4.8 How Khan Academy is partnering with schools to improve education

Policy options for improving the use of ICT in education

iCT, like other educational inputs and processes, needs to be situated within the broader strategic goals of the education sector. effectively integrating iCT in education involves more than providing schools with computers and other technological resources. A wide range of online learning tools and resources are available to support all aspects of the teaching and learning experience, from khan Academy (box 4.8) to Read,Write,Think and edX. other online platforms, such as Google Classroom and Blackboard, are designed to help facilitate an exchange of information and aid communication between teachers and students. But no matter what tools or platforms are integrated, it is important to keep in mind that to be used effectively in education they must be viewed as tools to support the teaching-learning process (World Bank 2018). it is also important

BOX 4.8

How Khan Academy is partnering with schools to improve education

khan Academy is a nonprofit educational organization founded in 2006. it supports one of the most popular education websites in the world, offering more than 5,500 instructional videos—the majority of which are related to math. The site also offers more than 100,000 practice math problems that students can complete at their own pace. khan Academy has introduced as well “coaching” features developed with schools in mind, but they are available to home users for informal instruction. The coaching section includes materials to guide teachers, tutors, parents, and others on how to use khan Academy to meet their students’ learning goals. in 2011 a group of k–12 schools in California, united States, collaborated with khan Academy to pilot innovative approaches to teaching and learning in classrooms, thereby combining khan Academy with traditional instruction. For the pilot, khan Academy was primarily used as a supplementary tool, not as the core primary curriculum. khan Academy used the pilot to work with the schools to refine and update its learning tools and resources. Students primarily used khan Academy problem sets to practice and refine skills individually and with classmates, while getting immediate feedback. The pilot involved a variety of approaches to integrating online learning tools in the schools.

The pilot was implemented in various school settings. one particularly interesting setting was a high school serving a predominantly high-poverty population. khan Academy was used on a daily basis by two educators: one teaching an algebra readiness class for ninth-graders and a learning lab class and the other teaching a mixed grades 9 and 10 algebra 1 class, a mixed grades 9 and 10 geometry class, and a grade 10 algebra 2 class. Preliminary evidence suggests that the changes made to the school’s math instruction, including the use of khan Academy, were associated with improved test scores. However, these results cannot be attributed to khan Academy alone because they were integrated into a broader classroom-based instruction. overall, this pilot project produced a few observations that are useful to consider when integrating such online learning websites into the traditional classroom setting. First, although teachers may appreciate having a source of extensive, curated digital content, they want to maintain responsibility for leading instruction, as well as controlling students’ use of the content. Second, most students are not accustomed to acting as independent learners, and teachers need to intentionally orient their students to the types of independent learning practices and habits necessary for success in this learning environment. The most important lesson learned was that the teacher’s role is still central, even in the adoption of new technologies. At their best, new technology tools can enable teachers to help students learn better.

Source: SRI International 2014.