The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
James Lileks has already introduced us to the Los Angeles Unified School District's Most Expensive School in the Known Universe.
Now, here's the cheapest.
The Khan Academy is an on-line, totally free education site developed by an Indian American guy, Salman Khan, when he was trying to tutor his cousins in math using YouTube. He applied an entrepreneur's enthusiasm and innovation to a problem that government has been struggling with for decades.
It's a dizzying set of course offerings, from lower-level high school stuff to upper level college -- at least from the looks of it. And it was all compiled, conceived, uploaded, tested, and offered without the help of the Department of Education, any teachers' union, or the latest research from the Education Department of your local university.
In other words, it'll probably work.
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Jun '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
As a teacher myself I can tell you that no machine will ever take the place of a flesh and blood human being when it comes to learning. Too much of schooling depends on the relationship between teacher and student. I'm all for technology as an aid to learning, but it will never be a substitute.
Aug '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Well, it's more like introductory to mid-level math if you're a math major. Still, it looks intriguing!
Thanks for sharing!
May '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Though I've never put them to the test, MIT offers open courses as well.
Aug '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Yeah, I'm using their open calculus exams in a self-study attempt to delouse my elementary calculus skills before I go on to grad school. But thanks for the reference to the main page -- I'd somehow missed it.
May '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Paules, I think it depends on the subject matter. I'm starting a master's program in aeronautical engineering at Stanford, and although I live close enough to campus to attend the classes, I plan to watch the majority of the lectures online to accommodate my full time work schedule. Several of my friends and coworkers have already completed their master's degrees in this program.
Jun '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Mark Wilson: "Paules, I think it depends on the subject matter. I'm starting a master's program in aeronautical engineering at Stanford, and although I live close enough to campus to attend the classes, I plan to watch the majority of the lectures online to accommodate my full time work schedule. Several of my friends and coworkers have already completed their master's degrees in this program."
Yes, but you're an adult. Most children are not auto didactic. You have already learned how to learn. They haven't.
Aug '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
One of the best gifts a parent can give a child -- aside from strong morals -- is the gift of learning to be an autodidact at an early age.
May '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
~Paules: Mark Wilson: "Paules, I think it depends on the subject matter. I'm starting a master's program in aeronautical engineering at Stanford, and although I live close enough to campus to attend the classes, I plan to watch the majority of the lectures online to accommodate my full time work schedule. Several of my friends and coworkers have already completed their master's degrees in this program."
Yes, but you're an adult. Most children are not auto didactic. You have already learned how to learn. They haven't. · Sep 8 at 12:32pm
Well, it's not for everybody, but since the material ranges high school through college, I would imagine there's a good population of self-motivated potential students.
Aug '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Not to sound grumpy, but why is this news? "E-learning" is a huge industry. My own job is programming it, for pay, but there's an enormous corpus of free stuff. Shoot, on my own website you can study Turkish grammar, interactively, gratis. Or bedava, a word I realize now I haven't yet loaded into my server-side adverb lexicon. Anyway, tutorials in practically everything abound.
May '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
I've got personal experience with two forms of distance learning used with my son, who is prodigious in math. He did Stanford EPGYmath and Florida Virtual School h.s. math courses in middle school because he just wasn't comfortable with the idea of going to the high school for advanced courses. By 9th grade until he was ready to take classes with much older students, and went right in to dual enrollment college math courses. He is now taking AP Calculus AB in a public high school as a sophomore. Granted, being in a classroom with a fabulous teacher is the ideal, but distance learning fills many gaps for students who don't fit easily into a regular classroom.
Edited on Sep 8, 2010 at 6:01pmJul '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
The MIT courses are not for credit, correct?
You certainly can't learn the material to a level that you can with the expert standing in front of you. How this can be debatable is beyond me.
“Theories pass. The frog remains." Jean Rostand (1894-1977)
Jul '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Paules - with all due respect to the trade (I come from a family of teachers) I get the sense that the formal and ossified education establishment is following in the footsteps of the main stream media, albeit 12-15 years behind. See what happens in the next 5 years,
Jul '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
I've been wanting to take a course in intermediate microeconomics for some time as a way to make up for totally disregarding its importance during college, but there are virtually no adult education or night classes offered on serious subjects in Tokyo. Online classes would be great for me, especially if they were offered free of charge. It is this and other initiatives like it that represent the competition that traditional educational institutions will face in the coming years and decades.
Jul '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
You obviously haven't seen the enrollment at most major Universities.
May '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Humza, just the other day I watched a series of videos explaining the banking system, money supply, federal reserve, fractional reserve lending, interest rates, etc. for free on Youtube. It was great--clear, concise, good examples, color illustrations and animations.. It would have been much harder to learn that stuff by reading a book on it or trying to find a friend who knows it and is willing to spend several hours explaining it.
I praise Al Gore for inventing teh internets.
Edited on Sep 8, 2010 at 6:15pmAug '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
Rob Long
In other words, it'll probably work. ·
And the teachers' unions will try to get it banned.
May '10
Re: The Cheapest School in the Known Universe
I seriously can't believe that nobody else has said, "KHAAAAAAN!" yet.