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Ask HN: What's Khan Academy's next step?
- isokol 11y agoThis holds true for any learning platform, they have quality content in place. Most of them anyway. However, IF they want to disrupt schools and universities, they need to target something very different. Schools and Universities offer valuable certification and because the top ones are hard to get into, there is obvious prestige attached to graduate from them. So they probably need to start figuring out how they can add valuable certification to learning from their site.
- yusee 11y agoPassive learning. Podcasts. People want to learn things. But people don't want to devote time to learning. Passive media that reclaims dead time is the solution. Listening to a podcast during your commute is clearly different from watching a lecture, taking notes, and solving problems. Not every concept is conducive to passive learning. That's no problem. Let the podcasts cover concepts that tie into further active study.
- pedrodelfino 11y agoThanks for the comment, quite out of the box. Nonetheless, my bet would be the opposite. I think people are getting addicted to things like social media and this is obviously bad for academic performance. I reckon that some educational platforms will do the opposite of what social media apps do: create an environment of focus. I can imagine khan academy having features like pomodoro's timers and extensions which would block "distractive" websites during exercises. I can see a future more of productivity apps, like "Rescue Time", joining educational platforms than education joining social media as "soft" content.
- tmaly 11y agoI have had to switch from taking a train to driving to work. I use to be able to work on my food project, but now that is not possible. Podcasts have become my go to for the dead time.
- blabla_blublu 11y agoDiversification and Appeal to learners across age groups [Education for adults]. IMO, building new courses in disciplines for which learning materials might not be readily available, but are important nevertheless, without diluting the standards they maintain. Example : Basic carpentry ?
- toomuchtodo 11y agoHomeschooling/independent education workflow. Let me pay you so I can setup my child with the curriculum they need from Grade 1-12, track their progress, etc.
- samfisher83 11y agoWhat about socializing? How will your kids socialize with other people? School is just not about math and reading.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoI can socialize my child(ren) without subjecting them to the public school system.
- pramodliv1 11y agoDeveloping their own curriculum from scratch that is not tied to common-core, NCERT(India) or other government-created ones which focus mostly on memorization and getting children through the assembly line. I'd love to see more interactive exercises focusing on problem solving, creating projects, collaborating with other students instead of answering a bunch of quizzes after listening to 30 minutes of video.
- mathattack 11y ago1) National infrastructure for self-directed learning. It will be something more than traditional homeschooling, but something less than classroom driven private or public schools. 2) Personalizing content delivery to 1 on 1. (Having multiple videos per content area and figuring which works best for each learner - or perhaps videos that can be spliced together in real time based on the learner) Their secret sauce is the data on student understanding available to teachers, not the videos themselves.
- la6470 11y agoDegrees degrees degrees Nobody has dare to do that? Khan can you?