Resources that offer instruction

Good day all, I was cleaning my digital library of links and trying to remind myself why I had some of the very interesting items from the Internet. In my cleaning, I came upon this resource (link will be below) I wanted to share to get feedback from others.

Let me start by sharing that in 10 years of mentoring teachers, I have observed teachers re-enacting lectures that were all on the same topics and were offered in very similar styles. It has always got me thinking of how much energy each instructor puts into not only preparing lectures, but in trying to deliver them with passion and energy. Still, when you watch 40 different lectures on the Pythagorean Theorem, it's not like anyone is breaking much new ground other than 2-4 lectures that might include some significant variances. 

With that in mind, I am sure many know of Khan Academy, but there are some other lecture collections out there that might not get the press because they don't have the automated practice and tracking. These lecture collections seem perfect for the flipped classroom approach. For those of you not familiar with this approach, in a flipped classroom, the learner is tasked with independently watching recorded instruction so the student can take notes, formulate questions, and re-watch as much as needed. Then when the learners come to class, the focus of the class is in processing what people understood, what questions came up, how is that information applied in context to real life applications and many other social exchanges that are much more active than simply watching a lecture. Of course, not all of our learners have Internet at home, and not all have devices or technology. In Maine, every library, every school, every public building and even every rest area on the highway has free high speed access that is open to the public and I suspect that is not the norm. In my experience, learners have been able to make it to one of the public spots that have computers and Internet close to their home to do some work between our meetings. In a few cases, I have had to download a collection of lectures to a pendrive to facilitate a learner that has transportation issues, but they have a computer (offline) at home. 

OK, so here is the resource of lectures. I invite you to check out a few and try to focus on whether the presenter is sharing Conceptual, Procedural and Application learning at all. If we all want to watch the same video, I chose the algebra collection from the left margin, then chose the Properties of Exponents lesson (I have that hyperlinked to save you looking for it). I have some thoughts and observations, but I wish to hear others first. 

Looking forward to thoughts and reactions to this collection when looked at from the lens of a flipped classroom model or maybe you see this working in another type of model? Are others finding ways that recorded lectures change the options the teacher has when students get together with the teacher? I wonder what ideas people might have for activities they would do with students if they came to class after watching the Exponents video linked above?

Comments

Well, you can also search for my name and Khan Academy for my analyses of his videos.   I was specifically critical of his exponents lesson & won $100 for my video about it in a contest at edweek.com  ;)  I'd also done critical analyses of his lessons on averages... basically, every lesson I looked at had some egregious flaws.   http://wp.me/sRqZZ-mtt2k is one example... but I've got students arriving... 

I'll add my commentary on mathispower4u next -- I like it better but it is still **really** heavy on the symbols.  

I do like MathIsPower4U.   He breaks things down, and does a fair amount of concept-building.  He also recognizes the cognitive quicksand traps and addresses them well.   

Oh, and if you try to find the exponents lesson I critiqued at Khan Academy ... it's not there ;)   There's a series of videos that are *much* more conceptual.   The whole purpose of the contest (that netted me the $100 third prize) was to try to induce some changes there, and it just might have...