“I used to hate history in school. It
was so boring memorizing all those dates.” I used to hear this all the time at the library from new genealogists, who suddenly were discovering the joys of
history as they learned about their ancestors.
So if you slept through the football
coach’s terrible American history classes in high school or even if you’re just
a little fuzzy on some of the historical events that your ancestors
participated in, then the Khan Academy is for you.
In 2006, Salman Khan started a free
online education platform and not-for-profit organization whose goal is to
provide "a world-class education to anyone, anywhere.”
Posting short
videos posted to a YouTube channel and a Web site (http://www.khanacademy.org), Khan’s
virtual school started with science and mathematics and has expanded to
economics and history. Access to all of the videos in the virtual school,
including user-paced practice exercises, is free.
Here’s a list of the current history
titles, with more on the way:
- US History Overview 1: Jamestown to the Civil War
- US History Overview 2 - Reconstruction to the Great Depression
- US History Overview 3 - WWII to Vietnam
- Communism
- Korean War Overview
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Vietnam War
- Pattern of US Cold War Interventions
- Allende and Pinochet in Chile
- When Capitalism is Great and Not-so-great
- 20th Century Capitalism and Regulation in the United States
- French Revolution (Part 1)
- French Revolution (Part 2)
- French Revolution (Part 3) - Reign of Terror
- French Revolution (Part 4) - The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
- Haitian Revolution (Part 1)
- Haitian Revolution (Part 2)
- Napoleon and the Wars of the First and Second Coalitions
- Napoleon and the War of the Third Coalition
- Napoleon and the War of the Fourth Coalition
- Napoleon's Peninsular Campaigns
- French Invasion of Russia
- Napoleon Forced to Abdicate
The Khan Academy has more than
2,300 microlectures available that have been viewed nearly 58 million times.
Google awarded Salman Khan $2 million to produce more free video lectures. I
can’t imagine a better use of funds. Try the Khan Academy – I think you’ll like
Khan’s accessible and informative style.
Wow, I just watched #22 on the Peninsular War (Spain). I recently posted a story about a birth record in my husband's ancestral village on the Spain/Portuguese border- but the child and his parents were British. Now I know why that happened! Now I know why so many records are missing in that part of Spain, because of the fierce fighting!
ReplyDeleteGlad it helped, Heather. It's really remarkable what he's done already and I look forward to more.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing site! Thank you so much for sharing with us!! I will be spending alot of times on Salman Khan's website! Thank you, I did not like History in school, but for the last 20 years I have been fascinated by it and love learning more and more.
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