The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. It’s a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.
All of the site’s resources are available to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy’s materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.
Here’s a video introduction to the site and how it came about:
And here’s a video on basic addition that shows you the kind of content the site has:
And here’s a topical video on ‘Les Miserables’ which explains the context for the film:
TED-Ed, TED’s education initiative, is an online library of short, captivating videos that engage inquisitive learners all over the world.
TED-Ed’s commitment to creating lessons worth sharing is an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas. Within the growing TED-Ed video library, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform.
This platform also allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can distribute the lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student.
Here’s an example of a video from TED Ed on spelling:
Perth and Kinross Council is working with Stirling Council and the Scottish Government to develop a resource pack that will support the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. The pack will be online and we are considering the development of a mobile app to support the resource.
More details coming soon, but it is hoped that the resource will be published in the first half of 2013, giving plenty of time for schools to plan for using it.
The Daily What News is a top quality Glow resource that your account gives you access to.
A news service just for schools in Scotland, The Daily What News provides a sophisticated and interactive news service for Glow users, with articles written by a specialist news content editor especially for a schools’ audience. Articles are published every school day and there are two versions of each article. In addition, three articles each week which are published in Gaelic.
The articles are arranged in news categories and are tagged according to CfE subjects and experiences and outcomes. The articles are archived and searchable from the main homepage, giving users a rich learning resource that offers learners the opportunity to make meaningful and relevant connections across different curricular areas. Many of the articles feature an interactive activity that provides Glow account holders with a fun way to extend or cement users’ learning on the story’s topic. Users can also use their Glow logins to take part in forum discussion topics for each article.
Teachers will find the Teachers’ Area Blog an excellent resource. Beneath each daily news article there is a link to a blog post that provides Glow users with a wealth of lesson ideas and suggestions for several curricular areas from the one news story. The posts are written by a specialist education content editor who links the news story to CfE outcomes and experiences and provides links to other interesting and relevant content.
A recent article in the Sport category focused upon Rangers’ fans’ trip to Manchester and how their behaviour was better than on a previous occasion that had led to trouble in the city centre. The article would surely be a popular one with young people and, because they are known for their reluctance in reading, it is of note that it would be of particular appeal to boys. There is even an interactive activity attached to this article which invites learners to test their knowledge of SPL club nicknames. What better way to engage reluctant learners in purposeful and relevant learning? In theTeachers’ Blog, lesson suggestions were offered in a number of CfE subject areas (Social studies, Health +Wellbeing, English+Literacy) and links were provided to video content and discussion stimuli that would encourage even the most reluctant learner to engage with such relevant and meaningful subject matter.
This is, of course, just one example. There is already a good stock of interesting content on the site, with stories ranging in topic from the floods in Pakistan, for a World focus, to how young people made an impression on the Scottish Parliament, for a story that is closer to home. Each school day sees another story added to the archive, so we are building a wealth of content that Glow users can benefit from.
Whatever the story’s subject-matter, it is always the case that it will be written in a manner that is appealing and relevant to our learners. Add to that the interactive activities and lesson suggestions in the teachers’ blog, and you might just find thatThe Daily What News is just what you have been looking for!
Here’s an Our Cloud video guide to give you a guided tour:
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