Here is an amazing video about The Khan Academy School by Salman Khan from the 2011 TED conference.
The first part of it was a little confusing because it’s very “Math-y” -not my cup of tea- but then he goes on to explain how Khan Academy School works and even Bill gates agrees that it is The Future of Education.
The concept of The Khan Academy School is that every kid learns at their own pace and the way that our education system is structured is to continue on with the pre-designed curriculum whether or not a student has fully understood everything.
The traditional classroom has lectures during class time then the student is expected to complete the homework out of the class. The Khan Academy concept is that the homework would be to watch the lecture (video) at home, where they can pause as they go and then the work is done in the classroom with the teacher and other students. The software tracks the progress of each student, which videos the student paused the most, when a student is grasping the information, etc..
I personally would go to great lengths to put my kids into a Khan Academy school.
Salman Khan says in this video that it’s ready, it’s already free on line for anyone that wants to use it. There is no reason this system couldn’t be being used in public schools tomorrow.
This is just another example of people and private companies taking action on a problem that needs to be fixed. While the government is cutting budgets for public education, Salman Khan and his team are creating better systems and giving it away for free.
Awesome.
