Wednesday, September 28, 2011
School of one or one for school?
School of One and the Khan Academy both present us with styles of teaching and classroom management that differ from the traditional learning environment. Traditionally the teacher stands at the head of the room, addressing the class as a whole, and presenting lessons they hope will advance the learning of their students. The downside to this is that we all know that no two students are exactly the same and there can be dramatic differences in what learning styles work best for our students as well as what academic levels those students are at. Both school of One and the Khan Academy attempt to break away from tradition by individualizing lessons for students based on their needs.
The Khan Academy does this by having its teachers record their lessons and having students individually view those lessons before taking a computerized assessment on the materials. Students who score poorly on a particular area are given extra, personalized instruction by the teaching staff while students who score higher can move on. The School of One on the other hand allows the students to spread out in a large area and form groups or work alone. By spreading out each student is allowed to work at their own pace and students are allowed to either work in groups or individually depending on their learning preference.
Personally I like the ideas of both these teaching styles. Being more of a tech person I like the ideas the Khan Academy uses because it maximizes the individualized instruction a teacher can give without slowing down the class as a whole. The downside to this is I don't believe the attention spans of many students would be able to endure doing this for longer than a school period. Similarly with the school of one, I feel that it would be way to easy for students to get distracted. As with everything else I think it all comes down to resources. If a classroom can maintain a 10:1 teacher to student ratio I believe both of these programs would be extremely successful, more-so than the systems which are currently in place. The downside is most schools won't be able to afford to fund this dynamic and as a result once the initial awe of working with new technology wears off I believe most of the students will lose focus, especially without adequate staff to keep students on task.
Personally I believe these structures would do well if they were mixed with traditional teaching methods. By alternating between School of One, Khan Academy, and traditional classroom instruction I believe focus can be kept and the educational system can become more personalized. Its just that I've seen way too many computer programs, even computer math games that really will hook a class initially, but after the first week or two attentions will start to wain and the learning curve drops off.
The Khan Academy does this by having its teachers record their lessons and having students individually view those lessons before taking a computerized assessment on the materials. Students who score poorly on a particular area are given extra, personalized instruction by the teaching staff while students who score higher can move on. The School of One on the other hand allows the students to spread out in a large area and form groups or work alone. By spreading out each student is allowed to work at their own pace and students are allowed to either work in groups or individually depending on their learning preference.
Personally I like the ideas of both these teaching styles. Being more of a tech person I like the ideas the Khan Academy uses because it maximizes the individualized instruction a teacher can give without slowing down the class as a whole. The downside to this is I don't believe the attention spans of many students would be able to endure doing this for longer than a school period. Similarly with the school of one, I feel that it would be way to easy for students to get distracted. As with everything else I think it all comes down to resources. If a classroom can maintain a 10:1 teacher to student ratio I believe both of these programs would be extremely successful, more-so than the systems which are currently in place. The downside is most schools won't be able to afford to fund this dynamic and as a result once the initial awe of working with new technology wears off I believe most of the students will lose focus, especially without adequate staff to keep students on task.
Personally I believe these structures would do well if they were mixed with traditional teaching methods. By alternating between School of One, Khan Academy, and traditional classroom instruction I believe focus can be kept and the educational system can become more personalized. Its just that I've seen way too many computer programs, even computer math games that really will hook a class initially, but after the first week or two attentions will start to wain and the learning curve drops off.
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