August 19, 2011
Weekend Website #64: Khan Academy
Every Friday I’ll send you a wonderful website that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.
Khan Academy--free videos on lots of stuff
Age:
2nd-8th
Topic:
Tech Ed in the classroom
Address:
Review:
With a library of over 2,400 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 125 practice exercises, we’re on a mission to help you learn whatever you want, whenever you want, at your own pace.
This is Sal’s–the website’s founder–self-description, one so very true. Winner of Google’s Project 10 to the 100th (no superscripts available in WordPress) of ideas to change the world, it is unlike any other online video training website. Most of Khan Academy’s FREE videos are academically-oriented, topics that students struggle with understanding like algebra, applied sciences, humanities. The lessons are both textual and hands-on. For example, if you’re studying economics, it offers videos on the economics behind America’s current economic fiasco, it offers video lesson on the Geithner Plan and the Paulson Bailout. It even has review questions from CAHSEE/SAT/AP/GMAT prep tests.
You have the option of setting up an account with Khan Academy. It’s a good idea. When you take practice tests preparing for one of those national tests I mentioned above, it tracks your progress and provides statistics on how you’re doing. It even provides badges to proudly display what you’ve passed. Many schools set-up on-campus access to Khan Academy as part of support functions for the classes they teach. I’m considering doing this in my school.
One final note, the ISTE tech conference I attended back in June of over 15,000 educators chronically listed Khan Academy as among the most-important websites for video tutorials on the web. Attendees and presenters constantly raved about Khan Academy as a self-help site far beyond any other available, on a par with MIT‘s offering of free videos of their course offerings. Check it out. You won’t be disappointed.
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and author of two technology training books for middle school. She wrote Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she’s working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office, WordDreams, or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
