Check out the TED video above. The Khan Academy has got to be one of the coolest sites ever…check it out here. Math, science, banking, astronomy, economics–you can learn almost anything on Salman Khan’s site. He has over 2,100 YouTube videos, all narrated and created by him, where he teaches subjects using only a computer writing pad and his own voice. I first heard about this from my uncle, and then I read about it yesterday on 8Asians, but I only watched his videos yesterday.
How does one dude know so f#$%ing much? And how does he teach so well? I checked out his videos on the credit crisis, and he’s spot on (which I guess makes sense since he was in hedge funds and is further up the chain from me)! But wow..chemistry and biology and astronomy too? The dude has three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.
The back story is that he was tutoring his cousin Nadia long-distance using a telephone and the web, and he decided to send her videos instead. He saw no need to keep it private, and people started viewing and commenting on his videos. Plus, Nadia said that she preferred the videos to Salman, since she could pause, review, and rewind. Salman started doing more and more videos, and he eventually quit his job to do it full time. It’s now incorporated as a non-profit and supported by various foundations and private donations.
I just signed up my four-year-old son tonight (well, I signed him up through my e-mail address since a four-year-old can’t get either a gmail account or a FB account), and it’s hella cool. Your child can work through problems after taking the tutorials, and their computer actually tracks your child’s progress so that he can learn at his own pace. I agree with Bill Gates; this is the future of education.
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good stuff!
With this, even more reason to home school my future kids! (especially in one lives in NJ) It frees up so much of their time, and without the restricted school calendar and schedule – I foresee much more flexibility and availability of new life experiences which can occur any day of the week! I’m totally on board!
Also – Bill Gates had a good lecture on TedTalks about State Budgets. And when you read the book “Outliers,” you wonder how many other “Bill Gates” were out there that could have been. And then you read “Bounce” by Syed or “The Talent Code” by Coyle and you realize anyone can be the next “Bill Gates” given the time, opportunities, and freedom. All books a must read for parents especially.
Day 2, and my son STILL loves this! It gives him a chance not only to practice his drawing (items to add), but also to use the computer. Win, win, and win!
By the way, Linda, they’ve got good stuff for older people too. I’ve been watching and learning from his tutorials on the banking crisis and banks in general. I could’ve used this back in college when I took my statistics class!
Stephen Colbert interviewed him last night (Thanks, ES):