经济学人下载:电子教学-跃然于教室间

This reversal of the traditional teaching methods—with lecturing done outside class time and tutoring (or “homework”) during it—is what Mr Khan calls “the flip”. A synonym for flip, of course, is revolution, and this experiment in Los Altos just might lead to one. For although only a handful of classes in this public-school district tried the method in the last school year, many other schools, private and public, are now expressing interest, and the methodology is spreading.

这颠覆了传统的教学方法，这种模式利用课下时间听课，用上课时间作辅导或是做作业。Khan先生谓之曰“反转互换(flip)”，它的近义词就叫做“革命”（revolution, 兼有翻转和革命的意思），而洛斯拉图斯的这次教学试验有可能带来一场革命。虽然上一个学年在这个公立学校校区内试用了这种方法的班级还在少数，但很多其他学校，不论公立私立都表示出了兴趣，这一方式正在向外传播。

Indeed, philanthropists such as Bill Gates have such high hopes for the new method that they have given money to KhanAcademy, a tiny non-profit organisation based in Mountain View, next to Los Altos. This means that the more than 2,400 video lectures, on anything from arithmetic and finance to chemistry and history, will remain free for anybody.

像比尔盖茨这样的慈善家对这种新模式寄予厚望，他们为Khan学院募集资金。Khan学院很小，地处洛斯拉图斯旁边的山景城，是一个非盈利机构，也就是说囊括了从数学金融到化学历史等学科的2400多个教学视频会免费提供给所有学生。

If KhanAcademy were merely about those online lectures, of course, it would be in good but large company. Increasingly, teachers, professors and other experts make their talks available online: on iTunes, YouTube or university websites. Some, such as Michael Sandel at Harvard with his philosophy lectures, have become minor celebrities. More and more sites exist purely to spread learning—some free, such as AcademicEarth.org; others not, such as TheGreatCourses.com.

当然，若是Khan学院只仅仅提供网络课程，那它就有一大帮的同行了。越来越多的老师教授和其他专家都在iTunes、YouTube或是大学网站上上传了他们的讲说。一些人已经小有名气，比如哈佛大学的Michael Sandel教授。那些专为传道授业的网站也与日俱增，有的是免费的，比如AcademicEarth.org网站，有的则是收费的，比如TheGreatCourses.com网站。

Watching lectures online, or on a smartphone or iPad on the go, has advantages, as Mr Khan has discovered from the huge number of comments he gets on his site. Children (or adults, for that matter) need no longer feel ashamed when they have to review part or all of a lecture several times. So they can advance at their own pace.

在Khan先生浏览他的网站时，上面的诸多评论让他发现，上网、用智能手机或是用iPad聆听教学课程会有很多优势。孩子们（其实也包括大人）用不着因为要多看几遍课程视频而感到没有面子。因此，他们可以按照自己的节奏来安排学习。