Online Learning Made Easy for all Ages

Imagine what the everyday math, social studies, or science teacher goes through each day as they try to teach a group of students about a certain skill or concept.

Now, jump into a students shoes as they watch, participate, and attempt to learn from what they are seeing and hearing. What happens when, as a student, you don’t fully grasp the skill, but watch the teacher erase what was on the board. Now you are totally lost. You could raise your hand, but you don’t want to look foolish. What should you do next?

This scenario is always a possibility for any group of students. So what can a teacher do to change these dynamics? They could stop and ask if there are any questions, but the shy student isn’t going to ask. In fact, most of the students won’t step out of their comfort zone to ask. At this point you’re asking, what can I do.

Watch this video for your answer.




Now, having seen this video, how could this website change the way you do things in class. When it comes to math, this isn’t just for high school, but for every grade. The students can watch the tutorial, stop it at any point, take it back and re-watch a section. That’s not possible to do with a live teacher. You can’t rewind them, or pause them so that you can think about what is going on. The tutorials are always available online at anytime, where a teacher isn’t. It takes away the fear, as a student, of stepping out of your comfort zone. You can feel very safe in this learning environment.

On the teacher side of things, this is a great support tool. It frees you to work with the students that are struggling while the other students can move on once they’ve proven mastery. Check the Khanacademy website out and try some of the tutorials. Also, take a look at the self paced lessons. There’s also an app. for the iTouch, iPhone, and iPad that’s free for downloading called KhanAcademy. Then, plan how you could use this site and tools for your students benefit. For myself, I’ve embedded a number of these tutorials in my Moodle site for my students to use. I’m in the process of designing lessons based upon using these tutorials, so that I will be freed up to work with the students that struggle with math no matter what you do.