Special Assignment #2

Websites for Learning

Kahn Academy originated when Salmon Kahn made some tutorial videos for his cousins. After a positive response from his cousins and others, he expanded his video production. He quit his job as a fund investor, enlisted some others to help him, and now has over 2000 tutorial videos on the Kahn Academy website. Tutorials available range from math to science to SAT prep. iTunesU is a collection of lectures, labs, and other educational media produced by universities all over the world. TED is an organization that produces videos from a wide range of disciplines. Originally, the purpose was to bring together Technology, Entertainment and Design (hence the name TED) but it has expanded to include a wider range of subjects.

Kahn Academy has a seemingly endless selection of math tutorials, including Algebra I & II, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Differential Equations, and others. One can also find a good selection of science tutorials, including Chemistry, Physics, Organic Chemistry, and other disciplines. There are also videos concerning Finance, Economics, Investing, Statistics and SAT prep tutorials. A teacher teaching these subjects could plan lessons based on these tutorials and then use these videos to help him teach or as reinforcement for what he has already presented to the class.

The videos that TED makes available are generally talks or lectures from their yearly 4 day conferences. At each conference, they attempt to have 50 of the most interesting people in the world speak for 15-20 minutes each. They then make these talks available to the world on their website. At this time, there are about 1000 videos that can be watched and listened to about many different subjects such as medicine, science, finance, human rights, technology and others.
Many are inspirational or motivational talks. These could be used by a teacher to inspire the students to have high aspirations or he could seek out a topic related to the lessons and just give the students a different perspective on the subject.

The iTunesU website contains thousands of videos and e-books that are made available by over 400 universities in the US and others from around the world. In general, topics include any course that might be offered at a university. The subjects are wide ranging, including math, science, theology, the social sciences (history, sociology, psychology, etc), economics, foreign language and art. Some of these productions may exceed 1 1/2 hours, some are shorter than one minute. A teacher could use some of these longer ones for student projects or use shorter ones for a brief explanation or overview of a topic.

At Kahn Academy, I watched the tutorial about balancing chemical equations. When I was teaching this it was a concept that many had trouble with. I was pleased to see in the tutorial that he presented the subject almost exactly like I did, so maybe I was doing OK. You can find the video at Khan Academy:Chemical Equations

When I looked at what TED had to offer, I had to search a little while to find a talk that I was really interested in. The TED topics are pretty random and not organized as clearly as I would like. I found a talk by James Watson, who along with his partner, Francis Crick, figured out the structure of DNA. Their discovery and the gene research that has followed have been world changing. I felt honored to be able to see and hear him. This talk can be found at DNA Discovery

At iTunesU, I watched several videos about Iran and US relations, how Iranians think about the US, and the hostage crisis of the early 1980's. Even though I teach science, I have a strong interest in history and how it affects what goes on in the world today. However, maybe due to the way it is organized, I could not find a "url" for the videos I watched.

I could see the tutorials from Kahn Academy being very helpful. They could be used as a change of pace during class (so the kids could listen to someone other than me) or they could be used to reteach something that had already been presented to the students. Sometimes when you hear something from someone else it'll just click. The tutorials could also be used by students who miss class. I would definitely use Kahn Academy as a resource.

iTunesU would not be as easy to use because topics are not organized and laid out where things can be easily and quickly found. I'm certain there are resources there that I could possibly use if I only knew how to find it. Maybe when I become more familiar with the website I will be able to utilize it more.

The talks found on the TED website cover a really wide range of topics, and appear to be directed at an adult audience rather than 13-14 year olds. There may be something in there that I could use in class but probably not a lot. It's kinda random and over the head of most middle schoolers.

I suppose I was somewhat surprised at the extent of resources available, especially at Kahn Academy and iTunesU. I knew that there were probably some tutorials available, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise to see what Kahn Academy has available. Not only would a lot of this be useful in the classroom, but I can also use these tutorials to refresh my own knowledge, especially my math skills. I had been considering retaking some classes just to refresh things in my brain, but now I don't think I'll have to do that. With the books available on iTunesU and the tutorials by Kahn, I can learn it on my own.