Curriculum Resource: Khan Academy

Only a few more days until Monday's webinar with Blockhead author Joseph D'Agnese talking about using his picture book on Fibonacci for teaching math.  (If you missed it earlier, see this post with more details about the webinar and how to participate, or this post about how to win a free copy of the book.)  But is you are looking for an even more multimedia approach to math instruction, along with a wider range of topics, a great place to look is Khan Academy.

Khan Academy has a library of 2,100 different educational videos on a range of middle school through college topics, but focused heavily on science and especially math.  Just the math subjects offered are extensive--Basic or Developmental Math, Geometry, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Trigonometry, Differential Equations, Calculus.  (In contrast, the History section covers the French Revolution and Napoleon, and that's about it....for now, at least.)  So if there is a math topic that your student could use some help with, it's likely that Khan Academy has a video on it.

And the great thing about Khan Academy is that they are giving it all away for free.  Sal Khan is a man with a vision--to make education freely available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection.  Although he now is getting funding from the Gates Foundation, he started by creating hundreds of video on his own and just making them available via the web.  Khan is committed to keep churning out videos until he has the entire curriculum covered.  So he's going to be busy for quite a while...

In addition to the videos, he has some interactive exercises and assessments, and a mechanism to allow learning coaches to keep track of their learners' progress through things.  It's a wonderful resource for homeschoolers to take advantage of as is appropriate for their students--and the price is certainly right!