UNT Dallas College of Law - Library Blog

Remote Resources: Khan Academy

Remote Resources is an ongoing blog series that showcases various digital tools and resources that can help individuals stay mentally active and learning whilst they’re stuck at home.

So you’ve finished Love is Blind, and now you’re staring into the void yet again. Where you recently had Jessica repeatedly reminding you that Mark is just 24, you now have nothing. That, dear reader, is loneliness — a loneliness that can only exist in these strange, streamable times. To help fill this soul-enveloping emptiness, you could double down on reality tv. There is a vast catalog of the trashiest drivel spread out amongst the streaming services. The quarantine is still young, however, and you’ll have plenty of time to rot your brain with Bad Girls Club and Bridalplasty in the coming weeks. When the time comes, I’ll create what’s sure to be a masterful and exhaustive post about the best of trashy tv and where to find it. For now, though, I’m here to encourage improvement. I’m here to help expand your brain. I’m here to tell you about Khan Academy.

Khan Academy is a non-profit that provides users with legitimately helpful lessons in myriad academic fields. They also offer test prep for a variety of standardized tests and computing concepts. This is all to say that Khan Academy is thorough in its offerings. Keep in mind that I’m not suggesting this to use with any children you may have; you certainly can, and they offer certain subjects by grade level. Rather, I’m advocating that you —an adult who probably hasn’t thought about the Gilded Age or Macroeconomic theories in at least a decade — use it to learn something new.

Admittedly, there’s a good chance you won’t apply what you learn directly to your life, and that is absolutely fine. Learning for learning’s sake is important; it makes us feel good — like we’ve accomplished something meaningful. The more you learn, the more connections you’ll be able to draw from broad, academic subjects to your daily life and the world around you. Plus, you’ll feel really smart when you’re at a party (many months from now) and you’re casually able to make a poignant reference to Dadaism in front of your crush. Who knows, maybe your suave and exceedingly relevant art history knowledge drop will kick off a chain of events that eventually leads to a long and healthy marriage in which you have beautiful children that end up solving climate change and saving the planet. Wow. And all of that happens because you decided to learn something on Khan Academy instead of rewatching the Masked Singer (why are you rewatching the masked singer? You already know that neon stalagmite-looking dude is Victor Oladipo). This is all to say that you have the power to spend at least some of your time expanding your horizons.

Khan Academy is exceedingly intuitive and easy to use. It honestly provides a fun experience and helps you fill in the gaps in your general knowledge base. Plus, it is free! How cool is that? Very. I want to be very clear here: I don’t work for Khan Academy. I just strongly believe in learning new things for no other reason than just becoming well-rounded. It’s incredibly easy to become so wrapped up in our jobs and immediate surroundings that we don’t think about things outside of these bubbles. In reality, learning new topics can help provide us with context to better understand the things that do affect our daily lives.

Gefen Kusin-Kline, MS-LS Candidate 2021