nPostednon October 11, 2013
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n(Andnhappy birthday to me, too!)
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| Several people have made “Star Trek” references, talking about “The Math of Khan.” |
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nItnis interesting to me that, nowadays, some of the most important andninfluential educators in the world are men who did not studyneducation in college, who did not start their careers as teachers,nwho kind of backed into education through a side door.
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nInam talking about physicist and computer network specialist SugatanMitra, who is more widely known for his work in education andncognitive science, and former hedge fund analyst Salman Khan, whonstudied math, electrical engineering, and computer science, but whonis famous for his work in creating education videos. Today’s birthdaynboy is also the founder of Khan Academy.
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nKhannis a nice guy who was willing to help his younger cousins with theirnmath homework. He was doing his tutoring long-distance, using Yahoo’snDoodle notepad. But then other relatives and friends asked forntutoring, too—and Khan realized that it would be better for him tonupload YouTube videos so that multiple people could see hisnpresentations, but he only had to do each explanation one time!
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nThisntime-saving idea ended up creating a whole other career for Khan. Hisnshort videos on topics such as exponents and linear equations endednup getting so many hits, Khan became the Number 1 provider of freencourse material on YouTube! Khan quit his job in finance andnconcentrated on making videos, and for a while he acceptednadvertising on his website so that he could keep all the learningnvideos free. His “academy” got so popular, some wealthy peoplenheard about Khan and decided to make some hefty donations. Khan wasnable to remove the ads, hire helpers, and make his free onlinentutoring service into a kind of free, online school that offersnthousands of micro-lectures on a wide range of topics. The lessonsnare even available in at least 28 different languages! n
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Cosmology?nGot it!
Cosmology?nGot it!n
n Micro-economics?nGot it?
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nMathnin Urdu? Got it! In Turkish or Xhosa?
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nGot ’em both!
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n Artnhistory in Norwegian? Got that, too!
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nBadges?nWe can earn badges?
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nOnenof my daughters dearly loved earning Girl Scout badges (and shenearned every single badge and sign it was possible to earn as anJunior Scout!). My guess is that a lot of other kids love earningnbadges, too, because the Khan Academy decided to create a system ofnbadges that can be earned. n
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nChecknout the Khan Academy. I have to tell you, I personally prefernlearning in other ways—from reading books, for example, or fromnwatching fascinating and beautiful videos (rather than these plain,npractical videos)—and I know that many other people also wondernwhat all the fuss is about, once they see their first Khan video.nHowever, a great many people, including many kids, love Khan’snstripped-down, relaxed teaching style, and they love being able tonlearn what they want to learn, when they want to learn it, using thenKhan Academy. I would think it would be more important to be able tonask questions during an explanation, but many people hate askingnquestions and love being able to control the speed and repetition ofnthe explanation.
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nAlsonon this date:
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Day of the Girl
Day of the Girl n
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nArcheologistnand nurse Harriet Boyd-Hawes’s birthday
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nMathematiciannLewis F. Richards’s birthday
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nPlannAhead:
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Checknout my Pinterest boards for:
Checknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nOctobern holidays
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nOctobern birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in October
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nNovembern holidays
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nNovembern birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in November
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