REXBURG, IDAHO
Trends in online learning are reflected in the Madison
School District as teachers turn to Khan Academy, a website offering free
online videos and support for the classroom.
Madison teachers recently began using short instructional
videos to supplement their classroom lessons.
This classroom tool can supplement students who want more challenging
work, but also help those needing remediation and review.
The push towards online and hybrid learning creates a more
tailored educational experience for diverse learning abilities. Short online videos, interactive challenges
and assessments allow students to view and learn content in a different way
than was presented by the teacher. Khan
Academy also offers support and training videos for teachers to help educators
know how to use the videos as an effective learning tool.
Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization and
website founded in 2006 by Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business
School.
With the slogan of “providing a high quality education for
anyone, anywhere”, Khan Academy offers mini video lectures stored on Youtube
for various school subjects such as mathematics, history, chemistry, biology,
physics and economics. Khan Academy also
offers instruction in American civics, micro economics, computer science,
healthcare, astronomy, art history and cosmology. Khan Academy still in beta form, however it
currently offers videos in different languages and also the capability to
records personal progress.
Living in an information age, the role of technology in
education is increasing. Not only are
Madison teachers using more online education tools, but the secondary education
learning model is shifting as well.
At BYU-Idaho there is continual increase in online courses
and programs. Online enrollment increased
by 39% from Fall 2011 to Fall 2012.
These students live mostly in the United States but are also from other
countries. Rapid growth provides
benefits but challenges as well.
Yvelise Defranchi, a BYU-Idaho Online Support Center support
employee said that one of the main attractions of online learning is the
flexibility. According to Defranchi, the
average age of online students is older than the on-campus population.
“One of the biggest problems [about online learning] is
for students who do not know how to use I-learn well. Some students also have issues with computers
to start with. In older students (for
example over 60), they have barely started to learn how to use a
computer.”
Compared to the lukewarm attitude toward online learning
a few years ago, the development of diverse technology, more interaction, and
expanded research have helped change educators and policymaker’s viewpoints
towards online education.
Khan Academy is currently used in over 15,000 k-12 classrooms
worldwide. According to Marketdata
Enterprises Inc, 6.2 million students were also enrolled in post-secondary
online education courses in 2012.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This is Krysta Wendelboe's portfolio
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