There is No Magic Bullet

As I was catching up on a few blogs that I follow, I found this particular post from EDTECH on the value (or in the author’s opinion, non-value) of the Khan Academy concept. The author sees Khan Academy’s flipped classroom and Design Thinking as mutually exclusive concepts, I disagree.

I think this misses the point.  The Khan Academy concept and the flipped classroom, if used well, can actually increase meaningful teacher/student interaction and can make it more possible to move students toward genuine creative problem solving.  It should not be seen as a stand alone magic bullet.  For example, Beaver is working with IDEO to find ways to take advantage of Design Thinking, and in the process we are clear that Design Thinking is not a stand alone either.

In fact I can see many ways that Khan Academy and Design Thinking can support each other.  In looking at new ways to design curriculum and pedagogy through technologies and approaches like these we need to move away from either/or thinking and embrace both/and.

Your thoughts?

One thought on “There is No Magic Bullet

  1. I haven’t read the Edtech article, but I think Khan Academy is fantastic! It’s a refreshing, informal and non intimidating way to approach all kinds of subjects, ranging from finance to math to history to current events…I like how you learn with the author, as he ‘unscrambles’ the question(s) and finds the answer(s)…

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