Buffering your Education Writen, designed and photographed by: Paige Topole 1
Dedicated To: I would like to dedicate this book to many different people. First I would like to dedicate it to Khan Academy, after all they are the reason why this book is possible. I would like to thank them for the great advancements that they are making in the classroom. Secondly I would like to thank my two dogs, Mike and Roxy, for being such amazing dogs. You guys are the best!
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Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the kind people who have help me in my quest to solve my question about the rise of Khan Academy. First I would like to thank all the teachers that I interviewed. I especially would like to thank Kim Rogers and Gale Dyer for providing me with so much information. Secondly I would like to thank all the students that have answered my questions and let me take photos of them, while they were working. Finally I would like to thank all the people at Freestyle Academy, especially Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Greco, for helping me with my essay and book.
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Table of Context Foreward pg 8 Introduction
pg 11
Chapter 1:Carrier
pg 13
Chapter 2:Why Khan?
pg 17
Chapter 3:The First Fronter
pg 23
Chapter 4:Robot Teachers?
pg 25
Conclusion:A Look at the Future
pg 27
Bibliography
pg 29
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Foreword
As a student, I am always looking for ways to improve my education, and that’s how I discovered Khan Academy. The first time I learned about Khan Academy was in my 9th grade chemistry class. We were learning about polarity, and my teacher decided that we should hear the lesson from someone else. So that day we watched a Khan Academy video, and I though it was great. The next time that I used Khan Academy was before a math test, in which I could not understand inverse matrices for my life! So after a couple of clicks, I was directed to Khan Academy video, and my math grade was saved. After that day I realized that no matter what, I would always be able to find the answers to my questions on the Internet. This led me to the question, how will Khan Academy change education? This research project made me pursue the answers to my question. Once I started to investigate my question, another more prominent question arose, why is Khan Academy so popular? After all there are tons of programs that try to do what Khan Academy does, though why are they “the program that will change the world” and are sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and not some other program? This book and essay soon became dedicated to the question of how Khan Academy is able to become so popular, and what I found according to The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell, is that there are three different reasons. Furthermore, after each interview with multiple students, teachers and advisors was that those three points were very relevant to the rise of Khan Academy. All point to why Khan Academy is able to become, in a sense, a virtual “virus”.
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Introduction: Imagine you are studying for your math final, a test that counts for 20% of your grade, and you are stuck. How will you learn about inverse matrices? You only have one night, and neither of your parents know enough trigonometry to help you with your woes. You try to call your friends in your class, but they are all busy, studying for the test. Right before total despair sets in you realize that you could try searching inverse matrices on Google. Bam!, 0.12 seconds later, a YouTube video from Khan Academy shows up. By the time the ten-minute video is over, Sal Khan has done a better job explaining to you how to solve inverse matrices, exponential equations, and factorials than any math teacher you have ever had. The next day, during the math test you come across a nasty looking inverse matrices problem, but by relying on what you have learned from Khan you know exactly what to do. Two weeks later when you get your test back you have received a nearly perfect score. The reasons behind your success in understanding difficult concepts is Khan Academy and the transition to a more electronic education. For with the help of the Internet, education is changing faster than it ever has before, especially with programs like Khan Academy. So how and why is the Khan Academy able to change education and to what extent?
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Everyone knows that the Internet is changing our lives, and one part of our lives that it is especially changing is education. By having access to the Internet and new technologies, people are finding themselves able to dramatically change the “game” of education. Though before analyzing how education is changing we need to look at the “why”. According to Kim Rogers, a science teacher at Mountain View High School, “Education changes with the students, as teachers we need to keep up with their attention spans and try to follow what they are doing”(Rogers). This is why the newest and brightest technologies are always brought to the classroom, including things such as the Internet, YouTube, and Khan Academy. For with these tools, teachers hope that they will be able to better engage their students and keep them more attentive to their education. So how is Khan Academy able to change education? Paul Revere and William Dawes know why, for they embody these characteristics.. Have you ever heard of William Dawes? Dawes was a tanner, born and raised in Boston during the 1740’s. On May 3, 1768 he married the captivating Mehitable May, the daughter of Samuel and Catherine May. So what does he have to do with Paul Revere? Well on April 18, 1775 Dawes was assigned by Doctor Joseph Warren to ride from Boston, Massachusetts, to Lexington, to warn, “everyone within earshot, “The Regulars are out!”(Boyle). That same night a much more famous man by the name of Paul Revere took a similar journey. Even though both men were assigned their journeys by the same man and had the same message, why is one more known throughout American history textbooks and the other known by a few United States history experts? The reason for this phenomenon is the same answer to why the Internet is able to change the classroom forever.
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Chapter 1: The Carrier The three main reasons why things catch on, according to the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a book about why things become popular. The first reason is the deliverer of the message, and in this category there are three different types of people. The first one is the Law of the Few, or the concept that an idea needs to be spread by someone who is highly influential. These groups of people are called Connectors, or someone that links people together, as they are the ones that are able to make friends quickly. Secondly there are the Maverns, or people that are well educated about their topic, thus people tend to trust what they are saying. The final group of people are the Salesmen, or the persuaders that charm people with their powerful negotiation skills. Due to historical references, we are led to believe that Paul Revere was a person that could qualify in some way in all of these categories. Since he had many connections due to his job at his silver shop, thus he could qualify as a Connector. He was also an active member of organizations to remove the British, so people thought he was a reputable source, or a Mavern. Finally, it has been assumed that he was very well spoken and able to convince people, characteristics needed in a Salesman. Therefore he is the perfect candidate to be a connector, while William Dawes has not been shown to exemplify any of these characteristics, or at least not to the same extent of Paul Revere. For the carrier of the message could make the difference from it being known by all, or being known only by a small group. This is why YouTube makes the perfect connector for classroom education, something Justin Bieber can vouch for..
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After his “discovery” Chris Hicks described his new client, Justin Bieber, “as doing something different. He was an attractive white kid singing very soulful R&B hits. That set him apart immediately from anyone in his range because no one was covering or singing these kind of records. But equally important was that you believed in these songs – it was real. And you wanted to hear more” (Hicks). For Justin Bieber everything started with a YouTube video of him singing Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” for a local singing competition in Stratford. Soon he would become an international pop star, worth millions. So how is Justin Bieber and Khan Academy similar? Well for both Khan Academy and Justin Bieber YouTube proved to be a great place to place their messages on. For if not one visited YouTube then there would be no Justin Bieber or Khan Academy. Because people trusted YouTube, like they trusted Paul Revere, they were more willing to accept its message. Currently YouTube is the most popular web page to place and share videos. In fact, YouTube is marking its fifth anniversary by announcing their service has exceeded two billion daily views, demonstrating a rapid growth in popularity since reaching the one billion-mark in 2009. This is something that Khan Academy is very grateful for, because without YouTube, they never would have caught on.
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A “
ny teacher that can be replaced by a computer deserves to be� -David Thornburg
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Chapter 2: Why Khan
The second thing that causes phenomenon to rise is the Stickiness factor, or how effective the impact of the message is. Therefore if a message is important it is more likely to “stick”. In the case of Paul Revere and William Dawes, both traveled down different paths, and Revere’s path was where more people were threatened by a potential British threat. For once Revere told the villagers that the British were going to try to take weapons from Lexington and Concord, they were startled and it aroused almost all the villagers. Even though both men went to the same destination, Dawes message did not stick, because his path consisted of an area that was less affected by a potential British threat. This idea of things sticking also applies to why Khan Academy is more popular than other online tutoring web sites.
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On a visit with family during the summer of 2004 at some point during the trip, Sal Khan promised to help his niece with her “unit conversion” which was not allowing her to be placed in the more advanced math track for 7th grade. At first their lessons began just using the telephone to talk and Yahoo Doodle as a shared notepad. She ended up catching up and getting ahead of her class, so Sal started tutoring her brothers as well. Eventually, word got around and therefore Sal started to make YouTube videos for them to watch in their own time, at their own pace. It didn’t take long to see that other students (including adult learners) were hungry for videos like these so Sal kept going! Sal quit his day job as a manager of a hedge fund in September 2009 to work on this new program better known as Khan Academy (Khan Academy). Now Khan Academy is considered to be one of the most influential projects and it is predicted to forever change education. In fact, it was named by Google’s project “10 to the 100” ideas that will change the world. So why are Khan Academy’s videos so popular? Well the reason why is that it sticks with people for many reasons. The first reason is because of the simple way that Khan explains general concepts in his videos. For many people who are struggling with grasping a complicated problem often need to review a more basic approach. Another reason according to Sophomore, Elizabeth Miotke, is because of the presentation of the “magical black screen that has his booming voice narrating what to do, and with brightly colored pens drawing out what the problem is” (Miotke). The final reason why is because there is so many options available, in fact, there are 131,401,048 videos on the website, translated in more than 15 different languages.
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Chapter 3: The First Fronter The final and last thing that differentiates Khan Academy from other educational web programs is how it falls into the third and final reason why things catch on, which is the Power of Context. The Power of Context means that its environment, will decide how quickly and to what extent a message will be spread. For Paul Revere, the area that he was traveling in a highly aware of British advancements and, therefore the message was more powerful. For William Dawes his message was not as well received because less people were concerned about British advancements in his area, so his message ended up going over their heads. Therefore Paul Revere is the man that we study when we talk about the Midnight Ride, not William Dawes. It is also the reason why the “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” gave millions of dollars to Khan Academy and not to some other web site. “Matthew Carpenter, a serious-faced 10-year-old wearing a gray T-shirt and an impressive black digital watch, pauses for a second, fidgets, then clicks on the correct answer for a complicated inverse trig function, until he’s nailed 10 in a row in just a few minutes. All together, he’s done an insane 642 inverse trig problems”(Wired Magazine). So how is a 10-year-old able to do math equations that some high school students do not even know how to do? And no, Carpenter is not currently enrolled at some school built for genius 10-year-olds. In fact, Carpenter attends Santa Rita Elementary, located in the Los Altos school district, a district that is piloting a program to use Khan Academy to teach students. In these classrooms, Khan Academy is able to be used to its fullest potential, and the students love it. Behar, a fifth grader at Bubb, a pilot class in the Mountain View district, exclaimed “Everyone is so excited when it’s time to use Khan Academy, Mrs. Dyer (the teacher) actually has to calm us down before we get out the Ipads” (Behar). The students have a reason to be excited, because for them Khan Academy isn’t just a fun activity; it’s also helping students that were lagging in math to catch up with their peers. According to the Los Altos web page they describe their experience as “A unique opportunity to explore 21st century learning with our students by leveraging technology to differentiate instruction to meet the individualized learning needs of all students. We are fortunate to have formed a phenomenal partnership with Khan Academy and are excited by the potential differentiated learning.”(Los Altos Web- page). As the pilot continues to grow it leads districts, especially advance districts like the Los Altos district, to ask, “What’s the next step for Khan Academy in the Classroom?” 21
“ There can be infinite uses of the computer age tech-
nology, but if the teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails� Nanct Kassebau m( U.S. Senator)
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Because Khan Academy is being used in the highly modern classrooms of the Los Altos School District and with intense competition that the students feel with each other, it is increasing it potential to change. For classrooms such as the one that Carpenter is in make students more motivated to push themselves. Though it’s not only the competition that makes Khan effective in the classroom, it’s also that it is mixed with new technologies. For when the students use the new technologies they are more like to be engaged with what they are learning about. Another benefit of using technology is that it boosts their awareness of the quick moving world of all things new.
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Chapter 4: Robot Teachers? Even though Khan Academy seems “flawless” to the fifth graders at Bubb Elementary, there is no such thing as a perfect program. As some teachers try to make Khan Academy take an even more predominate stance in the classroom, it’s making teachers want to “switch” the classrooms. To “switch” a classroom is to have students be placed in different math classes based on their progress in Khan Academy. For some teachers, this program seems like a potential disaster. Mrs. Dyer, a teacher at Bubb Elementary, question what would happen if the switch actually happened, “ I worry that if we make the switch, students would not be exposed to the grade level.. (and) that students would not be able to catch up to their peers without some form of a teacher”( Dyer). A similar complaint was brought up by a math teacher at Blach Intermediate, Dr. Sharron Moerner, “ Khan Academy is just a blank screen and for many of my students, this blank screen prevents them from really connecting with the concepts, like what teachers can do”(Moerner). Finally many students, especially high school students, find themselves with too complex of questions. Sophomore Kareena Hiranoi complained that “ the concepts are too general, and sometimes, I’ll start a video and end up with no new information”(Hiranoi). For some students, the general information is not enough to help them solve “complex” problems. Therefore, for now, Khan Academy is limited to being used only as a supplement in the classroom and as a homework aid at home.
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Conclusion: A Look at the Future
Even though we have not found a way to make hovering cars or live on the moon, we are affected greatly by technology. Especially in education, for now education is advancing as fast as Apple’s ability to make a newer version of their Iphone. So what is the future for education, and what role will Khan Academy play? Although it is not certain what will happen in the future, it is certain that Khan Academy will be playing an even bigger role in every classroom across the country. According to Sal Khan, he plans to soon make a school on Castro Street in Downtown Mountain View that will mimic the style on the actual web site. Judging on how much Khan Academy has already affected the classroom, this set up may soon be the future of education. For new technologies have the ability to “Learn the past, watch the present, and create the future.”
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“ T he principle goal of educaion is to create
men and woman who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done� - Jean Piaget
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Bibliography: 1. Behar, a 5th grader at Bubb Elementary, in response to her classmate’s reaction to Khan Academy. (2-262. Bieber, Justin, Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com [accessed Mar 20, 2012] 3. Cadwell, Courtney. A Bright New Idea, Los Altos District and Khan Academy, August 19, 2011, Web, 3-10-12 4. Dyer, Gale, a teacher at Bubb Elementary in response to her opinion on “The Switch”. (2-26-12) 5. E.W.Boyle, The Midnight Ride of William Dawes?, Beafifer ,2001,web, 2-16-12 6. Hiranoi, Kareena, a Sophomore at Mountain View High School in response to why she does not like Khan Academy. (2-24-12) 7. Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference. Boston : Little, Brown, ©2000. Book : English : 1st ed 8. Miotke , Elizabeth, a sophomore at Mountain View High School, when talking about her teacher showing Khan Academy videos during class. 9. Moerner, Sharron, a 7th grade math teacher at Blach Intermediate, in response to the future of education. (2-12-12) 10. The History of Khan Academy, Khan Academy , web, ©2012 Khan Academy, 2-16- 12 11. Thompson, Clive. How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education, Wired Magazine, July 15, 2011, Magazine, 3-10-12 12. Rogers, Kim a teacher at Mountain View High School in response to the future of education. (2-24-12) 13. YouTube, About, web, http://www.youtube.com/t/about_youtube, 2-16-12 29
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