Students Going To YouTube For School Tutoring
Posted on: Friday, 12 December 2008, 13:05 CST
YouTube may be best known for its barrage of homemade performances and TV clips, but many people are turning to it for free tutoring in math, science and other complicated subjects.
"I was able to watch them at my own pace and if I didn't get a concept, I could easily rewind it," said University of Central Florida junior Nicole Nissim, after using the site for some help on her trigonometry homework.
One YouTube tutorial on calculus integrals has been watched almost 50,000 times in the past year. Others on angular velocity and harmonic motion have gotten more than 10,000 views each.
Kim Gregson, an Ithaca College professor of new media said the videos are appealing for several reasons. Students come to the videos when they're ready to study and fully awake - not always the case for 8 a.m. calculus classes. And they can watch the videos as many times as they need until they understand.
Several tutorials posted to YouTube by the not-for-profit Khan Academy include viewer comments like: "Now why couldn't my calc instructor explain it that simply?" and "I was just about to leave my physics course. You saved me." One viewer went as far as to declare to the man behind the videos: "You are god of mathematics!!!"
The academy’s creator Salman Khan says the trick is to keep it simple. He takes a laid-back approach, focuses on a single concept and keeps the videos to a digestible 10 minutes.
With his videos, Khan wanted to create a sense sitting next to someone and working out a problem on a sheet of paper. He uses the low-tech Microsoft Paint sketching software, with a black background and brightly colored lines and equations as he works through his explanations.
"If you're watching a guy do a problem (while) thinking out loud, I think people find that more valuable and not as daunting," said Khan, a California hedge fund manager by day and math geek by night.
The Harvard and MIT educated Khan developed his tutoring hobby when a younger cousin was having trouble with sixth-grade math. He eventually got tired of explaining the same things over and over, so he created videos and posted them on YouTube. He formed the Khan Academy, currently a one-man show, with the long-term goal of starting a school that uses technology to customize learning for students.
His YouTube clips have developed a wide following and now he gets dozens of e-mails a week from around the world with requests for videos on specific topics and help solving particular problems. He now claims about 600 videos on subjects spanning math, physics and even the tanking economy.
Khan enjoys the feedback he gets from users who appreciate his help. He works on the clips for about three hours a night.
Walter Secada, a professor at the University of Miami, specializes in how math is taught and praises Khan's personable style.
However, Secada said he's concerned about how Khan uses an example to define a term, rather than defining the term more generally. Secada says he can envision some students becoming confused when having to apply a concept to a different example.
"It may seem like a small point but it lays a foundation for later problems," Secada says. "That's the strength and the weakness of this. In an eight-minute video, you can only do so much."
Not all tutoring videos on YouTube are created equal, however.
"There are definitely some that are better than others, so it's always useful to look at a few," said Central Florida sophomore Jacqueline Boehme, who has looked up videos that explain processes like protein synthesis. Boehme says the 3-D representations have helped her conceptualize what she's learning in class.
While he would like to see math faculties incorporate some videos in their teaching, Secada cautions students not to depend solely on what they find online.
"There's a point at which kids do need to double-check with their textbook" and professor, Secada says. "Before you need to quote this in your test, you need to look at this and check if it's right."
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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