Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Disclaimer: I am not a math (or any other) teacher. I am trained as a teacher however.

  > Khan Academy is doing great stuff,
Putting some videos of poor quality (technically and from the teaching point) does not "great stuff" make. It may be helpful to some, though.

  > and getting great results right now. 
Care to qualify, what those "great results" are and how the greatness is determined?

I repeat myself: I am not a jealous teacher. I am just sad that KA is so overhyped and will have very little impact on education.

How many times should it be said: when the problem is not technology, you won't save it with technology.

And if someone wants invent effortless learning he then can start looking for philosopher's stone as well.



"Putting some videos of poor quality (technically and from the teaching point) does not "great stuff" make."

That's ridiculous. Sure you can find some errors if you look hard. But overall, the videos are excellent. Many, many people have left comments saying how much the videos have helped them learn things they had previously struggled with. You want to label the whole work as "poor quality", which makes it obvious you're not being objective or rational.

"Care to qualify, what those 'great results' are and how the greatness is determined?"

Real people, who say they previously struggled with a concept or a topic, and now, thanks to these videos, they've had breakthroughs. (I'm sure there are other measurable results we could list as well, but this one is enough to shoot down your claims).

"I am just sad that KA is so overhyped and will have very little impact on education."

I completely agree that it is overhyped. I'm not sure it will have a huge impact on education ... only time will tell. But it is a fantastic asset that the world did not have until recently, and it has a chance to turn out to be significant.

"when the problem is not technology, you won't save it with technology"

True. But technology makes new things possible, and allows disruptions to occur. It is often a catalyst.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: