Salman Khan, math master of the Internet(sfgate.com)
sfgate.com
Salman Khan, math master of the Internet
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/13/BUKV1B11Q1.DTL&tsp=1
7 comments
Here is a direct link to his webpage
http://www.khanacademy.org/
he seems to have quite a variety of subjects
Well this was the first time I've heard of Khan Academy, and wow they have a wide variety of topics and explained in a very simple manner. This is the kind of stuff, which makes me love Internet.
There was a post on Reddit a few weeks ago, where someone asked "What is something you have learned completely via the internet?".
One of the replies was from a guy (Iamnotthatotherguy) who spent 2 hours each night, 4 days a week, dedicated to learning math online. He referenced the MIT Open Courseware courses, and the Kahn Academy as his primary sources. He spent 2 years on this schedule, and no claims to know most of the mathematical areas quite well. I think his goal was statistical learning and AI, and it sounds like he got there.
One of the replies was from a guy (Iamnotthatotherguy) who spent 2 hours each night, 4 days a week, dedicated to learning math online. He referenced the MIT Open Courseware courses, and the Kahn Academy as his primary sources. He spent 2 years on this schedule, and no claims to know most of the mathematical areas quite well. I think his goal was statistical learning and AI, and it sounds like he got there.
FYI - this format was popularized by Academy123 (a Los Angeles area startup that was acquired by Discovery Education).
They used Win32 software running on Tablet PC's and captured a teachers voice and handwriting in real time.
At their peak, they had about 400 teachers working from home creating thousands of 3-5 minute mini-videos each day.
See some examples here: http://www.nutshellmath.com/textbooks_glossary_demos/demos_l...
They used Win32 software running on Tablet PC's and captured a teachers voice and handwriting in real time.
At their peak, they had about 400 teachers working from home creating thousands of 3-5 minute mini-videos each day.
See some examples here: http://www.nutshellmath.com/textbooks_glossary_demos/demos_l...
Not to be confused with the other Salman Khan, a Bollywood dance-meister: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Salman+Khan
I think his best work was in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam with Aishwarya Rai.
How much would a government-backed program to deliver 35,000 lessons per day on any of 800 topics have cost? How much is government paying now to do the same thing? What would education be like if it was completely consumer driven with no government support? Khan is serving a market for free that is already being served by government for billions of dollars. In other words, an entrepreneur would have a hard time in education because the government is already giving away so much for "free".
My intuition is that there are great efficiencies to be gained in any industry that "benefits" from government support. Besides education, other industries that could benefit from innovation would be transportation (especially roads and bridges), health care, courts, corrections, and police.
The reason why more innovation is not happening in these areas is that government support is removing the incentive to be more efficient. The people performing these services are not rewarded for drastically cutting costs.
It could be the case that these industries are already operating at peak efficiency, but the fact that there is no obviously better way is not proof of this. Innovation is sometimes only obvious after someone with the motivation to look for it has implemented it. If someone had asked the department of education to make instructional materials for the entire K-12 math curriculum and deliver it to tens of thousands of students a day for 5 man-years of work, the dept would have said it couldn't be done.