I had heard of khan academy before in passing, but I just decided to visit there after hearing about all the awards this guy is getting for his contributions to education, and I have to say it is brilliant.
If you've never heard of it, go to
It is series of free academic courses broken down into 10-15 minute lessons done by one man who has spent years producing these videos, and has made over 2,200 to date. It covers alot of math from basic arithmetic, to calculus 3, and everything in between, courses on applied physics, biology, economics , chemistry and other things (apparently this guy has I think four seperate degrees or something to that effect, not too sure of the details.) It's in the form of youtube videos that he has well organized, and it's completely and totally free to anyone in the world with an internet connection. Very awesome.
But get this, there is also a sort of meta game attached to it, just for fun I logged in to the "practice" section of the website. It's clearly marked at the top of the site, click on it, do it now. It whas an overworld map containing a huge series of discrete levels of math tests ranging from everything I mentioned above, that culminate in "challenge levels" that are like boss levels that combine various topics from a particular section of math lessons.
I clicked on a random lesson on adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers, the goal is to get a streak of 10 correct answers to prove you are proficient in the activity. After I handily did some grade school math, I got energy points, and also an ACHEIVEMENT popped up saying I had earned a badge for watching some videos and doing a test in a 15 minute time period. I was all like "Really? I got a trophy?" so I clicked on my account, and there is a huge deep meta-game attached to your math proficiency. You get trophies for earning a million energy points (passing tests and getting right answers gives you points), a "master of trigonometry" badge for completing the trig boss level, smaller badges for completing specific sets of lessons such as "angles 2, distance formulas and pythagorean theorem 1" (which nets you the apprentice trigonometrician badge), or for beating tests extra fast. The badges are divided into different catagories for difficulty, from earth and moon badges to black hole badges which are serious business.
It is a brilliant math meta-game that is designed like our modern videogame achievement systems. It takes the carrot dangling that we are accustomed to in our entertainment and applies it to something that actually matters, and it makes me want to go in there and kick some trigonometry ass just to get some badges. This is a fantastic way to teach kids math and make it feel rewarding and not just monotonous and pointless. I can see why Bill Gates and Google are throwing money at this guy to keep improving his website and ideas.
I highly encourage any students here to check this place out, I plan on hanging around for some of the courses in biology and chemistry just for fun. If I was a student this thing would be my new addiction...hell, it may be anyway.
Which would be more pathetic? Going and racking up some trophies doing lame monotonous tasks, or blazing through some multiplication tables to get some badges....I always trip up on my 8s....
You can find me on facebook as Markus Van Rijn, if you friend me just mention you're from VGchartz and who you are here.
