A few years back, in one of my classrooms, I had students ranging in ability from doing math at the 2nd grade level to math at the 10th grade level. I had an hour a day to do math with all 4 groups (and these are guys with neurobehavioral disabilities so the one-on-one, immediate feedback time is important) so I needed to be creative and differentiate instruction using what websites were available back then in addition to a high school teacher's videos that I'd obtained somehow.

I WISH I had a website like Khan Academy available to me when I was teaching. Khan has tons of engaging lessons that I'm sure my boys with Aspergers would LOVE - much more so than hearing me everyday. The man behind this is pretty darn smart, and I think I'll watch some of his videos now rather than finishing an awful little history of the world book I have on my Kindle.

Forget tutoring websites, it's all here for free.

Here Salman Khan is on TED:
http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html

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K D. Brilliant - many thanks - will pass on to my kids.

3/14/11  •  Votes (0)

Alessandra A. This is great for our teachers in Guatemala to have!
Thank you

3/19/11  •  Votes (0)

You might have read about Salman Khan in the news. The former hedge fund manager put a few math videos online to help tutor his little cousins. The videos were a hit amongst not just his cousins but thousands of others on YouTube. Since then, Khan has launched KhanAcademy.org and uploaded more than 2100 videos across a variety of subjects. The success of the site has attracted big attention from the likes of Bill Gates who has helped fund the academy.

Personally, if I had had a resource like this when I was a kid, I would have been in heaven. I loved learning on my own and hated learning in school. One of the most interesting ideas to come out of the Khan Academy is that some kids might be able to spend their "homework time" in the evenings watching videos on KhanAcademy.org and then during "school time" kids could do their homework and get help from teachers. This most certainly would work for autodidactic child, but potentially it could work for everyone as it could free up school time for more personal attention and less lecturing.

Bill Gates on Khan:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/index.htm

Khan speaking at TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html

I'm a fan of the idea, and I hope it works. Oh, and check out some of the lectures. They're good. http://www.khanacademy.org/video/linear-algebra---eigenvectors-and-eigenspaces-for-a-3x3-matrix?playlist=Linear%20Algebra

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Chris O. Great to see a posting on something intellectual here!

I know it's intellectual because I went to the site and didn't understand any of it. And it must be good, because I might have grasped a little bit of anything of a lower standard.

So for me, the best bit was seeing the still shot on the front page, of Bill Gates doing his famous Mick Jagger impression. I'm easily pleased.

3/12/11  •  Votes (0)

Jeremy G. Hahah, thank you thank you, and Gates really has settled into his new "rock star" status.

But the videos really are great for adults too! I'm a sucker for learning... http://www.khanacademy.org/#browse

3/12/11  •  Votes (0)

K D. Brilliant - many thanks - will pass on to my kids

3/14/11  •  Votes (0)

Excellent online educational source. This site has over 2 400 videos covering topics from arithmetic to physics, finance and history. It is beneficial to people of all ages. It could be used for high-school students or even adults that want to improve their skills, or for those oldies that want to refresh their memory. This site is highly recommended.

one of the good guys left in the world, thank you for everything