week 5: summary of How Khan Academy is bringing Learning to the Masses

One of my colleagues is a huge fan of Khan Academy, largely evident by her sticker charts and the kids I teach the following year who tell me “Mrs. W loved Khan Academy.” I think Khan Academy is a website loaded full of resources that wasn’t used as readily when I was in middle/high school. Personally, I took advantage of Khan Academy last summer when I spent some time reviewing all the really cool higher level mathematics that I’ve learned, but have since forgotten since I teach middle school.

This article summarized an interview Jennifer Gonzalez had with the founder of Khan Academy, Sal Khan. It discusses Khan Academy’s Mastery Learning system recently developed. This mastery system takes the student through a course, tracking what they already know and giving them videos and practice questions for what they still need to learn. This mastery platform was Khan Academy’s goal from the get-go as it allows students to go at their pace and receive differentiated instruction.

I appreciate that Khan noted that the online mastery system is not meant to replace human teacher instruction, but rather supplement it. Khan Academy provides immediate feedback which is beneficial both to student learning and teacher monitoring of class and individual progress.

The article ends with a quote from Khan describing how our educational system radically developed during the Industrial Revolution. He presents Khan Academy’s mastery system as a way for society to keep up with the new educational demands required to navigate globalization. And as a solution for individuals to personally advance in their knowledge of a discipline.