Sal Khan's "The One World Schoolhouse" Part One Reflections

      In part one of Sal Khan's, The One World School House, Sal discusses the benefits of one to one tutoring and mentoring among teacher and student.  He promotes his computer based lessons as a means to educate students in a more tutoring like environment, allowing for more class time to spent on extended learning through the development of concepts and application of knowledge.  What Sal is referring to here, is the model of the " Flipped Classroom."  Completing the learning at home through online instructional videos, then doing the homework during class hours.

       Sal believes that this model will be beneficial for students, and allow them to practice more "Mastery Learning" among subject matter.  This is a term coined by Benjamin Bloom in 1968, where students must master understanding of content, before moving on to the next advanced stage of learning.  The belief here, is that all student have the ability to learn, and rather than focusing on time to cover curriculum, it is more of a general focus on demonstrating target levels of achievement and comprehension within the subject matter.  This would element the gaps that exist among a student's comprehension, and allow for better understanding of new concepts.  Students who mastered subjects quickly could be provided with extension activities, where as students who required extra time, would be given additional tutoring support.

      Sal states that learning needs to be more associative, rather than individually subject based.  Making connections among the curriculum, within different topics and different subjects allows for a more deeper comprehension and will endure longer in one's memory.  Sal makes a very valid point, that with the way education is structured now, students just "cram" information into their heads before a test, then once the unit is done, many often forget or have trouble recalling the important points of the unit or topic taught.  This will cause gaps in learning, that can effect future learnings as the students progresses on through each grade level.  Sal stresses the importance of self paced learning, and to utilize the features of the internet to learn, thereby not being constrained by the "classroom walls, bells that dictate when a class is over, or state-mandated curriculum of a topic."

      While I believe that Sal makes many great points here, I do believe that our current education system is beginning to move towards a more self-paced learning style direction.  Differentiated Instruction  allows for the personal learning styles of each student to help determine what, and how fast a student can learn new curriculum.  It opens the door for activities and lessons that meet the needs of the student, through extension activities for the fast learner, and additional supports for the learner who needs the extra time.  Also, the Flipped Classroom is becoming more known among many educators who are use to working with new technologies.  Web 2.0 tools has made it extremely easy for teachers and educators to post content and information online for students to access, so classroom time can be spent on differentiated instruction.

       While I believe that our current education system has made some advancements in these areas, I still question the time frames in which curriculum needs to be covered.  Is there indeed enough time to cover everything?  And if not, then do we have too much curriculum to cover with our students?