/khan-academy-is-not-the-progressive-model-you-are-looking-for/

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JoeAltmaier
On the other hand, it would be stupid to reject the Khan Academy resource. Why
not provide step-by-step video/audio instruction on categorized topics? Why
not have students review them before classroom discussion?

Maybe Khan Academy has gone too far - having created something wonderful, they
suffer from the 'lucky inventor's syndrome' and imagine everything they touch
will turn to gold. Many educators suffer from this. Also many entrepreneurs.
Witness the hero-worship around what are essentially one-hit wonders in the
computer market.

Anyway, I applaud Khan academy for bringing the next-best thing to tutoring to
everyone, for free. You can't take that away from them, not with pedantic
articles about pedagogy.

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tokenadult
Colin, why should we even care in 2014 what this person thought about Khan
Academy in 2011? Khan Academy has changed[1] since then, and looking at recent
posts from the same blog doesn't inspire confidence that the author has a lot
of thoughtful things to say about education improvement.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7674168](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7674168)

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ColinWright
OK, I have neither the time nor the energy to write something detailed,
accurate, and carefully worded. Rather than leaving your question unanswered,
here is a brain dump. I may find that tomorrow I don't agree with it all, but
it's intended to give you a flavour of my thinking.

I've worked with, tried to use, and interacted extensively with KA over the
past 5 years. To start with I thought it had fantastic potential, and I still
do. But I had reservations to start with, and they have not gone away.
Repeatedly, on-line and in real life, I find people who think KA is the
saviour of math education, and everyone should start to use it rather than
trying to improve real-life interactions.

When I first met the KA I was originally hopeful, tinged with concern. I know
the KA has evolved, but I remain concerned. Occasionally I run across an
article that expresses how I feel so much better than I ever could, so I try
to share them to balance what I sometimes perceive as undiluted but misplaced
enthusiasm.

I know you like KA. You may not beleive this, but so do I. But it's not the
panacea, nor the unmitigated wonder than some people make it out to be. Yet. I
can only hope that continuing to point out problems, past and present, can
provoke someone into doing something better. Or complementary. So far people
mostly just seem to be giving up and leaving it to the KA. That bothers me.

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tokenadult
_I know you like KA._

It might be more accurate to say that I don't decry the existence of Khan
Academy or worry about it much. Basically, Khan Academy is usually
supplemental mathematics instruction, that is mathematics instruction for
people who would otherwise be getting even less mathematics instruction
without it. I can live with that. I recommend several other programs much more
than I recommend Khan Academy. I have one child (among four) who actively
likes Khan Academy, but he uses a lot of other resources besides Khan Academy
to learn his mathematics. (His favorite subject is life sciences, and his
biggest leisure-time activity is realistic drawing with computer-based drawing
software.)

So I agree with you that Khan Academy is not a panacea. I rather suspect that
the staff of that organization agree with that proposition too. I do think
that much of the criticism of Khan Academy from people who have products to
sell to the public school system loses force because they haven't fully shown
that they can do any better. If they do improve upon what Khan Academy does,
more power to them.

