Bill Gates' favorite teacher

Bill Gates' favorite teacher
Innovation in Education
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin

sal_khan.top.jpgKhan turns out thousands of videos from a converted walk-in closet in his Silicon Valley home. By David A. Kaplan, contributorAugust 24, 2010: 5:53 AM ET


FORTUNE -- Sal Khan, you can count Bill Gates as your newest fan. Gates is a voracious consumer of online education. This past spring a colleague at his small think tank, bgC3, e-mailed him about the nonprofit khanacademy.org, a vast digital trove of free mini-lectures all narrated by Khan, an ebullient, articulate Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager. Gates replied within minutes. "This guy is amazing," he wrote. "It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources." Gates and

In an undistinguished ranch house off the main freeway of Silicon Valley, in a converted walk-in closet filled with a few hundred dollars' worth of video equipment and bookshelves and his toddler's red Elmo underfoot, is the epicenter of the educational earthquake that has captivated Gates and others. It is here that Salman Khan produces online lessons on math, science, and a range of other subjects that have made him a web sensation.

Khan Academy, with Khan as the only teacher, appears on YouTube and elsewhere and is by any measure the most popular educational site on the web. Khan's playlist of 1,630 tutorials (at last count) are now seen an average of 70,000 times a day -- nearly double the student body at Harvard and Stanford combined. Since he began his tutorials in late 2006, Khan Academy has received 18 million page views worldwide, including from the Gates progeny. Most page views come from the U.S., followed by Canada, England,

His low-tech, conversational tutorials -- Khan's face never appears, and viewers see only his unadorned step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard -- are more than merely another example of viral media distributed at negligible cost to the universe. Khan Academy holds the promise of a virtual school: an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.

Quick, free, and easy to understand

Distance learning and correspondence courses have been around since the invention of mail. And private, for-profit schools flourish; the University of Phoenix has half a million students enrolled, most of them online. Other private operations, like the Teaching Co., specialize in amalgamating "great courses" from nationally known teachers: the 12-hour Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond, from one academic star, costs $254.95 on DVD.

What's remarkable about Khan Academy, aside from its nonpareil word of mouth and burgeoning growth, is that it's free and prizes brevity. Remember your mumbling macroeconomics teacher whose 50-minute monologue in a large auditorium could bore the dead? That isn't Khan. He rarely cracks wise -- if you want shtick, check out Darth Vader trying to teach Euclidean geometry on YouTube ("The Pythagorean theorem is your destiny!") -- but in less than 15 minutes Khan gets to the essence of the topics he's carved o
0:00 /4:35Mickelson tees off better teaching

Online critics question whether he amounts to a dilettante who's turning learning into pedagogical McNuggets. But while you obviously don't learn calculus in one session -- the subject is divided into 191 parts, which doesn't include 32 more in precalc -- Khan's components seem to hit the sweet spot of length and substance. And he covers an astonishing array. There are the core subjects in math -- arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics -- and the de rigueur science offerings,

The seeds of education

Like so many entrepreneurial epiphanies, Khan's came by accident. Born and raised in New Orleans -- the son of immigrants from India and what's now Bangladesh -- Khan was long an academic star. With his MBA from Harvard, he has three degrees from MIT: a BS in math and a BS and a master's in electrical engineering and computer science. He also was the president of his MIT class and did volunteer teaching in nearby Brookline for talented children, as well as developed software to teach children with ADHD. Wh

In the summer of 2004, while still living in Boston, Khan learned that his seventh-grader cousin, Nadia, in New Orleans was having trouble in math class converting kilograms. He agreed to remotely tutor her. Using Yahoo Doodle software as a shared notepad, as well as a telephone, Nadia thrived -- so much so that Khan started working with her brothers, Ali and Arman. Word spread to other relatives and friends. Khan wrote JavaScript problem generators to keep up a supply of practice exercises. But between th

Khan continued to work for the small hedge fund he had joined after Harvard, Wohl Capital Management. He said he took away "under $1 million" before the Silicon Valley-based hedge fund wound down, and briefly started his own fund in mid-2008, which didn't really get off the ground because of the financial crisis. ("I called it Khan Capital," he says, "but it never got much beyond 'Khan's Capital.'") He used his nest egg to buy a house with his wife, Umamia, a rheumatology fellow at Stanford Medical School,

He maintains he has no interest in monetizing the operation by charging subscriptions or selling ads. "I already have a beautiful wife, a hilarious son, two Hondas, and a decent house," he declares on his website. But that hasn't stopped the inquiries, the most notable from John Doerr, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and his wife, Ann. Not long ago a PayPal donation on Khan's site came in for $10,000 (a typical gift is $100). Khan e-mailed the donor. Her name was Ann Doerr. He knew of a John Doerr b

When they met, Ann Doerr told him she couldn't believe hers was the largest donation. "This is, like, criminal," she said. "I love what you're doing." When he got home, he found a message from her: "There's $100,000 in the mail."

Khan is using that money to pay himself a salary. Later, he met John Doerr and has since relied on both Doerrs for entrée to others in the philanthropic establishment. After Gates mentioned Khan in Aspen, John tweeted it to his Silicon Valley legions. In July the academy received another $100,000 -- from John McCall MacBain, a Canadian entrepreneur who made a fortune in publishing. "If I had a million dollars," Khan says, he'd fund software development of more automated problem sets and extensive translati

An academy or a library?

Khan has his skeptics in the education business. They don't doubt he means well and is helping students, but they question the broad impact of any tutorial that doesn't test performance or allow student-teacher discussion. "It's a solid supplemental resource, particularly for motivated students," says Jeffrey Leeds, president of Leeds Equity Partners, the largest U.S. private equity firm specializing in for-profit education. "But it's not an academy -- it's more of a library."

But Khan intends nothing less than "tens of thousands" of tutorials offering the "first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything." The advances envisioned by Leeds and others wouldn't hurt either. The education industry can use all the innovation it can find.

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Bill Gates 'favorit guru
sal_khan.top.jpgKhan ternyata ribuan video dari dikonversi walk-in lemari di rumahnya di Silicon Valley. Oleh David A. Kaplan, contributorAugust 24, 2010: 05:53 ET


FORTUNE - Sal Khan, Anda dapat menghitung Bill Gates sebagai penggemar Anda terbaru. Gates adalah konsumen rakus pendidikan online. Musim semi yang lalu rekan di think tank-nya kecil, bgC3, e-mail kepadanya tentang khanacademy.org nirlaba, sebuah harta digital besar-mini bebas kuliah semua diriwayatkan oleh Khan, seorang bersemangat, mengartikulasikan Harvard MBA dan mantan manajer hedge fund. Gates menjawab dalam hitungan menit. "Orang ini adalah luar biasa," tulisnya. "Ini mengagumkan betapa dia telah di

Dalam sebuah rumah peternakan tidak istimewa dari jalan bebas hambatan utama di Silicon Valley, di sebuah dikonversi walk-in lemari penuh dengan senilai beberapa ratus dolar 'peralatan video dan rak buku dan bawah kaki merah balita-nya Elmo, adalah pusat gempa pendidikan yang telah terpikat Gates dan lain-lain. Di sinilah Salman Khan menghasilkan pelajaran online pada matematika, sains, dan berbagai mata pelajaran lain yang telah membuatnya menjadi sensasi web.

Akademi Khan, dengan Khan sebagai guru saja, muncul di YouTube dan di tempat lain dan oleh mengukur situs pendidikan yang paling populer di web. playlist Khan dari 1630 tutorial (pada hitungan terakhir) sekarang terlihat rata-rata 70.000 kali sehari - hampir dua kali lipat tubuh mahasiswa di Harvard dan Stanford gabungan. Sejak ia mulai tutorial di akhir tahun 2006, Akademi Khan telah menerima 18.000.000 tampilan halaman di seluruh dunia, termasuk dari keturunan Gates. Kebanyakan tampilan halaman berasal d

berteknologi rendah-Nya, tutorial percakapan - wajah Khan tidak pernah muncul, dan pemirsa hanya melihat doodle polos nya langkah demi langkah dan diagram pada papan tulis elektronik - lebih dari sekadar contoh lain media virus didistribusikan dengan biaya diabaikan untuk alam semesta . Akademi Khan memegang janji sekolah virtual: transformasi pendidikan yang menekankan de-ruang kelas, kampus dan infrastruktur administratif, dan bahkan merek-nama instruktur.

Cepat, bebas, dan mudah dipahami

Distance learning kursus korespondensi telah ada sejak penemuan mail. Dan swasta, sekolah berorientasi profit berkembang; University of Phoenix telah setengah juta siswa yang terdaftar, online kebanyakan dari mereka. usaha swasta lainnya, seperti biaya Pengajaran Co, spesialis dalam amalgamating "program yang besar" dari guru secara nasional dikenal: Game 12-jam Teori dalam Kehidupan, Bisnis, dan Beyond, dari satu bintang akademis, $ 254,95 pada DVD.

Apa yang luar biasa tentang Khan Akademi, selain dari kata nonpareil nya dari mulut ke mulut dan pertumbuhan yang sedang berkembang, adalah bahwa itu bebas dan singkatnya hadiah. Ingat bergumam Anda guru makroekonomi yang monolog 50 menit di sebuah auditorium besar bisa dikenakan orang mati? Itu bukan Khan. Dia jarang retak bijaksana - jika Anda ingin shtick, periksa Darth Vader mencoba untuk mengajar geometri Euclid di YouTube ("Teorema Pythagoras adalah takdir Anda")! - Tetapi dalam waktu kurang dari 15
0:00 / 4:35 Mickelson tee off pengajaran yang lebih baik

Online kritikus mempertanyakan apakah dia jumlah ke penggemar yang mengubah belajar menjadi McNuggets pedagogis. Tetapi sementara Anda jelas tidak belajar kalkulus dalam satu sesi - subjek dibagi menjadi 191 bagian, yang tidak termasuk 32 lebih di precalc - komponen Khan tampaknya menghantam sweet spot panjang dan substansi. Dan dia meliputi array menakjubkan. Ada mata pelajaran inti dalam matematika - aritmatika, geometri, aljabar, trigonometri, kalkulus, dan statistik - dan keharusan korban ilmu, seperti

Benih-benih pendidikan

Seperti begitu banyak pengalaman luar biasa kewirausahaan, Khan datang secara tidak sengaja. Lahir dan dibesarkan di New Orleans - putra imigran dari India dan apa yang sekarang Bangladesh - Khan panjang bintang akademis. Dengan gelar MBA dari Harvard, ia memiliki tiga gelar dari MIT: gelar BS dalam matematika dan gelar BS dan master di bidang teknik elektro dan ilmu komputer. Dia juga adalah ketua kelas MIT dan melakukan pengajaran relawan di Brookline terdekat untuk anak-anak berbakat, serta software yan

Pada musim panas tahun 2004, sementara masih tinggal di Boston, Khan belajar bahwa tujuh kelas sepupunya, Nadia, di New Orleans adalah mengalami kesulitan di kelas matematika mengkonversi kilogram. Dia setuju untuk jarak jauh gurunya. Menggunakan perangkat lunak Doodle Yahoo sebagai notepad bersama, serta telepon, Nadia tumbuh - begitu banyak sehingga Khan mulai bekerja dengan saudara-saudaranya, Ali dan Arman. Word menyebar ke kerabat lain dan teman-teman. Khan menulis generator masalah JavaScript untuk m

Khan terus bekerja untuk dana lindung nilai kecil ia telah bergabung setelah Harvard Modal, Manajemen Wohl. Dia mengatakan dia mengambil "kurang dari $ 1 juta" sebelum hedge fund Silicon Valley berbasis luka bawah, dan secara singkat mulai dana sendiri pada pertengahan 2008, yang tidak benar-benar turun tanah karena krisis keuangan. ("Aku menyebutnya Khan Modal," katanya, "tapi tidak pernah lebih jauh 'Khan Modal'".) Ia menggunakan simpanan untuk membeli rumah dengan istrinya, Umamia, seorang rekan Pra di

Dia berpendapat ia tidak memiliki kepentingan dalam Mendapatkan operasi dengan membebankan berlangganan atau menjual iklan. "Saya telah memiliki istri yang cantik, anak lucu, dua Honda, dan rumah yang layak," ia menyatakan pada situs web. Tapi itu tidak menghentikan penyelidikan, yang paling terkenal dari John Doerr, Silicon Valley venture kapitalis, dan istrinya, Ann. Belum lama ini sumbangan PayPal di situs Khan datang sebesar $ 10.000 (hadiah khas adalah $ 100). E-mail Khan donor. Namanya Ann Doerr. Dia

Ketika mereka bertemu, Ann Doerr mengatakan bahwa dia tidak percaya miliknya adalah sumbangan terbesar. "Hal ini, seperti, pidana," katanya. "Saya menyukai apa yang Anda lakukan." Ketika ia sampai di rumah, ia menemukan sebuah pesan dari dia: "Ada $ 100.000 dalam surat."

Khan menggunakan uang itu untuk membayar sendiri gaji. Kemudian, ia bertemu dengan John Doerr dan sejak itu bergantung pada kedua Doerrs untuk hidangan utama kepada orang lain dalam pendirian filantropi. Setelah Gates disebutkan Khan di Aspen, John tweeted untuk legiun Silicon Valley-nya. Pada bulan Juli akademi menerima lagi $ dari John McCall MacBain, seorang pengusaha Kanada yang menjadi kaya raya dalam penerbitan - 100.000. "Kalau aku punya satu juta dolar," kata Khan, dia dana pengembangan perangkat l

Sebuah akademi atau perpustakaan?

Khan skeptis dalam bisnis pendidikan. Mereka tidak diragukan lagi dia bermaksud baik dan membantu siswa, tetapi mereka mempertanyakan dampak yang luas dari setiap tutorial yang tidak menguji kinerja atau mengizinkan diskusi siswa-guru. "Ini merupakan sumber daya tambahan yang solid, terutama untuk siswa termotivasi," kata Jeffrey Leeds, presiden Leeds Mitra Ekuitas, terbesar di AS ekuitas perusahaan swasta yang mengkhususkan diri dalam pendidikan-laba. "Tapi itu bukan akademi - itu lebih dari perpustakaan.

Tapi Khan bermaksud tidak kurang dari "puluhan ribu" tutorial menawarkan "gratis pertama, sekolah virtual kelas dunia di mana setiap orang dapat belajar apa-apa." Kemajuan yang diusulkan oleh Leeds dan orang lain tidak akan menyakiti baik. Industri pendidikan dapat menggunakan semua inovasi dapat ditemukan.
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