Unit 4 - Learning Technologies - TESL 0150

I like Khan Academy because it is user intuitive, it has expansive materials that can be adapted and visually appealing quizzes. I also believe it matches with Nathan Hall's criteria: "free for students, no registration for students, don’t need to install anything, works on laptops/desktops, tablets, and phones, adds to the learning process, not complicated to learn." (2016)
Khan Academy works well in my context because of the grammar practice activities that they provide. I don't generally use the explanation videos as the level is too high for some of my students. Often I will create my own explanation on a certain language point such as a power point and then provide the students with Khan Academy practice. Sometimes I will use the provided videos to further solidify my explanation. 
Almost all of the practice activities I use are under the 'arts & humanities' tab, in the 'grammar' section. As you can see in the screenshot below. 
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I will provide an example for how to use Khan Academy. In my class, we often discuss grammar points and sentence structure to ensure our students have a good grasp prior to their academic writing. Part of my curriculum includes explaining types of sentences such as compound, complex and compound-complex. 
khan2
  • In the screenshot above, you can see that Khan Academy almost always provides an explanation video on the topic as well as practice activities. As I mentioned above, I don't often use the provided materials for explanation, I only use them to supplement my explanation. However, it is very helpful that Khan Academy provides the transcripts of the videos so that learners who struggle with listening can follow along if it is used. 
  • khan3
  • Khan Academy provides simple practice activities following their video explanation. I like these practice activities because they are more emotionally engaging than other grammar practice and visually appealing. They play a small celebratory sound every time the student gets a question correct. I also really appreciate that Khan Academy provides not just one type of practice. In addition to the simple and compound sentence practice, they also provide practice for rearranging simple and compound sentences. As seen in the screenshot below. 
  • khan4
Overall, Khan Academy would not work in all classrooms as it does not provide task-based learning. However, I feel that the ease of use is very high on this website, it is free and well-established and it requires very little additional support. I believe it is very sustainable in my classroom when used as supplemental practice. 
References
Culpechina, G. YouSeeU Presentation [Powerpoint Slides] Retrieved fromhttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1O20i_B4FNPEMA3kM12vDRf3wDYRW2xYJQK_JP_LYeFQ/edit?pli=1#
Hall, N. (2016). Mobile Ready without the Ap: 10 Web Apps that Work with All Devices. Retrieved from https://nathanghall.wordpress.com/

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