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His contribution is impressive, but it has a long way to go. Good online instruction presents very different challenges not found with traditional classroom te

His contribution is impressive, but it has a long way to go. Good online instruction presents very different challenges not found with traditional classroom teaching or "professor-as-focus" videos. It's an instructional medium unique to itself, and still finding its legs. I completely disagree with course content that's been created using poor-quality audio and "visuals" (not video). "Good enough" is not only disrespectful to the student but completely unnecessary given the quality and cost of great content production tools available the past four years. Higher-quality means more post production work, however, but it's worth it because "when it's done right, it will always be done right." Four rules have emerged so far in this new medium: 1) The material must take center stage, not the presenter, 2) students prefer granularity of subject matter in short vignettes, 3) done well is always done well, promoting repeatable instructional excellence, 4) high-quality audio/visual production tools are a must. A lot of us, not just Sal, employ these principals in our work. But overall, it needs to bake a little more before being presented at TED or before the MacArthur Foundation. The educational paradigm is shifting, and indeed being disrupted, but not in the way most people think.

dctoedt 16y ago
> "Good enough" is not only disrespectful to the student but completely unnecessary given the quality and cost of great content production tools available the past four years. Evidently a LOT of people disagree with you. Mr. Khan seems to have an MVP (minimum viable product). Just possibly this is one of those cases where if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
- johnohara 16y ago
  MVP -- maybe, if that's what he wants. But I don't care if everybody disagrees with me. It's pedagogically broken. This is a new instructional medium, with new rules and huge opportunities. My point: We can do a lot better. I'm gonna stand over here and wait for some of the fanboy nonsense to die down. Sal's been around for a while and a LOT of people are new to him. Let him do what he does best, and leave TED out of it.
  - nocman 16y ago
    Actually, the pedagogy of his videos is the thing that the opposite of "broken". Khan has an excellent teaching style, and gets his points across rather well. So calling it "pedagogically broken" is completely ridiculous. If you had said it was "productionally broken" you might have an argument (although, I'm not sure "productionally" is really a word :-D ). Khan could indeed use fancier tools to produce his short videos, but what really makes them valuable is the content. I don't see that the current presentation style detracts from the teaching value one bit.
rfrey 16y ago
To me this sounds like much of the pedagogy I grew up with in the late 80's, which emphasized production values over clear presentation, or assumed that production values were an indicator of quality of presentation. The underlying assumption then was that "modern students" needed to be "entertained" or somehow spoken to "in their own language" whatever that is. Your points, especially "high quality audio/visual production tools are a must", echoes that sentiment to me. All in all that seems to me more disrespectful to students than letting the subject matter speak for itself, and assuming that young students are as capable as we are of seeing the magic in geometry, or calculus, if it is correctly and clearly explained. Edited: Also, producing 1600 videos puts him rather apart from others in the field, even those producing awesome graphics.
- johnohara 16y ago
  This medium now allows for both: excellent production and clear presentation. If it's presented well the first time, it will always be presented well. The problem with production in the 80's and 90's was time and cost. High cost and long production time guaranteed the problems you point out. But the cost of high-quality production today is so low as to be non-existent. Production time is still a factor -- as it is in software development. Sal chose quantity over visual quality and hit the long ball. But c'mon, a Blue Snowball USB microphone is only $99 and produces crystal-clear audio.
travisjeffery 16y ago
How the hell is it disrespectful? The guy has done all this work and put all of this content on the web for anyone to view FOR FREE! I can watch it or if I don't like it, I can not watch it and it I have not lost a single thing other than a moment of my time. In terms of quality I mean, what do you want? While watching and listening I can clearly understand what he has written and said and that's all that matters. It seems many disagree with you and for that I'm glad, since it shows me that there at least some people on this planet that will value the substance of the message over how appealing it is presented.
angrycoder 16y ago
Can you share some links to this high quality content you have been producing and giving away for free?
- johnohara 16y ago
  http://apcasts.com/javaIO-Println/index.html http://apcasts.com/javaIO-Println/index.html
gord 16y ago
Absolutely not - he has defined a new paradigm in education by force of will. He has proven that one person can make a huge practical difference. Arguably he has achieved more good than facebook. To put it bluntly, the man is a force of nature, if not a god :] I think part of his magic, is that he didn't wait to polish his presentations to conform to the powerpoint school of banality. He got the content out in an honest me-to-you no-bs way that students can relate to - he seems authentic in a way most teachers are not, and he seems to put no effort into making him self look good, as there is no faculty to impress. MIT OCW is fantastic content and well presented, but the standards of communication are lower not higher than Sals, imo.
noonespecial 16y ago
Ahh the monumental difference between talking about doing and doing.
- johnohara 16y ago
  Are you doing?
  - noonespecial 16y ago
    Why no, as you can clearly see, I'm talking about talking about doing. It gets an order of magnitude easier with each derivative! (which was the point)
    - johnohara 16y ago
      Does it progress towards zero -- like my karma seems to be doing from this post?

dctoedt 16y ago

> "Good enough" is not only disrespectful to the student but completely unnecessary given the quality and cost of great content production tools available the past four years. Evidently a LOT of people disagree with you. Mr. Khan seems to have an MVP (minimum viable product). Just possibly this is one of those cases where if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

johnohara 16y ago
MVP -- maybe, if that's what he wants. But I don't care if everybody disagrees with me. It's pedagogically broken. This is a new instructional medium, with new rules and huge opportunities. My point: We can do a lot better. I'm gonna stand over here and wait for some of the fanboy nonsense to die down. Sal's been around for a while and a LOT of people are new to him. Let him do what he does best, and leave TED out of it.
- nocman 16y ago
  Actually, the pedagogy of his videos is the thing that the opposite of "broken". Khan has an excellent teaching style, and gets his points across rather well. So calling it "pedagogically broken" is completely ridiculous. If you had said it was "productionally broken" you might have an argument (although, I'm not sure "productionally" is really a word :-D ). Khan could indeed use fancier tools to produce his short videos, but what really makes them valuable is the content. I don't see that the current presentation style detracts from the teaching value one bit.

rfrey 16y ago

To me this sounds like much of the pedagogy I grew up with in the late 80's, which emphasized production values over clear presentation, or assumed that production values were an indicator of quality of presentation. The underlying assumption then was that "modern students" needed to be "entertained" or somehow spoken to "in their own language" whatever that is. Your points, especially "high quality audio/visual production tools are a must", echoes that sentiment to me. All in all that seems to me more disrespectful to students than letting the subject matter speak for itself, and assuming that young students are as capable as we are of seeing the magic in geometry, or calculus, if it is correctly and clearly explained. Edited: Also, producing 1600 videos puts him rather apart from others in the field, even those producing awesome graphics.

johnohara 16y ago
This medium now allows for both: excellent production and clear presentation. If it's presented well the first time, it will always be presented well. The problem with production in the 80's and 90's was time and cost. High cost and long production time guaranteed the problems you point out. But the cost of high-quality production today is so low as to be non-existent. Production time is still a factor -- as it is in software development. Sal chose quantity over visual quality and hit the long ball. But c'mon, a Blue Snowball USB microphone is only $99 and produces crystal-clear audio.

travisjeffery 16y ago

How the hell is it disrespectful? The guy has done all this work and put all of this content on the web for anyone to view FOR FREE! I can watch it or if I don't like it, I can not watch it and it I have not lost a single thing other than a moment of my time. In terms of quality I mean, what do you want? While watching and listening I can clearly understand what he has written and said and that's all that matters. It seems many disagree with you and for that I'm glad, since it shows me that there at least some people on this planet that will value the substance of the message over how appealing it is presented.

angrycoder 16y ago

Can you share some links to this high quality content you have been producing and giving away for free?

johnohara 16y ago
http://apcasts.com/javaIO-Println/index.html http://apcasts.com/javaIO-Println/index.html

gord 16y ago

Absolutely not - he has defined a new paradigm in education by force of will. He has proven that one person can make a huge practical difference. Arguably he has achieved more good than facebook. To put it bluntly, the man is a force of nature, if not a god :] I think part of his magic, is that he didn't wait to polish his presentations to conform to the powerpoint school of banality. He got the content out in an honest me-to-you no-bs way that students can relate to - he seems authentic in a way most teachers are not, and he seems to put no effort into making him self look good, as there is no faculty to impress. MIT OCW is fantastic content and well presented, but the standards of communication are lower not higher than Sals, imo.

noonespecial 16y ago

Ahh the monumental difference between talking about doing and doing.

johnohara 16y ago
Are you doing?
- noonespecial 16y ago
  Why no, as you can clearly see, I'm talking about talking about doing. It gets an order of magnitude easier with each derivative! (which was the point)
  - johnohara 16y ago
    Does it progress towards zero -- like my karma seems to be doing from this post?