Design Experiment 3: Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseware, & YouTube

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Khan Academy provides a personalized learning resource for all that utilizes instructional videos and other materials which are customized for learners to study at their own pace.  Several subjects are offered for you to choose from such as math, computer science, economics, science, humanities and more.  You can create an account as a learner, parent or coach/ teacher to access the website.  As a coach you can create a class and choose which subject(s) you would like your students to complete.  Students that are 13 or older can be added by email and those that are younger will need parental approval before an account can be created. Once their account has been created, they may begin working on the content selected for them.

Khan Academy has some great possibilities for use in my classroom.  I would like to set up classes for the Gifted and Talented students to provide additional learning opportunities about subjects that interest them such as electrical engineering, computer science, music, art, math, history and science.  I was thinking about incorporating it as part of our STEAM Station which would allow them time in class to explore, experiment and learn about different topics on their own.  Also, I was trying to come up with some ideas for using Khan Academy with the Business Technology students.  After looking at some of the content available in the Economics and Finance section, I think it may be too advanced for middle school.  However, the Entrepreneurship section could be of some interest but I would like to see companies added that middle school students may be more familiar with.  I am not sure how successful it would be but I definitely think it has potential.  I may try and test a small group of students to get their opinion at the beginning of the school year before rolling it out to everyone.