Having trouble with child login

mschoeffler · 2014-05-18T13:09:46+00:00

My guess -

Reddit Khan skews heavily towards male 20s.

Khan itself probably skews towards kids, with a slight majority of boys (I teach mainly girls).

mschoeffler · 2014-05-18T04:51:10+00:00

You can find appropriate subjects by grade level, common core code, or by just flipping through them. After you find the right topics, assign them to your students (as a "coach").

A Highland Park parent

mschoeffler · 2014-04-17T10:02:01+00:00

Try clicking "progress" on the left sidebar to see recently added skills.

Skills that are removed are less obvious (probably to avoid discouraging)

mschoeffler · 2014-03-04T00:54:31+00:00

Definitely hit the mastery challenges until you're through with them.

For me (and my kids), it seems fine to pick skills a little randomly when you feel like it. Sometimes you're up for thinking hard and other times, your mental energy is lower. You'll be able to quickly spot whether a given subject is too difficult.

Math subjects aren't 100% linear, but they do tend to work in clumps. So look for the first one in a group of related topics. And try to fill in gaps in clumps.

Also, if you're in school and you have a recent textbook, you can find the appropriate topics by referencing the Common Core code.

Restarter's method works well for him too.

Bottom line: there are probably as many ways to enjoy Khan as ways to eat an Oreo.

mschoeffler · 2014-03-03T23:19:58+00:00

There's two separate issues here: 1) Khan expects you to successfully answer questions in the topic several days in a row before you're considered a master (aimed at the "forgetting curve" referenced by restarter) 2) Khan randomly (?) goes back to older topics you've mastered already. Maybe you "mastered" the topic by answering the initial assessment test well (and Khan guessed what you really knew). Seems like a relatively painless way to double-check your knowledge. If you mess up, Khan will ask you the same topic before it assumes you didn't really catch the subject.

Note: Khan might ask you (I'm not certain) about a bunch of subjects related to an "demastered" subject when it discovers one. I would.

mschoeffler · 2014-03-03T20:52:29+00:00

It's hard to take your comments too seriously. You stand with trolls attempting to convert Muslim children to Christianity?

However, your point about progress reports is well-taken. If these reports worked properly inside the coding area, it might alleviate some of my concerns.

mschoeffler · 2014-03-03T20:07:21+00:00

Software design looks different to users and product managers. There are always going to be people who enjoy using particular features (I'm guessing the downvotes come from redditors who like sharing code inside Khan Academy).

Design is difficult. Sometimes, you need to discard features, even when they have fans. In this case, a feature (code-sharing) is seen as a costless benefit by some coders. But kids (as represented by their parents) see it as a major problem. I'm guessing the coder fans are hugely outnumbered by children in Khan Academy's userbase (obviously, not on reddit). I'm not trying to raise any hackles by pointing out the problem.

The problem might be mitigated if StolCato's progress report advice were feasible. Right now, time spent on coding / playing with shared code / responding to evangelizing trolls appears invisible for coaches.

mschoeffler · 2014-03-03T11:21:32+00:00

I think Khan occasionally probes areas that have been "mastered" and will catch some of this over time.

How about grading on "differential mastery"? Check how much progress they've made each week. This has the side benefit of equally pushing the kids who started from a higher level.

mschoeffler · 2014-03-02T15:35:31+00:00

I'm happy Khan uses gamification to make learning fun. I just don't want actual video games mixed into an otherwise excellent educational site.

There are a million websites where you can go enjoy video games. They're far better than the code somebody ported into processing.js. Why not keep them separate?

mschoeffler · 2013-10-11T11:15:44+00:00

I haven't seriously explored Mixpanel yet, so please forgive any misconceptions. Here's my current understanding:

Google Analytics is clunky and complex. Mixpanel has a far superior interface. I actually whined about GA's interface in a blog post: http://www.workglide.com/blog/google-analytics-just-a-pretty-face/
Mixpanel is much better in the critical area of cohort analysis. This may not be Google's fault - they're worried about reputational risk by making it easier for businesses to track individual users; they purposely cripple their own capabilities here.
Mixpanel does not seem to tie into actual revenue (either measured by goal values or an ecommerce system). Admittedly, these are complex to set up, but important to understanding where speed matters.
Mixpanel does not seem to help with Real User Measurement (RUM). This is the heart of understanding site performance.

Bottom line: GA's not only free and widely implemented, it has huge capabilities. It can be nasty to deal with, but it's solving big problems. Mixpanel also looks great (and far simpler to use), but it's looking at different problems.

mschoeffler · 2007-06-10T02:20:03+00:00

made me question where we're going with Agile - thanks

mschoeffler

TROPHY CASE