7 ms·

Frankly the response only addresses a small part of the criticism (the definition of slope) and then launches an attack on the critic's motivation. The main poi

by zeteo 14y ago

Frankly the response only addresses a small part of the criticism (the definition of slope) and then launches an attack on the critic's motivation. The main point in the original article [1] was that Khan's preparation for his lectures is deficient ("I don’t know what I’m going to say half the time") and often resumes to "two minutes of research on Google". [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/khan-academy-the-hype-and-the-reality/2012/07/22/gJQAuw4J3W_blog.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/khan-a...

gorbachev 14y ago
I found Mr. Khan's response really odd for the same reason. He's addressing an EXAMPLE the critics used to illustrate their actual point, and fails to completely address the bigger issue. I thought the critics' points were completely valid, and raise pretty serious issues about the quality and usefulness of the Khan Academy material.
- dkkarthik 14y ago
  I find this line of discussion dubious. What you want to know is _not_ if he has spent hours preparing but if what he is saying is correct/the best way to explain something. He might be so gifted that everything just comes to him. Or he might be the person that might suck at math even with hours of preparation. Just because he said "I dont prepare for my lessons" (paraphrased) does not mean what he's teaching is no good. There is a reason why the videos have been watched as many times as they have. The thing that annoys me about Karim's argument is 1. There is no constructive criticism. He does not tell Sal (or me the reader) how one can make SA better 2. He has a competing for-profit venture that is a direct conflict of interest with SA and leads me to question his motives 3. He is a self-proclaimed expert with no proof of his own expertise 4. From his rant, I don't get that there is something structurally wrong with SA videos in general as his claims make them out to be
- ghshephard 14y ago
  How many of Khan's videos have you watched? I've gone through about 100+ of them, and the material has been universally excellent, and certainly met, (and in most cases exceeded) the lecture material that was presented to me at High School/Simon Fraser University. "Quality and Usefulness of Khan Academy Material?" - you must have gone to an incredible school if you find his material lacking.
  - gorbachev 14y ago
    You didn't read the criticism, did you? I didn't say anything about how I view Khan Academy content. I don't use Khan Academy, because I have no use for it. That doesn't, however, preclude me from assessing critique made by others about it.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - ghshephard 14y ago
      Absolutely I read the original criticism - carefully. It was (in my opinion) complete nonsense by somebody who clearly has an axe to grind. I have seen over 100 of Khan's videos. On many occasions he was able to clearly communicate a topic that I had been gated on. Doing so in a clear, concise manner. I have colleagues at work that use Khan to help their children through Math. If Khan had existed when I was in university, it would have eliminated 90% of the tutors costs associated with things like linear algebra. So, as I read his criticism, I was asking myself, WTF - this feels like it has _nothing_ to do with the content that I've viewed, which has been _excellent_ in explaining topics that very few (if any ) of the lecturers I had in High School/University were capable of doing. What it actually reminded me, was of Encyclopedia Britanica's FUD against Wikipedia when it was coming out. The criticism _sounds_ accurate, unless you've actually looked at the content being attacked. My point is - you can't read the criticism, and make a judgement, until you've spent some time looking at the material to see if the criticisms are sound.
despite2 14y ago
Sounds to me like he chose to ignore the ad hominems and focus on the complaints for which there is a factual definitive answer.
briancooley 14y ago
I agree that it would have been nicer to see that issue addressed head-on. I think Karim is conflating the words unscripted and unprepared. From what I understand, Khan keeps the videos unscripted so he can maintain more of a conversational style, but he's always careful to understand the material very well before doing a video on a subject.
- pbhjpbhj 14y ago
  My lad (now 7) has done some of the maths problems and we've used the videos to provide the background to attempting those problems. IMO from the half-dozen videos I've seen they were both 'unprepared' and unscripted - but that might not be bad. They're the sort of thing I think one would come up with if someone puts you on the spot and says "teach me how subtract". Obviously these are low level maths subjects. He's not unprepared in being able to do this sort of basic stuff but I think a little more polish would make such videos a lot better. One thing I found quite frustrating was the lack of technology applied to making the video - in the few I've seen he takes ages drawing out number lines (for example) and the writing is quite unclear; it doesn't appear to be too hard to have a marked axis that you can paste in when it's needed. Petty issue but something I didn't expect to find on this much touted resource. Another example would be hand drawing bunches of marbles/tins http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DjCdzM40LDM#t=40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D...; I guess it naturally limits the pace, which may be good.

by zeteo 14y ago

gorbachev 14y ago

I found Mr. Khan's response really odd for the same reason. He's addressing an EXAMPLE the critics used to illustrate their actual point, and fails to completely address the bigger issue. I thought the critics' points were completely valid, and raise pretty serious issues about the quality and usefulness of the Khan Academy material.

dkkarthik 14y ago
I find this line of discussion dubious. What you want to know is _not_ if he has spent hours preparing but if what he is saying is correct/the best way to explain something. He might be so gifted that everything just comes to him. Or he might be the person that might suck at math even with hours of preparation. Just because he said "I dont prepare for my lessons" (paraphrased) does not mean what he's teaching is no good. There is a reason why the videos have been watched as many times as they have. The thing that annoys me about Karim's argument is 1. There is no constructive criticism. He does not tell Sal (or me the reader) how one can make SA better 2. He has a competing for-profit venture that is a direct conflict of interest with SA and leads me to question his motives 3. He is a self-proclaimed expert with no proof of his own expertise 4. From his rant, I don't get that there is something structurally wrong with SA videos in general as his claims make them out to be
ghshephard 14y ago
How many of Khan's videos have you watched? I've gone through about 100+ of them, and the material has been universally excellent, and certainly met, (and in most cases exceeded) the lecture material that was presented to me at High School/Simon Fraser University. "Quality and Usefulness of Khan Academy Material?" - you must have gone to an incredible school if you find his material lacking.
- gorbachev 14y ago
  You didn't read the criticism, did you? I didn't say anything about how I view Khan Academy content. I don't use Khan Academy, because I have no use for it. That doesn't, however, preclude me from assessing critique made by others about it.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - ghshephard 14y ago
    Absolutely I read the original criticism - carefully. It was (in my opinion) complete nonsense by somebody who clearly has an axe to grind. I have seen over 100 of Khan's videos. On many occasions he was able to clearly communicate a topic that I had been gated on. Doing so in a clear, concise manner. I have colleagues at work that use Khan to help their children through Math. If Khan had existed when I was in university, it would have eliminated 90% of the tutors costs associated with things like linear algebra. So, as I read his criticism, I was asking myself, WTF - this feels like it has _nothing_ to do with the content that I've viewed, which has been _excellent_ in explaining topics that very few (if any ) of the lecturers I had in High School/University were capable of doing. What it actually reminded me, was of Encyclopedia Britanica's FUD against Wikipedia when it was coming out. The criticism _sounds_ accurate, unless you've actually looked at the content being attacked. My point is - you can't read the criticism, and make a judgement, until you've spent some time looking at the material to see if the criticisms are sound.

despite2 14y ago

Sounds to me like he chose to ignore the ad hominems and focus on the complaints for which there is a factual definitive answer.

briancooley 14y ago

I agree that it would have been nicer to see that issue addressed head-on. I think Karim is conflating the words unscripted and unprepared. From what I understand, Khan keeps the videos unscripted so he can maintain more of a conversational style, but he's always careful to understand the material very well before doing a video on a subject.

pbhjpbhj 14y ago
My lad (now 7) has done some of the maths problems and we've used the videos to provide the background to attempting those problems. IMO from the half-dozen videos I've seen they were both 'unprepared' and unscripted - but that might not be bad. They're the sort of thing I think one would come up with if someone puts you on the spot and says "teach me how subtract". Obviously these are low level maths subjects. He's not unprepared in being able to do this sort of basic stuff but I think a little more polish would make such videos a lot better. One thing I found quite frustrating was the lack of technology applied to making the video - in the few I've seen he takes ages drawing out number lines (for example) and the writing is quite unclear; it doesn't appear to be too hard to have a marked axis that you can paste in when it's needed. Petty issue but something I didn't expect to find on this much touted resource. Another example would be hand drawing bunches of marbles/tins http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DjCdzM40LDM#t=40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D...; I guess it naturally limits the pace, which may be good.