As the semester ended last Friday, it is time to take a look back at my interactions with Khan since the start of the school year. I have included reflections of my own as well as from my class.
Pros
- My students love using the computer to do work.
- Khan sometimes teaches a concept using a different strategy than I would have used.
- Instant feedback on "assignment".
- Parents can see how their child is doing.
- Students love winning points and badges and competing for things.
- Ability to explore beyond what I teach.
- Can use it at home or school - just need internet connection.
- Endless practice problems.
Cons
- It is hard to find existing Khan videos that supplement a concept or skill without going into way more detail than the text or I would have, or way less.
- Students recorded work in a journal and I'm not sure they gained much from this.
- The momentum and excitement died down as the term progressed.
- I had intended to use Khan as a pre-teach so that my class lessons could be more in depth. However, at this level you can only go so in depth before you've covered an entirely new topic. On the occasions when I tried this, we later got to the lesson of the more advanced topic in the book and half my class remembered it and the rest did not. I then had to do a sort of reteaching but still try to engage those who weren't being challenged at that point.
- Students sometimes do not understand how a concept or skill is explained.
- Videos can be lengthy.
- Voice can get boring.
- At the beginning or the year there are a great deal of new concepts to cover and it was easier to find correlating videos. Now that many concepts build on prior skills there are not videos to correspond with this.
Going forward....
This semester I will see what I can adapt and change to make sure that my student's Khan experiences are impactful.
No comments:
Post a Comment