[LINK] A global teacher of 1,516 lessons and counting

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Stephen Wilson
> Sent: Monday, 28 June 2010 5:57 PM
> To: link
> Subject: Re: [LINK] A global teacher of 1,516 lessons and counting
> 
> 
> 
> > A global teacher of 1,516 lessons and counting
> > June 27, 2010
> > By Lisa M. Krieger
> > http://www.physorg.com/news196868176.html
> >
> > From a tiny closet in Mountain View, Calif., Sal Khan is 
> educating the
> > globe for free. ... 
> >
> > ... every day, his lectures are viewed 70,000 times -- double the 
> > entire
> > student body of UC Berkeley. 
> >   
> A comparison which tells us what exactly?  Does checking out 
> a Youtube 
> clip compare to attending lectures at UCB?  The throw-way 
> remark strikes 
> me as typical of the category errors that increasingly beset 
> commentators as they try to make fast sense of the latest fad 
> before the 
> next fad rolls in. 
> 
> And how do we know that most Youtube viewers haven't watched 
> the first 
> 15 secs, realised that the lecture isn't as interesting as the baby 
> biting his brother, and moved on? 
> 
> Steve Wilson.

Curiously, alone, it doesn't tell us much. At best it is an accurate
observation of the interest shown in online educational aids.
At worst, possibly your observations are correct.

However, for the curious, it seems to confirm a meme I discovered last
year amongst the ED2K community, i.e.: maths, physics and chemistry
materials were being downloaded 14-21% more frequency than the top ten
music tracks.

I found that fascinating last year and Sal Kahn's Youtubes appear to
confirm that discovery.

Today's students are reaching out across multiple platforms to be able
to learn.

That would appear to bode for a more informed and better educated world.

Not a bad thing at all imho.


Tom