Khan/Koller Review

Khan Academy

Recently I had the opportunity to peruse Salman Khan’s website called Khan Academy.  Salman Khan turned a hobby of making videos to tutor family members into an entrepreneurial opportunity. Khan Academy is a free educational learning website available to parents, students and teachers. It has an extensive learning library on just about any topic. It’s self-paced and can be tailored to individual learning needs. You might want to use Khan Academy if you are brushing up on some math concepts, getting ready for the SAT or just wanting to learn something new. I signed up to try it out and took the suggested math pretest.  I found it quite interactive and easy to use. While doing the math pretest, I actually viewed a video on negative exponents. I thought he did a really nice job explaining and simplifying the concept. He uses a “no frills” approach, but it’s effective.  Ironically, my daughter had a question on the very same topic the next day. Of course, I didn't hesitate to impress her with my newly learned expertise.

From an educator perspective, I would definitely incorporate this website into my classroom. I would use this to advance children who master concepts quickly or students who need extra work in a particular area. This way of learning will redefine the way we think of traditional education. Khan states that we will rely more on credentialing through on-line coursework in the future. The software industry already uses forms of on-line credentialing. Many programmers become certified in different types of software development or code and use these courses as highlights for jobs. This type of learning will definitely continue to create opportunities for both traditional and non-traditional students to further their education. It will also appeal to those seeking a degree and those who just want to seek additional education to become more marketable in the ever changing world economy. I foresee Khan Academy as becoming a household name.

Coursera

Another educational website I reviewed was the newly created Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) founded by Stanford University Professor, Daphne Koller and several of her colleagues. These academics are in the process of revolutionizing access to top educational courses, professors and universities. They created an online education platform that can be accessed worldwide at no cost to the student. The learning platform is called Coursera.  The idea behind Coursera is simply bringing a high quality education to anyone in the world free of charge. Right now students who take courses can earn certificates of completion for finished coursework. They hope in the future that these courses will be accepted as transfer credits to other academic learning institutions. Our own Columbus State refers to Coursera "as a useful do-it-yourself professional development resource". You cannot currently earn credit at Columbus State, but it’s definitely on many academic institutions radar. 

I personally explored several of Coursera’s course offerings. I was amazed at the number of Teacher and Professional Development courses you can take. Even though I did not grow up with technology, I realize it’s the wave of future. I am always looking for opportunities to learn more about how to incorporate it into the classroom. The specific course I found interesting was Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom. Coursera definitely sells itself through university and instructor name recognition. I’m guessing the coursework is as rigorous as attending any on-line course at an academic institution of higher learning. Either way, I think MOOC’s are the new trend. With the cost of education rising more than 559% since 1985, the expansion of the internet and constant state of financial crises across the globe, MOOC’s will be looked at as a cost-effective education alternative. I think students 10 years from now will be taking classes through a combination of traditional classrooms, MOOC’s, and other online forums. 

The landscape of the way we learn and educate ourselves is ever changing. These two learning environments are just a glimpse at how technology is helping bring affordable global access to education.