Well, I’ve visited this website some weeks ago and I liked what I saw (and see now). This time I’m not going to join the discussion about math teaching - I’m not even sure if this is the right place to put this - but just to mention some initiatives that I found useful and kind of similar (saving distances) to what you intend with Better Explained, and what Khan Academy intends, too. Maybe you already know some of them, but anyway, just wanted to point them out - though I haven’t tried them all. They are:
‘Head First’ books series.
Coursera; an online learning platform.
Udacity; another online learning platform.
CodeSchool; - I haven’t tried it yet, but seems promising.
This is a perfect critique of KA from the article you linked. In the internet age, hype, fanboyism and ‘branding’ are very regular phenomenons.
Again, the private market is pushing procedural/standardized testing, turning education into a product. Around this procedural/standardized testing you grow entire ‘prep’ industries and tutoring facilities. All of whom have an interest in pushing more of these test which diminish learning and often stunt real learning.
OF course this also creates an even more inequitable society.
The Decline of the “Great Equalizer”
Teachers are being asked to do more and more with less and less, it’s a prefect setup to see them fail. When they fail, the privateers are ready to swoop in and make money off the government. Socialism for the wealthy and the private is all good of course. The private market is interested in profits foremost, not human beings.
"But the real problem is not the stuff on the KA site. Flawed as it is, it is, as I noted earlier, a lot better than many people have, or ever had, access to. The fact that many of Khan’s fans describe him as “the best teacher ever” speaks volumes about the poor quality of the mathematics education that many receive. I’ve visited many math classrooms both in this country and around the world, and I’ve seen great math teaching. You won’t find it on KA. Instead, you will find something else, something unique and of value.
Sure, KA has lots of weaknesses and could be improved. That goes for any product. The real problem is that the US (and other nations) identify mathematics learning with instruction and passing procedural tests. In that world, KA meets a clear market need for instruction to help people pass procedural math tests. "
"But the real problem is not the stuff on the KA site. Flawed as it is, it is, as I noted earlier, a lot better than many people have, or ever had, access to. The fact that many of Khan’s fans describe him as “the best teacher ever” speaks volumes about the poor quality of the mathematics education that many receive. I’ve visited many math classrooms both in this country and around the world, and I’ve seen great math teaching. You won’t find it on KA. Instead, you will find something else, something unique and of value.
Sure, KA has lots of weaknesses and could be improved. That goes for any product. The real problem is that the US (and other nations) identify mathematics learning with instruction and passing procedural tests. In that world, KA meets a clear market need for instruction to help people pass procedural math tests.
In contrast, Ani, Noschese, Golden, Coffey, Meyer, Allain, and all the other KA critics in the educational world are interested in facilitating something quite different: real learning among their students.
Sal Khan says he is trying to move into the real, conceptual learning space as well, but so far I have not seen much that would qualify, and as I noted earlier, my own interest in trying out the MOOC format notwithstanding, I have yet to be convinced that it is possible over the Web.
Michael Arnel said that Khan’s “ultimate goal is to have multiple teachers for a certain topic…[and that] Khan Academy also accepts requests to donate videos by emailing sample videos.”
I guess I would believe that if I saw even ONE video (coughPatrickJMTcough) on the Khan Academy site other than Sal’s. I know what he says is his “ultimate” goal. What about an actual interim goal? I don’t buy it.
I don’t know if this has been said above but KA is perfect people who aren’t majoring in anything math related and just want to get through their math classes which they are struggling with.
The underlying question seems to be who could be a (math) teacher? Is the teacher an expert in the area and knows all the answers and applies best methods to teach? If we assume this to be true then we will be disappointed. Instead, if we assume that the process of teaching is a learning activity where the teacher learns actively from the students. A good teacher actively seeks feedback is willing to change his/her world view so that everyone benefits and learns. In my view, the models for math are very precisely defined unlike the mental models that we have about the world that is partial but useful. The debate about math teaching by “non experts” will continue… Let us salute the people who have the courage to teach and change our (math) world-view for the better.
Mathematics is best understood and taught as “how to get things done” - using practical examples. Pythagoras believed that everything could be explained by numbers. I’ve long thought that basic mathematics, physics and chemistry can be taught to children from the time they are able to count, by teaching them survival skills such as cooking, where concepts of volume, weight, size (incl. surface area), time, temperature and interaction and thermal conversion of ingredients are used to produce things they can actually eat! Then inform them they are in fact being research scientists as well as chefs!
Sorry me again. Lets not forget Walt Disney in the Math Avengers Club(Classic Version). Donald Duck in Mathemagical Land gives square roots an approachability that is unparalleled. http://youtu.be/YRD4gb0p5RM.
@Kazuo: Thanks for the awesome comment. I completely agree about stories – our brains are wired to understand analogies, metaphors and the like. Long before writing was common, we communicated information via oral histories. Why not use our brains, which handle this so well, to understand math?
Partly, I think this is why I need analogies / metaphors before really feeling comfortable with a topic. Just seeing a series of logical steps does not satisfy that part of my brain that demands a story-level understanding of what’s happening.
In terms of contribution, I’d like to think more about what is possible here to help organize our efforts. Really appreciate the comment!
@Guillermo: Exactly. Khan’s videos aren’t exactly how I would have done them, and that’s ok. They help a lot of people – that’s what counts.
@mark: Great insight about the open-source / community nature of the contributions. Right now we’ve been silo’d for so long, with proprietary “textbook” knowledge locked behind publishers. We need Wikipedia-style, community contributions.
I remember seeing that Donald Duck video a long time ago! Thanks for the reminder. I’d love to get such quality resources like this in one place.
@Sue: Thanks for the comment. I agree, it’s important not to take any current incarnation of a particular video (or resource) as a final one. We need a process to continually refine our content, similar to Wikipedia articles [many started out quite meager, with a single sentence, and evolved from there]. The hugely important human element in teaching is providing the encouragement to avoid having students feeling like failures.
@Steve: Thanks for the note. Exactly, students should use what works for them. There’s no reason we have to all listen to the same musician (or the same online resource). We prefer different styles.
I found KA through your website and used it as a reference for an adult education class I teach. All my students though it was fantastic. PatricJMT came from a very quiet chap at the back of the class, and is just great for another view on things.
Why teach maths (sorry, I’m a Brit and we need our ‘s’)- because we can and because it opens the mind to so many other things. Like thinking
I’m with you, Khalid.
[…] Finding Unity in the Math Wars — I recently heard a quote about constructive dialog: “Don’t argue the exact point a person made. Consider their position and respond to the best point they could have made.” I like this! (and the point that math teachers fighting with each other is missing an opportunity to fight for the existence of math education) (ps, “unity … math”, I see what you did there) […]
While we are sharing teaching resources I hope they are paired with some exercises/problems to allow students to proof what they know. What everyone misses about Khan Academy is John Resig’s (and others contribution) in terms of creating both a problem generating engine OPEN SOURCE as well as the new programming interface. This stuff in open source and folks are welcome to create and share what they do under a creative commons license. The big fight coming is between the publishers and the Math Avengers. I’m betting on the Hulk.
One thing I keep noticing about people who take issue with what they call the “anti-Khan” movement - they …
… they make false assumptions and state them as fact.
I teach very remedial students who really struggle with math. Not University level.
The Khan Academy promotes itself as being amazing and revolutionary. The actual content for the basic level learnign is fine for people who need a brush up on procedure, but the man tells students that two plus itself is the same as two times one… no, that’s not the only basic, fundamental error he makes. My students already feel like failures – so when this “best thing in the world” doesn’t work for them, they are absolutely sure that it’s their failure. I don’t care about his nice tone and that it helps some people. I see the damage it does to others… and all he’d have to do is care enough to have videos that had good content instead of his one-off “hey, I don’t even know what I’m going to say half the time” stuff.
@Christopher: If Bieber started doing math videos that would be seriously awesome.
@D: Ah, good point. I’m going to continue to say “equation” though as “inequality” is a little obscure I think. But noted.
@Shiv, YatharthROCK: Great points. Yep, everyone has a different preference [I prefer text too, easier to scan]. But those are individual preferences, and whatever tools get someone interested in the topic are the ones we should use.
Forums are an interesting angle as well. I like them, but unfortunately they can be time consuming to follow. But they’re great for specific, immediate questions.
@D: Yes, an equation requires an “equal(s)” sign (=) - hence the name. Let me add that some equations may use “≤” (less than or equal to) and/or “≥” (greater than or equal to) rather than simply “=”. Perhaps Kalid’s “equation” could be called a “formula” to completely satisfy everyone (except perhaps chemists, for whom “mathematical formula” would be 100% correct!).
Here’s your brilliant article, which will benefit all classes of people (i.e., those in the loop, those not) and here are the pedants, the “I-don’t-car-if-they’re-new-learning everything-should-be-technically-correct” people you mentioned trying to undermine the meaning of the post (which, I doubt they get).
You are KA here and the pedants, the mathematicians. Can’t we all get along?
P.S: No offence to anyone here BTW P.P.S: Sorry for my apparent lack in eloquence that others seem to possess in quantities that make mine insignificant
@Ralph Yeah, sorry. I need to be a little more discrete when I rant, ad when I do, try not to overtone things too much and let a healthy discussion continue. #letsgetalong
