Another response from Jennifer Medbery

Another response from Jennifer Medbery:

 

Thanks for sharing the links. I'm fascinated, yet still skeptical, of blended learning, and also watched the Khan story on 60 Minutes yesterday.

For all the pro-Khan coverage out there, there's a fair amount of questioning about how the media portrays it as revolutionary - this blog post is a great read - http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/khan-academy-my-final-remarks/

As a former math teacher (pre-Algebra and Algebra 1 for three years) and now as a CEO of a software company building data analysis tools, I think often about how to build a generation of young people who are analytical and adept at problem-finding, not just problem-solving. I know that the Louisiana state standards I was required to teach would not even come close to preparing my former students for success as a business analyst, support manager, or marketing manager in my company - all of which require basic statistical analysis to determine whether our efforts at user acquisition and retention are effective. I hire people who are intellectually curious and can ask enough questions in order to find the right questions to answer. Answering them is the easiest part. Needless to say, there's much more thinking to be done around how we bridge that gap between math curriculum and "workplace readiness" - I consider Khan just a very small drop in the bucket.