Khan Academy: What can we learn ?
In the rapidly expanding field of online education, no one has matched the success of Salman Khan. After he started out tutoring his nephew online, the former hedge fund analyst built up Khan Academy, which has received accolades from Bill Gates and others.Since starting Khan Academy in 2008, the 3,000-plus short video lectures have racked up more than 160 million hits on YouTube and earned Khan a place on this years Time 100 list.
Khan Academy is an educational non-profit focused on providing high-quality education for everyone. They produce a collection of free online micro lectures on a variety of different subjects, including mathematics, history, computer science, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and economics. Khan Academy also incorporates game mechanics into their system by awarding students with badges for reaching certain skill levels.
Millions of people around the world have found Khan's videos valuable aids to help them to pass a crucial math test. Some of them (almost certainly a minority) have, in the process, learned some mathematics -- meaning that, faced with a real world problem whose solution requires the use of math, they will, as a result of watching Khan's videos, be able to use math to solve the problem.I would myself have been such a person. Had KA been around when I was at school, I would have loved it. So would Bill Gates, whose public statements and financial support have enabled Khan to build on the initial success of his home-made videos. So, I suspect, would most scientists and engineers.For those of us who find ourselves with the ability to learn math, we will do so with whatever tools we can find, and most of us do just fine. For others, Salman Khan's videos are a great resource.
In the end its the vision statement on the website that influences me the most-"All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-scholar, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge."
The are still people in the world who are trying to make it a better place.There is a lot we can learn.
