[LINK] A global teacher of 1,516 lessons and counting

Mon Jun 28 17:10:28 AEST 2010

There's also the MIT open courseware, which seems to get very little
media attention these days.

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> A global teacher of 1,516 lessons and counting
> June 27, 2010
> By Lisa M. Krieger
> http://www.physorg.com/news196868176.html
> 
>  From a tiny closet in Mountain View, Calif., Sal Khan is educating the 
> globe for free. His 1,516 videotaped mini-lectures -- on topics ranging 
> from simple addition to vector calculus and Napoleonic campaigns -- are 
> transforming the former hedge fund analyst into a YouTube sensation, 
> reaping praise from even reluctant students across the world.
> 
> "I'm starting a virtual school for the world, teaching things the way I 
> wanted to be taught," explains Khan, 33, the exuberant founder and sole 
> faculty member of the nonprofit Khan Academy, run out of his small ranch 
> house, which he shares with his wife and infant son.
> 
> Khan has never studied education and has no teaching credentials. His 
> brief and low-tech videos, created in the corner of his bedroom, are 
> made with a $200 Camtasia Recorder, $80 Wacom Bamboo Tablet and a free 
> copy of SmoothDraw3 on a home PC.
> 
> But every day, his lectures are viewed 70,000 times -- double the entire 
> student body of UC Berkeley. His viewers are diverse, ranging from rural 
> preschoolers to Morgan Stanley analysts to Pakistani engineers. Since 
> its inception in 2006, the Khan Academy website has recorded more than 
> 16 million page views.
> 
> At a time when conventional education is under stress, his project has 
> caught the attention of educators and venture capitalists such as John 
> Doerr, who just invested $100,000 to help pay Khan's salary.
> 
> Jason Fried, CEO of tech company 37signals, said he invested in Khan's 
> nonprofit because "the next bubble to burst is higher education. It's 
> too expensive. It's too much one-size-fits-all. This is an alternative 
> way to think about teaching -- simple, personal, free and moving at your 
> own pace."
> 
> With a computer science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of 
> Technology and an MBA from Harvard, Khan settled into a lucrative 
> position at Sand Hill Road's Wohl Capital Management, while his wife 
> studied medicine at Stanford.
> 
> Then, his young cousin Nadia started struggling in math. In afternoon 
> long-distance conference calls to Louisiana, Khan taught her "unit 
> conversions" using Yahoo Doodle as a shared notepad. He wrote 
> JavaScripts to generate random algebra problems.
> 
> Soon Nadia's brothers and other far-flung family members wanted help, 
> too. Frustrated by scheduling tutoring sessions around work, soccer 
> schedules and different time zones, he simply posted his talks on YouTube.
> 
> "Then somebody searched YouTube for 'greatest common divisor,' " he said 
> with a laugh. Web traffic now soars 10 percent a month.
> 
> His approach is learn-as-you-go. Students can start anywhere in the 
> curriculum. Stumped? Simply stop the video, and repeat. He's off camera 
> and conversational. Lessons are bite-size. The modules offer immediate 
> feedback -- what's right, what's wrong. There's conceptual progression.
> 
> Some lessons -- in math, computer science and physics -- are 
> spontaneous, as Khan works from memory. Other topics, such as cellular 
> respiration or the Haitian revolution, are more scripted. He immerses 
> himself in material, roaming the aisles of the used bookstore 
> BookBuyers. When stuck on a question, he calls experts.
> 
> "I just ponder things, until they're clear," he said.
> 
> So clear that Felix Thibodeau, 11, of Wilmington, N.C., can enjoy math. 
> "I think he rocks. I'm studying pre-algebra and I love it," he said in 
> an e-mail message to the San Jose Mercury News.
> 
> Saudi dentist Fawaz Sait wrote: "He deserves a Nobel Prize."
> 
> It's not possible to verify the accuracy of each video. But in their 
> testimonials, students say Khan helped them master the material -- 
> particularly math.
> 
> "I learned more about calculus in the last few hours than in the whole 
> of the last semester at university," said Derek Hoy, majoring in 
> geological science/geophysics at Australia's University of Queensland. 
> "I was almost ready to change majors, because I wasn't understanding a 
> lot of the content but am now up to speed."
> 
> Khan laughed. "I'm the 'Dear Abby' of math problems. But if you 
> understand something, shouldn't you be able to explain it? Isn't that 
> the whole point?"
> 
> He concedes that "it's a little crazy to want to sneak into a room and 
> make math videos. But these are beautiful subjects." To relax, he enjoys 
> Isaac Asimov, Jane Austen and the HBO miniseries on John Adams.
> 
> "I've already got a beautiful wife, a great son and a house," he said. 
> "What else do you need? I get to learn all this stuff. It's what makes 
> me happy. Even if I'm forced to drive a used Honda for the rest of my 
> life, my great-great-great-grandchildren can learn calculus from these."
> 
> Khan's mother is from Calcutta; his father was a pediatrician from 
> Bangladesh. His parents divorced when he was 3, and his father died when 
> he was only 13. By high school, he was growing up in a New Orleans 
> suburb with a hardworking single mother and a fiercely protective elder 
> sister.
> 
> Valedictorian of his high school class, with a perfect math SAT score, 
> he always regretted the way educators failed to show the beauty of what 
> they taught.
> 
> He dreams of a world free of dense textbooks, crowded lecture halls and 
> bored students. Even children in developing nations can learn on a $200 
> refurbished PC.
> 
> "There's no higher social return on investment," he said. "We can 
> educate a million kids, for all time. We can build a lecture library 
> that continues to deliver. This is the operating system for a whole new 
> school."
> 
> More information: Sal Khan's topics include math, chemistry, physics, 
> biology, finance and history. Several modules cover material in the 
> California Standards Test in Algebra I and II. See them at 
> http://www.khanacademy.org
> Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/khanacademy
> 
> (c) 2010, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
> Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Regards
> brd
> 
> Bernard Robertson-Dunn
> Canberra Australia
> email:	 brd at iimetro.com.au
> website: www.drbrd.com
> 
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