Ashford 5: – Week 4 – Discussion 2

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Reference the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Khan   Academy: Innovative or Traditional?

 In the discussion forums for the last two weeks, Sir Ken Robinson and Seth Godin challenged us to think differently about what the purpose of school is.  Seth suggests that students should be able to watch lessons at home and meet with the teacher during the day to engage in deep conversation answering questions from the video and not simply sitting in class listening to a lecture.  In fact, Khan Academy is considered an innovative flipped classroom model that has taken this strategy to scale across America. In the video, Salman Khan: Let’s Use Video to Reinvent Education, Salman Khan, the developer of Khan Academy discusses how shifting lectures to video provides a way to revolutionize education by making learning accessible anytime, anyway, and anyplace.  On the contrary, the video What if Khan Academy Was Made in Japan? suggests that Khan Academy reinforces the American model of learning, which continues to focus on the idea of watch a lesson and practice the skill.  After you watch both videos, think about the focus of this week’s reading: delivering effective lessons that connect your students to learning.  How do you reconcile the two different perspectives on learning exhibited in the videos?  What relevance do you see in each perspective?  In what ways, if any, does either approach to teaching and learning reflect constructivism?  If you were asked to pick a side to support, which strategy would have a greater impact on ensuring students master twenty first century skills?  Explain your thinking.
 

Guided Response: Respond to two of your classmates’ posts.  For at least one of your responses, take a point of view that is opposite from your original post, and provide at least two rationales for why the opposite idea has value.  Be sure also to respond to any questions that your instructor might pose. 

Respond