Goodbye to college debt? ... Hello to Sal Kahn and Online Education...
Bill Gates says, Sal Kahn “is amazing," and, he continued, "It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources." A Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager, Kahn may be changing the landscape of education for future generations for whom college may become an over-priced luxury item. Kahn began his modest endeavor like many entrepreneurs, accidentally. His seventh grader cousin, Nadia, was having trouble in math class converting kilograms. Kahn, in addition to his Harvard MBA also holds three degrees from MIT: a BS in math and a BS and a master’s in electrical engineering and computer science. According to their Facebook page, Kahn Academy
The video tutorial collection, all recorded by Kahn (his face never appears) and accompanied by his step-by step diagrams on an electronic blackboard cover everything from basic arithmetic to calculus, chemistry, physics, and finance and also has a web-app that dynamically generates problems for practice. Gates and his 11-year-old son Rory began soaking up videos, from algebra to biology this past spring after learning about Kahn from a colleague at his small think tank, bgC3.
Kahn’s library of over 1800 videos on YouTube is now seen an average of over 70,000 times a day- That is nearly double the student body at Harvard and Stanford combined. Kahn says he has reached about 200,000 students…every month! And he states, “There’s no reason it shouldn’t be 20 million.” He currently does not monetize the operation, relying on donations. The largest of which came from Ann and John Doer a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. When a PayPal donation for $10,000 appeared on Kahn’s site, Kahn e-mailed the donor because the normal donation is $100 and fund it was Ann Doer. She was suggested they meet and was shocked to find out that her donation had been the largest the “academy” has ever received. After returning home from their lunch, Kahn found a message from Doer saying there is $100,000 in the mail.
Of course, mainstream education is skeptical. “It’s a solid supplemental resource, particularly for motivated students,” says Jeffrey Leeds, president of Leeds Equity Partners, the largest U.S. Leeds predictably states.
The Kahn Academy Company Overview:
A not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a world class education, for free, to anyone, anywhere. We are most known for our library of over 1000 videos on YouTube (all recorded by Sal Khan), but we intend to eventually provide a fully featured, free virtual school covering all major subjects.
With the growing popularity of Kahn Academy
Kahn was recently featured by ABC news as their person of the week…
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