Khan Academy

Have you checked out Khan Academy lately?  It was floating around the boards a few years ago - at that stage it was a site with hundreds of maths teaching videos for free.  Brilliant resource - and one of those I promptly bookmarked and forgot all about.

A chance video on the TED website titled "Let's use video to reinvent education" led me to check it out again.  It's still chock full of wonderful maths videos and now includes science and finance ones as well - over 2,100 free videos in fact. Maths covers everything from basic addition to algebra, geometry to derivatives. And its still free!

But even more impressive, a whole knowledge-map based system has been integrated into it.

You start wherever you want - right back at Addition 1 if you need to - and each point on the map has videos explaining that particular topic.  Plus randomly generated exercises for the topic - if you answer 10 in a row correctly, it assumes you have mastered that topic and marks it as proficient (shown as blue on your knowledge map).  You can go back and watch the video again at any point without stopping your answering streak.

Once proficient at a topic, it then suggests the next areas you might want to do - for example after Addition 1 (1 digit addition), it suggests Addition 2 (2 digit addition), Multiplication 0.5 or Subtraction 1 (1 digit subtraction).

I've also noticed that if you haven't covered something in a while, it suggests you review the topic to make sure you can still do it.

You can also earn badges and points as you go along, but I'm not really sure what that's used for.  There are reports in the back section that you can see how you (or your student) are doing - I think you can assign exercises as well.  It's been trialled in a US school district where they set watching the videos as homework, and then do the exercises in class so the teacher can help each child at their own level.  Radical stuff!

We're also still using Mathletics (since we've paid for it!) - but Billy's interest in that has waned - and some topics on Skwirk.  Khan Academy offers another approach and is a nice one to add into the mix.

Billy's week 8th May, 2011

Reading: Specky Magee by Felice Arena and Gary Lyon


On-line learning: 2 digit addition at Khan Academy


Programming methodology - we've started watching a series of lectures from Stanford University on basic programming methodology. The first lecture was mostly admin for the course (its an actual uni course that's been videoed), but he's understanding it quite well so far.

Experimenting: Surface tension experiment shown by floating a needle on the surface of water.



Having Fun: Exploring Minecraft, Club Penguin, Webkinz, Lego, playing on the Wii

Creating: Drama class, created a new computer game using RPG Maker XP

Crafting:  Sewing, drawing and crafting to create some unique Mother's Day gifts.

Watching: Mythbusters, Behind The News, Backyard Science

We watched the first episode of a new series on Austar - Tony Robinson Explores Australia.  Brilliant history documentary!

Sporting: Dragons martial arts (twice), AFL training & game, archery

It's hard to be creative when your brain is full..

I feel like I have so many things going on in my life at the moment.  Work, homeschooling, trying to lose weight, keeping in touch with friends and family, dealing with the day to day minutiae of life - making sure there is food in the house to put on the table, clean clothes in the drawers etc; volunteer webmistress and falling way down on the priority list is writing.

Yesterday I spent the day watching some programming lecture videos with Billy, travelling an hour to my appointment at the optometrist, going to the library, calling in to a client to fix a problem with their system, rushing back to get Billy changed, dropping him at footy training, walking 6 laps of the oval because I hadn't had a chance to exercise in the morning, rushing to Aldi to do the grocery shopping, getting back in time to pick Billy up, fixing dinner, answering work emails that had piled up through the day, making some website changes for the RWA, getting Billy to bed - bath, reading with him etc, making a stab at tidying the kitchen, answering some personal emails.  By the time I did all that, I had no creativity left in me to write.

I'm trying.  If I get a spare minute to think - in the shower, washing dishes (if I'm not interrupted) etc - I start trying to think up plot points, character backstory etc.  But my brain is just so full with everything else I'm doing that it keeps getting sidetracked.

I start off thinking "So if my heroine were to do this, how would it change the story?" only to interrupt myself by remembering that I need to book the car in for a service.  Then my thoughts circle around and around and I get nowhere. 

I need to sit down and do a brain dump.  Clear my brain out of all the stuff its trying to remember and make a paper list.  Maybe then I'll feel more in control. Oh, and book the car in for a service..

What do you do?