Yesterday we spent the day at a workshop for Khan Academy. Our school has received a grant from the Albertson's Foundation, allowing us to purchase a total of 6 Chromebooks per classroom. We are piloting the Khan Academy program.
I learned many great things that I can do with Khan Academy. It can be used as a supplement with lessons. It can be used to fill in gaps that students may not have mastered in previous years. It may be used in whole units. And it may be used as a core part of the curriculum.
As I look ahead to this school year, I am unsure of how I will use it. I am glad for the workshop we had to give us some ideas, but I am looking forward to meeting with the other teachers in my building to possibly set up a share program. We discussed sharing the Chromebooks, allowing one teacher to have 24 Chromebooks at once so as to allow every student access Khan Academy.
While I am grateful for the grant we have received, I also want more! I have come to recognize that there are relative advantages to using technology, but many people don't know how to use them in that way. I would love to have a class set, so I can use them more with blogging and other writing activities.
I will be taking a grant writing course next semester. Perhaps I can use this as an opportunity to apply for more funds for Chromebooks.
Good luck with you grant proposal idea, it is a good one! Khan Academy has been a great resource for helping students fill in gaps or review concepts. I hope it works out well for you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Angela. There is another teacher who is taking a grant writing class next semester as well, and she was thinking about doing something similar.
DeleteMy school has been slowly implementing some Khan Academy videos in the math department. I like his videos for math, but have been underwhelmed by his history stuff (a little wordy without graphics doesn't go well with middle school). I think Khan Academy can be a great resource.
ReplyDeleteI will say we have similar problems at my school about how to used mobile labs and laptops. Good luck with whatever you decide.
I haven't checked out much besides the math. I was told the computer science videos were pretty good for interested students to learn stuff by themselves. Hopefully they can continue working on other subjects like history.
DeleteHi Nathan,
ReplyDeleteI really like Khan Academy as a resource students can use at school or at home to reinforce concepts taught in class. I recommend it regularly (and I don't teach math).
I know that access is a problem. I think getting Chromebooks is great, but it is hard to work with just 6. The sharing option seems like a great idea to be able to allow more students to use the technology.
During the spring and summer when I found out that we would be using Khan Academy, I decided to check it out. I found that the videos were very detailed and explained concepts well in a way that I may not have done.
DeleteKhan is a great program. I'm really excited to start using it for the pilot as well. We will be sharing computers this year. We will have a full classroom set once/twice a week. The following year our school plans to go to a "bring your own technology" method. We won't have a problem with every student having a device, but I'm sure we will have all kinds of technology problems still.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your school year!
Jaime Piatt
I would be pretty scared about a BYOD plan. There would be a lot of different technology to work with, but I am sure it could become effective. I think our new tech administrator would be a bit worried about it, too. He started last year and has been fixing a lot of problems that were just "bandaged" before. He just updated our filters and network security, so hopefully we could do more with a BYOD plan in the future.
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