We have also contracted out a new MathVids logo to 99 designs, a site where designers can submit images / logos and compete to be chosen as the best design.  Well, we have narrowed the logo submissions to 2 choices, but we would love your input to help us make our final decision.  Please take 15 seconds and vote for your favorite to help us choose the new MathVids logo.  We’re very excited to add a brand new logo, but we want to make sure we make a good decision, and your input is very important to us.

I hope the end of the school year treats you well.  Good luck finishing up classes / exams for all those in schools that are still in session.  See you in June!

As the school year winds down, we are furiously adding videos.  However, we need to ask for your help. The number of videos that need to be reviewed and categorized is becoming unmanageable. We would love to hire a qualified and capable person to help us moderate our videos. If you are (or know of) a current or former math teacher, student teacher, or college student studying to become a math teacher, please send us your resume at customer.support@mathvids.com or email us with inquiries. We would be happy to negotiate terms and conditions of your hire so it can be mutually beneficial. We would also be happy to have any altruistic teachers on board who want to help just because it will help others. We will of course provide you with a premium membership for your assistance. We would be just fine with seasonal hires as well — so any teachers wanting to earn a little extra money in the summer months, let us know!

I hope the beginning of Spring has been a great time for all of you, and good luck in the final month or two of the school year!

It’s time again to celebrate our favorite irrational, transcendental number!  As always, there are many ways to celebrate the constant that is the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference.  Check out TeachPi.org for pi activity ideas, music, records, quotes, stories, and more about pi.  You can also check out the two pi day videos we have on MathVids — Mr. Binkley’s Pi Day video and Mr. A’s Fun with Pi video.  No matter how you celebrate Pi Day, we hope you do something irrational!

We have been very busy going page by page, making the MathVids user experience better and better.  We are planning to add some social aspects to MathVids in order for teachers to interact with students in a more professional and useful manner than Facebook or Twitter.  Please let us know if you have any suggestions or thoughts about what would be useful.  Also, let us know whether you or your school would be interested in pioneering the social network and giving us feedback on how you are using it and what other elements would be useful.  We could certainly use some teachers to test out the system when it is ready.

Because we are so busy organizing lessons / resources, adding new features, renovating the look and feel of the site, and creating a social math network, we are running short on time for moderating and reviewing videos.  However, we are hiring another team member exclusively to approve and review videos, so we should hopefully be adding videos at a much higher rate in the near future.

As the 2011-2012 school year comes around to the home stretch, make sure to stay on top of your classes.  Remember that as we continue to add videos, it is becoming more likely that you can find a video covering a topic that you need help with.  We are nearing the day that you will be able to find every topic on MathVids.  That is nearly the case with Algebra — we now have more than 700 Algebra lessons and nearly 700 Advanced Algebra lessons.

Have a great Pi Day!

To show our love and appreciation for your loyalty to MathVids, we have been busily making MathVids into one of the premier education sites on the internet. Since last month, we have added much better search functionality. If you have been disappointed by the MathVids lesson search in the past (as I know I have been), give the new search a try. We think you’ll love it!

Additionally, we have added many more videos, filling in some of the gaps in our topic coverage.  Included in the lessons that have been recently added are the following:

From Julie Harland:

• Synthetic Division
• Triangle Angle Word Problems
• Angles
• Graphing Linear Inequalities in 2 Variables

From Brian McLogan:

• Solving One- and Two-Step Equations
• Solving Systems of Equations
• Translating Words to Expressions
• Translating Expressions to Words
• Odd/Even, Increasing/Decreasing, Piecewise, and Absolute Value Functions
• Operations with Fractions
• Slope / Writing Equations for Lines
• Sets and Set Notation

We are still working on some revolutionary new ideas we have in mind for a way that teachers and students can interact without breaching any personal boundaries like Facebook or Twitter.  Stay tuned for some exciting new things in 2012.

Also, if you are interested in how we feel about the Khan Academy and why we believe we are different, check out my latest Blog Post, Khan Academy: Are There REALLY No Better Alternatives?

The Khan Dynasty

Being a former math teacher with a vested interest in math education and the lack of comprehension on the part of many students in mathematics, I have been paying very close attention to the education revolution happening online recently.

We all know the man spearheading this newly mainstreamed idea of learning math online: Salman Khan of the Khan Academy. Of course there have been other notable forays of education into the technology sector (YouTube for Schools, MIT OpenCourseWare, and iTunes University to name a few popular ventures), but none that rose so quickly from being unknown to being world-renown. In a very short time period, Khan received millions of dollars in funding from Google and was publicly backed (and funded) by Bill Gates. Sal and the Khan Academy have had an unlikely and fairy tale sprint into the hearts of Americans. And although much of what the Khan Academy is accomplishing is bettering our world, there are some unforeseen consequences.

Despite the well-intentioned efforts of a few well-funded education initiatives, a few loud, popular education sites are drowning out more subdued, quality ventures and harming the competitive balance in educational progress.

Not All Fun and Games

I am not against the Khan Academy and its vision for a more math-literate world. I support everything that the Khan Academy stands for regarding access to free or inexpensive education to anyone in the world. I think it is commendable and spectacular what Khan has been able to do in so short a time, and I can’t wait for the innovations his idea will spark in the months and years to come. He is truly an inspiration to the education sector, and he has raised the bar for what education (especially math education) means in this technological and video-centric age.

Although the praises being lauded upon Khan drown out most critiques, there are certainly critics of the Khan Academy’s approach to “teaching” and the “Khan philosophy.” Most recently, I very much enjoyed reading the thoughts of the founders of Mathalicious in their blog post, “Khan Academy: It’s Different This Time.” The writer of the post does a pretty thorough job of pointing out that Khan’s methods for changing math education “won’t work (and never did).” He goes on to say that this concept really is no different than any of the other “quick fixes” to math education in America. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts or easy answers to solving the problem we are facing in our mathematical deficiencies. We need good teachers who are ready to reach every individual where he or she is. The article makes a further point that “Khan Academy makes it difficult for something better to come along.” It is difficult to compete with a goliath with millions of dollars in grant money.

Who Needs Credentials?

Being a former math teacher, I have a problem initially with the fact that a man who has never taught middle school or high school math is now “America’s Teacher.” There is no doubt that he is an educated man and has proven his competency and ability in many of the areas that he teaches, but he has still never been trained as a teacher. To suggest that he can teach just as well as any person with a teaching degree is to say that there is no need for schools of education. But instead of universities issuing statements of concern for the integrity of a noble profession that has come under attack lately, they are asking him to speak at their commencement ceremonies.

Not only are Khan’s teaching credentials suspect, when you watch a few of his videos, you will notice that he is more of a tutor than a teacher. Rather than explaining concepts, he often shows how to solve specific problems, similar to what you would expect from a tutor helping you complete a homework assignment. As helpful as this can be when you need to finish your homework, this is not a complete solution for the failing math scores in America. What students need is a fundamental understanding of concepts so they can learn ideas rather than finish problems. In fact, Sal is in total agreement on this issue. Here is an excerpt from an article from Inside Higher Ed:

In October Khan told the Future of State Universities audience that the most pressing problem facing the education system is not so much the retention of students in academic programs, but the retention of specific academic concepts in the minds of those students. Completion means nothing, said the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grantee, without comprehension — a command of crucial skills that stick around long after the test, and the course, are over.

College students do not graduate with a firm enough grasp of the skills — particularly in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields — that they really need to land good jobs, he said. As a result, the credential colleges use to signal the competence of their graduates, the college degree, says very little about what its holder actually knows.

Although Khan admits the fact that many students are just doing enough to get their degree but are not retaining the necessary information to be competent in the job market, it seems that his tools are condoning this practice rather than fixing the problem.

Khan also admits in the article that his videos are not the primary attraction or feature of the site:

“I think too much conversation about Khan Academy is about cute little videos,” Khan said in an interview last week. “Most of our resources, almost two-thirds of [the staff], are engineers working on the exercises and analytics platform. That, I think, is what we’re most excited about.”

No Better Alternatives?

Khan makes a good point in saying that the videos are not the main focus or draw of the site. The videos are not very well made technically, they are not pre-planned, and they are not very engaging.

According to an article from Wired magazine:

He never writes a script. He simply researches a topic until he feels he can explain it off the cuff to “a motivated 7-year-old.”

Some articles have suggested that we are forced to settle for Khan Academy because there are just no good alternatives. But I contend that there are many free or inexpensive sites that have better content from teachers who spend time putting together engaging, quality lessons. Some examples are Mathalicious, MathTV, Brightstorm, MathVids, and even Mahalo (not exclusively an education site), to name a few. With all of these great resources available, why are we settling for so much less?  It’s not that there are no alternatives. It is just that they are not widely known.

I do think, however, that a student can learn from even the least qualified sources at times (sometimes a student in his or her class who has just learned the same material can explain it in a way that he or she understands). And I truly believe that the more videos being taught by different teachers, tutors, or other students, the better chance there is that a student will find a teaching style that he or she connects with. This is certainly part of the core philosophy of MathTV, where the same problem is solved and explained by multiple teachers. That different students have different learning styles is also a concept that is central to the vision at MathVids, where you can find lessons taught by long-tenured teachers, new teachers, traditional college professors, goofy community college professors, tutors, and even students. By teaching all of the lessons himself and not hiring any qualified math teachers, Khan is limiting his reach and watering down his product. It is clear that not every learner finds his teaching style the best.

Even the organization and structure in the Khan Academy’s videos is messy, making me wonder whether time is being spent on the right things. The site is just a list of every lesson Khan has ever taught thrown onto one page and separated into very broad categories like “Algebra.” Most of the other sites listed here do a much better job of categorizing lessons to make them easy to find.

Don’t Settle

I very much appreciate the work and passion of Salman Khan and his work in revolutionizing the way the world is learning math. But I want to encourage some competition in a field that is badly in need of it. Khan Academy is far from being the best math learning resource on the internet. It is simply the most popular and the best funded at the moment. But the more we expect out of math education, the less we settle for what’s popular. And the more we look around for what is available, the better off we will be. Google was not the first big search engine. Facebook was not the first successful social media site. Just because you are the first successful site on the scene does not mean you are doing things the right way or that you will stay around.

Although Khan has revolutionized the way we think about education and what is possible, there exist many great alternatives to Khan Academy. Now go find them!

Welcome to an exciting time in the evolution of math education and MathVids! We haven’t had much news to report in quite some time, but we are making some BIG new year resolutions in 2012.

This year, we are going to change math education in America – forever. And we need YOUR help. We want to show the world that MathVids is the most helpful, pleasant, comprehensive, fully-moderated, organized, useful math help website on the Internet. In so doing, we will change how students learn math. No longer will a student be able to say “I just don’t get it” or “My teacher isn’t good at explaining things”. No more excuses – only opportunity. Help us by telling everyone you know about MathVids, and we promise we won’t let you down.

Here is a list of the things we have done to make MathVids even more amazing in the past month:

1. Home page re-design (Looks more pleasant and clean / makes our mission and benefits of our service clear. If you haven’t seen it, check it out — we think you’ll like it!)
2. Video page re-design (Video pages are now lesson pages with a playlist of multiple videos matching the lesson topic. Also, better navigation to similar lessons or lessons in the same series.)
3. Site-wide re-design (Level and topic pages, teacher pages, and others are more aesthetically pleasing.)
4. Better organization of videos (Topic and subtopic pages that match up more closely with a math curriculum. More granular breakdowns to help you find exactly what you want.)
5. Videos work on mobile devices / iPad (Videos are now available in mp4 format, which is compatible with mobile devices, iPad, and other devices that do not support flash.)
6. More videos (If you haven’t seen any of Mr. Brian McLogan’s videos, check them out — many more videos will be coming in the near future from him.)
7. Faster, quicker loading of pages (Our new server makes pages load noticeably faster.)

And that’s just the start! As I said, we are planning to turn math education on its head. Here are just some of the things we are planning in the new year:

1. Better searching of videos
2. New videos to fill in gaps
3. Roku App
4. Mobile website
5. Teacher Lounge
6. Student-Teacher Interactions

So if you see what we see; if you feel as we feel; and if you would seek as we seek; then we ask you to stand beside us this year, and together we shall give this country a 2012 that shall never, ever be forgot!

What’s interesting, however, is that a new study suggests that just as we humans are ‘programmed’ with superior language-acquisition skills, we are also ‘programmed’ to understand basic mathematical concepts as well.

In other words, there’s no such thing as a ‘math person’ and an ‘English person,’ though we certainly develop certain interests later in our schooling.

According to the New York Times, a recent study asked basic Euclidean geometry question to adults and children in the West and also to adults and children in an isolated Amazon tribe. One group had formal geometry training, and one group had none.

The results?

Well, see for yourself. Both groups, surprisingly, received similar results on the test, which, according to researchers, suggests that we humans have innate understandings of geometrical principles. The extension of that conclusion is, of course, that we also have innate understandings of mathematical principles.

It simply takes some good schooling in order to tease out those understandings and make them useful in our daily lives.

So next time one of your students complains that he or she just isn’t a ‘math person,’ you’ll be able to respond with a quick affirmation of his or her abilities, some encouragement, and firm teaching.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Barbara Jolie, who writes for online classes.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: barbara.jolie876@gmail.com.

We have been hard at work categorizing and sorting our videos to make them more accessible and easier to browse through. We are ordering them in a way that resembles a common school curriculum. We hope that this will make more sense and make it easier to find what you are looking for or determine whether a certain lesson exists.  We hope to be deploying our new video categorization within the next couple of weeks. Please let us know what you think of it once it is live.

Our next few big improvements on MathVids will hopefully make your experience better.  We are trying to iron out anything that slows the site down or makes it tedious or annoying.  We are open to suggestions and will hopefully make it much nicer and easier to navigate the site.  Look for new features soon!

We hope that this international mathematical holiday brings you joy, happiness, and fun!  What an excellent number to celebrate. We hope to see many pi pastries and pi chains today, the first time Pi Day falls on a school day since 2008.

This day also marks the 3-year anniversary of the initial launch of MathVids. We are hoping to really start doing some unique things with the organization of our site. We are hoping to make the browsing and categorization of our math videos much more useful in the coming months as well as adding some additional content besides videos. Keep checking back for new features!

More and more people are using MathVids in the classroom. It seems that many of our videos make a good introductory lecture to a topic. Try showing a video on a topic that you are teaching during the first day and then fill in the details afterward. We would love to hear stories from teachers who have shown a MathVid in class. Let us know how it works!

Well, until next time, enjoy Pi Day, and have a great month!

We hope that all of your valentines said ‘yes’ today.  Valentine’s Day is full of such hope and expectation.  So many nerves and so much anxiety.

All of these emotions and more will return soon, as Valentine’s Day reminds us that Pi Day is just 1 month away! The excitement surrounding this irrational, transcendental number is unrivaled by any other number in mathematics. Get ready to celebrate and party! There are so many ways to show your appreciation for this famous constant. Check out The Joy of Pi, PiDay.org, or TeachPi.org for pi resources, facts, stories, songs, and ideas for how to spend this day in or out of your math class.

Finally, if you want to watch a video on pi or possibly show a video to your math class on Pi Day, check out either Mr. Binkley’s Pi Day video or the Fun With Pi lesson.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any ideas or thoughts about how you are going to spend Pi Day. We would love to share some of them in our next newsletter on Pi Day, on which we will be celebrating our 3-year anniversary! Have an excellent month, and we’ll see you Pi Day 2011!