I agree with Richard that Kahn's videos aren't a whole lot different than a traditional lecture and in fact most online education seems to be in that format (e.g. the MIT lectures and others). My guess is that, much like the old correspondence courses, only a few highly self motivated individuals can learn that way. Most people do better (a lot better) with some form of interactivity.
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:11:48 -0700
From: Richard Hake <rrhake@earthlink.net<mailto:rrhake@earthlink.net>>
Subject: [Phys-l] Khan's Video Lectures: Educational Failures or
Harbingers of Educational Success?
To: <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu<mailto:phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>>
Message-ID: <a06240809cb8c2398323d@[192.168.1.106]>
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Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in "Khan's Video
Lectures: Educational Failures or Harbingers of Educational Success?"
[Hake (2012b)]. The abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: In a "60 Minutes" program of 11 March titled "Khan Academy:
The Future of Education?" <http://bit.ly/FPnIFH>, Bill Gates said:
"There's a website that I've just been using with my kids - Khan
Academy - this one guy doing some unbelievable 15 minute tutorials."
. . . . Then host Sanjay Gupta exclaimed: "That's right, Bill Gates,
one of the smartest and richest men in the world, was using Sol
Khan's free videos to teach his own kids!"
In a post of 16 March "Khan's Video Lectures on Acceleration and
Newton's Second Law" at <http://bit.ly/yPSjFE>," I criticized Khan's
"unbelievable" video lectures on those subjects as EDUCATIONAL
FAILURES. However, they may also be HARBINGERS OF EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS.
MathEdCC's perceptive Clyde Greeno put the optimistic perspective as
follows (paraphrasing and generalizing Clyde's "math" to "education"):
". . . .apart from Khan's presentations, the instructional technology
that he has developed can greatly expedite national and personal
efforts to improve teaching and learning. . . . Khan was an
engineering student who was reared through the American traditional
public perceptions of what 'education' is and how it should be
taught. Khan did NOT write the educational scripts . . . . and must
not be blamed for their educational flaws. In fact (unlike so many
'experts'), Khan might still be educable . . . . or responsive to
enlightened guidance for improving the quality of his video library .
. . . from those who can offer something better than complaints. The
'harnessing' challenge is clear: use the same instructional-media
technology to do what *should* be done . . . . perhaps even by
educating Kahn."
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