" . . .So That Teachers Can Diagnose What's Wrong with the Student."
Yeah, yeah, it's all "there."
Any kid's dashboard will be up "there" - "anyone can access it."
- Salman Khan
A Frankenstein Moment?
TED Video Below
I'm cutting to the chase. Anyone who has ever seen this TED video - watch it again.
This time, start at the 10:00 minute mark, or even the 12:30 mark. You will get a different perspective. This talk has been seemingly everywhere of late, and while never feeling the need to watch it since The Daily Riff was familiar with Khan Academy (positively covering it last year when it was gaining notoriety), I finally succumbed and watched it in its entirety.
Glad I did.
Being a fan of many TED videos, I found this one to be the most info-mercial-like in format and tone. Especially in the last few minutes when Bill Gates joins Khan, providing obvious pre-programmed questions answered with overly-scripted buzz-word answers by Khan ("kinda crazy, rock star programmers"), along with TEDsters wildly clapping like seals. I thought, did you hear what they were really saying?
Being a vocal advocate for tech in education in its many forms, I still will not blindly clap at anything just because it has an "e" in front of it (e-learning, etc.), and especially NOT when it is something that crosses the line in the privacy department. I don't want any school "keeping tabs" on MY child this way . . . such as Kahn's admission:
"how long they've (students) been spending every day,
what videos they've been watching,
when did they pause the video,
when did they stop watching . . ."
Last time I checked, data visualizations should bring additional insight by showing trends and patterns, streamlining an overload of random data that we encounter in our modern world. But, do teachers really need to know when a student went to "pause" for a bathroom break?
Worse yet, Khan asserts (18:25 mark) that now this is "not just an in-school thing" and "we can follow these kids . . . on Christmas breaks . . . summers . . . and track them
at home . . . the school district can track these kids . . . at home. . . "
Oh, there's more:
"data that is expected in any other field -- finance, marketing, manufacturing . . ."
"This data can "diagnose what's wrong with the student."
Do we really think knowing how many times a student watches his grammar videos will make
me understand this student better? Or, more importantly, will it inspire Johnny to write? Will
it tell me whether Johnny can write a coherent essay, blog post, or script? Or, dare we ask, an inspiring or convincing one? Or, whether Jane even cares, or what may motivate her?
Here's more:
Let's "arm the teachers with as much information as possible"
Arm the teachers? Yes, let's arm the parents and the students, too, while you're at it. Didn't know this was war. Plus, do you really think teachers need more information -
"We don't want teachers having to ask 'awkward questions' like asking students whether they understand the material or not."
not better information?
We also don't want teachers asking "awkward questions?" Why don't we just avoid talking
altogether? Khan continues to say how Kahn is now "humanizing" schooling so kids can work at their own pace through his program (we all get this already about on-line advantages), and "developed this to be teacher-driven" . . . so class size won't matter . . . because teachers won't have to lecture in class anymore. But, then, why at the 17:58 mark, he notes that the California school has students watching Khan videos in class?
Khan also aligns classroom flipping with Khan Academy. I'm not sure notable names associated with the flipped classroom, such as college professor, Karl Fisch; public high school teacher, Jonathan Bergmann; and private school Math teacher, Stacey Roshan, view Kahn as their spokesperson, since their version of the flipped classroom are their own videos of their own teaching, to be viewed by students at home.
When Kahn gets into his a-student-is-either-gifted-OR-a-student-is-slow tangent, he is sending signals to all who are listening that Khan Academy kids will be saved all from all those horrible labels in school, even though all student results will be posted on a dashboard. We also didn't realize that students were either gifted or slow, with little in-between. Kahn gives kids badges with a leader board, not using gold stars, for "motivation and feedback."
Between the generous clapping and standing ovations, Khan even brought in the heartstrings moment of his performance, when relating about how Calcutta street kids could learn through the Academy. Gates steps in, immediately afterward, on cue at the 16:45 mark.
Now, according to Khan and Gates, everyone can look up a student's dashboard to help him out - tutors, mentors, family members. I'm surprised he didn't add global leaders, or maybe even Bill Gates himself to the list of mentors waiting in the wings to help a child with fractions.
Sure, this sounds so altruistic, especially for kids who have little access to a good education. That is what technology can do. Yet, Bill Gates says that this is the future of education.
It's one option. Because as we know, one size does not fit all.
That includes on-line videos by Khan.
Any kid's dashboard will be up 'there' - 'anyone' can access it."
Sorry, Salman Khan, I don't want my child's dashboard up "there" for "anyone" to see . . .
No thanks.
Originally published The Daily Riff April 2011
Related:
Can Young Students Learn from On-Line Classes? NY Times Debate
The Daily Riff posts:
Teachers "Doing the Flip" To Help Learning
Bill & Melinda's Field Trips Plus Big Picture Learning/College Unbound
How to Learn by Diana Laufenberg
What Would Ted Sizer Say About Technology
Is Your Child Learning How to Learn?
High School Stinks
Is This the Best High School in America?
Are We Preparing Students For Our Age or Theirs?
Why We Need Mentors In School and Work Now More Than Ever
John, thanks for your comment. I totally agree with your thoughts in 1st paragraph. My glowing write-up on Kahn Academy last year expressed that (link is in article). I still stand by that. ( Added later this evening by CJ>. . .: Actually, agree to a point, students may want to listen to teacher, Jane or Joe Shmo, because he or she connects to students on a human level that one cannot measure in video-watching
degrees, and while not a "rock star" by everyone's terms, they may be rock stars motivating/effectively teaching their students (which hopefully go beyond number of clicks). Note: my initial impression of joe shmo was a caricature of an ineffective,
non-connecting teacher, but after responding to a few comments, realized where this was going . . . more in the direction that it was Joe or Jane Doe. - ARGH).
Maybe I was taking an unfair shot at his background, but
it probably stems from the perception that Khan was "bait and switching"
from an open, wonderful resource that represents individual power and freedom,
to a service that was about micro-managing and control (hence, the Frankenstein reference).
As far as Khan's background, it doesn't matter to me if he is an "educator" or not, if his videos are effective (which they seem to be some/many).
What I don't like is when a great idea/service like Khan Academy starts
mucking around with privacy issues and unnecessary surveillance - to what purpose? Maybe to eventually monetize so there is a business model by adding "measurement" tools (so they can eventually charge schools)?
How could a school district abuse this information?
Information is power. It is control. Students have been pegged, sorted, tracked, labeled forever.
As a parent, I don't want any institution to have this much control over what my child's "been up to," or "what's wrong" with him or her, as Khan suggested.
That to me is a throwback, not progress.
First off, you might want to do enough research on the topic of your article to spell the name of the guy you're attacking correctly.
Secondly, you constantly barrage the system for it's tracking and data collection. It does nothing but construe your argument to be a conspiracy theory against the data that is collected and then intelligently used to identify weak spots. In no way in the current education system is it possible for a teacher to understand with greater precision and accuracy the areas where a child may be struggling.
The idea that the teacher knows what the child "is up to" is related to the work that they're putting forth. It's a far more objective way to identify kids who are struggling because they're not attempting to learn the material, or those that are legitimately trying and not quite getting it. Please leave your "big brother" conspiracy theories out of this - you're taking his words out of context.
Further research would have led you to discover he has refused to take venture capital on this project, remaining a non-profit. Trust me, given the current tech climate he has millions of dollars on his doorstep that he's actively refusing.
Next time, I suggest spending a little time articulating a solid and coherent article with a foundation in truth, rather than coming off as scared of things you don't fully understand and attacking surface level points (like attributing the coloquial term "arm" to being in a war).
While the big brother aspects and the focus on control are troubling to me as well I am excited about the possibilities this kind of software may provide. Knowing how often a video is rewound or how often it is viewed in general is a good indication of effort. Knowing effort levels is key in judging what to do to help a child. If they are not assessing well and we find out they are not viewing the videos it is possible they are simply slacking. So we do not have to necessarily play around with other learning styles and so forth, we just need to get them crack 'n. I suspect though that critics will say they do not try because they are bored with the videos and find the content irrelevant. In that case the critique is against a teacher-centered curriculum more than anything else. If you are going to have a teacher-centered, hierarchically structured curriculum then Khan's software has many promising features. If you are more progressive and dislike curricula that come pre-packaged you will find all kinds of reasons to hate the Khan-Gates enterprise.
Jason #1 (11:50)
Thanks for the heads-up on the typo - my errors are more due to eyesight or too fast fingers, as there is no copy editor here.
Actually, I don't always barrage the system for data and assessment. In fact, we were positive about the School of One and Harlem Village Academies where daily assessment by the teacher is the norm. Agree how difficult it is for teachers to identify learning gaps plus be able to provide learning enhancements for every student - that is why I wrote a very positive post about Khan last year, and included KA in multiple posts this year as a resource.
I'm a big believer in data - used it extensively throughout my career and use it now. I ran a sales organization, used data all the time, slicing and dicing it, but also knew when to walk away from some of it because "just because we can measure it, doesn't mean it is worth measuring." There is also context, context, context - and the human factor . . .
I personally like many of Khan's videos. I also like his narrative
of how he started, have touted KA in multiple posts, including KA as a
resource.
Yet, if a student does not connect with the Khan videos, does this make this student, in your words, "not attempting to learn?" If he watched a video five times, would that make him dumb, if he didn't get it? If he watched it once, does that make him lazy?
Jason Rosoff -
Don't give up. I'm actually rooting for you.
Been an advocate of KA since the positive post last year, mentioning it several times as a fabulous resource - - -
I made it very clear the point of the riff was a critique of what was said
in the video. When you have a TED video, visited by Bill Gates, no less,
embraced with rousing applause, you know that WHAT was said will be taken by many as the smart thing. There were obvious points that I had pause for concern, and don't want viewers to think certain initiatives are
so great (gave my reasons).
Somebody had to do it.
I will spend more time with your information to give it the full context as you requested (I personally have been on and like the vids, but not all do, as you know). Will do another post or comment soon-
Appreciate the feedback - know launching is "kinda crazy." But having Gates in your corner isn't exactly roughing it, although his involvement has certainly raised the bar in terms of expectations and scrutiny.
Pete, appreciate your comments.
I agree with your first sentence but have to depart from there.
Answer to all the others: it depends. (Not what everyone wants to hear).
One child may like Khan. Another may not. That's the power of technology. It's giving us options.
We can't measure students on how they like Khan. Then we're making it no better than students fitting the school. The one-room schoolhouse was more flexible. Kids had the opportunity to find the person in that schoolhouse (or vice versa) that could best help them learn, in addition to that busy teacher.
And, we can never discount the value of human connection. Substitute some, sure. (Especially if the situation is replaceable and better). Because "we can" doesn't make it better, or "we should."
Cliche but works for me here.
I also don't think Khan is necessarily student-centered or teacher-centered in its pure form. It's how one uses it.
I’m a HS physics teacher. Info I would find useful: (1) knowing how
many times a student attempted the same problem; (2) knowing the
answer history, i.e, what the student's wrong answers were; (3)
knowing the type of mistake a student made when choosing a wrong
answer, e.g., did he forget to square the distance, did she apply
kinetic energy conservation instead of momentum conservation, did he
disregard the fact that the forces where in opposite directions, did
she confuse force of friction with coefficient of friction, did he
assume constant velocity when in fact it was accelerating, etc. That
is INFINITELY MORE useful that knowing how many times he rewound the
movie, how many times she paused it, or how long they spent on a
module. Those times could be affected by (1) distractions from family;
(2) self-imposed distractions like facebook and texting.
On a related KA tangent: I’m still on the fence about flipped
classrooms in the form of “watch lecture at home first, practice in
class second.” It reinforces the notion that school is about digesting
someone else’s knowledge, rather than constructing your own. The
videos could be a useful resource following knowledge building in the
class, but I haven’t found any KA videos that work for me.
While Khan argues that his videos now eliminate “one-size-fits-all”
education, his videos are exactly that. I’ve actually tried finding KA
videos for my students to use as references for studying, or to use as
a tutorial when there’s a substitute teacher. However, I teach physics
from the Modeling Instruction paradigm, and so I haven’t found one
good one. They either tackle problems that are too hard (college
level) or they don’t use a lot of the multiple representations that
are so fundamental to my teaching (kinematic graphs, interaction
diagrams, energy pie graphs, momentum bar charts, color-coded circuit
diagrams showing pressure and flow, etc.) that the videos are useless
to me because his videos do not align with proper Physics Education
Research pedagogy.
Instead of relying on lectures and textbooks, the Modeling Instruction
paradigm emphasizes active student construction of conceptual and
mathematical models in an interactive learning community. Students are
engaged with simple scenarios to learn to model the physical world.
You can watch one Modeling class in action here:
http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/modeling-instruction/
In comparison to traditional instruction, under expert modeling
instruction high school students average more than two standard
deviations higher on a standard instrument for assessing conceptual
understanding of physics:
http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling/Mod_Instr-effective.htm
More discussion about the ineffectiveness of lectures here:
http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/pt-pseudoteaching-mit-physics/
Thanks for the comments and links, Frank. I will be interested in checking them out - as will many of readers.
Part of the future of education is having easy access to amazing amounts of knowledge. Why have a Joe Shmo teacher give lecture when a student can get a lecture from the best lecturer in the world? Knowledge is power and freedom, and open source technology takes it out of the hands of the elite and shares it with the world.
Ok, so maybe the data shouldn't be totally public but it is still a great tool in terms of micro-management for the teacher, parents and student. How could a school district abuse this information? I do agree that Khan is obviously does not have a background in education, and there is definitely valid criticism, but there is no doubt that he has helped many people learn.
The Khan Academy is not a cure all, but it is a huge step in the right direction. Look on Twitter, every single day people are succeeding where they would have failed because of the Khan Academy.