- About Khan Academy
The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization created in 2006 by Indo-Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. It is an educational video repository which supplies a free online collection of more than 3,000 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and computer science.
- Vision of Khan Academy
To be the DNA for a physical school where students spend 20
percent of their day watching videos and doing self-paced exercises and
the rest of the day building robots or painting pictures or composing
music or whatever.
- Mission of Khan Academy
Providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
- Slogan of Khan Academy
It is our mission to accelerate learning for students of all ages.
- History of Khan Academy
The founder of the organization, Salman Khan, was born to an Indian
mother from Kolkata and a Bangladeshi father living in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
After earning three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and
computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer
science), he pursued an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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| Salman Khan at TED 2011 |
Below is the link of one of his commencement address at MIT:
How did The Khan Academy actually come up?
In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin Nadia in mathematics using Yahoo's Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought similar help, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the tutorials on YouTube.
The popularity of the YouTube videos and the positive feedbacks of appreciative students
prompted Khan to quit his job in finance as a hedge fund analyst at
Connective Capital Management in 2009, and focus on the tutorials full-time.
The objectives of Khan Academy in the words of its founder, Salman Khan is given below in the form of this youtube video:
Even the cousins of Salman Khan preferred the automated version (videos) over his teachings as this allowed them to watch them at their own free time and their individual pace. The other lesser appreciated advantage is the videos can be watched within the intimacy of their own rooms.
Also the Youtube users gave some comments like "First time I smiled doing a derivative". The students really liked this concept of teaching via videos and also their parents realized its value and appreciated this new form of learning. So this very innovative solution became a form of social value being appreciated by one and all.
And finally the most important which actually the Khan Academy an added advantage is:
"All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter
if you are a student, teacher,
home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20
years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly
biology. The Khan Academy's
materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge".
- Skills Involved
a) Technical Skills: Right from the course material to the softwares involved in the platform development - which the Academy designs - the technical skills involved are very high. Just to have the idea and the plan setup is not going to be enough for the successful running of the academy. Hence the technical base of Khan Academy is very strong.
b) Human Skills: Khan Academy is a team of highly proficient individuals trying their best to improve the way the world learns. They understand the importance of working in a team, understanding and motivating each other to come up with highly efficient and productive solutions. Hence the human skills involved are quite high.
c) Conceptual Skills: This is the most prominent skill which comes out with the setting up of Khan Academy and the innovative solutions which they come up with. Keeping the organization's interests and activities in mind, the top management devises some startegies and solutions which are unique and fruitful. They anticipate how this new technology will affect the overall system.
With the proper combination of the above mentioned skills, Khan Academy pursues the pinnacle of excellence and have been so successful in such a short span of time.
- New Business/Revenue Model
Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization. The project is funded by donations. Khan Academy is with significant backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google. Several people have made US$10,000 contributions: Ann and John Doerr
gave $100,000 - total revenue is about $150,000 in donations.
Additionally, it earned $2,000 per month from ads on the website in 2010
until Khan Academy ceased to accept advertising.
In 2010, Google
announced it would give the Khan Academy $2 million for creating more
courses and for translating the core library into the world’s most
widely spoken languages, as part of their Project 10.
- Creative Problem Solving
The whole concept of this academy is very creative. The source of this idea is a by-product of the limitations of classroom teaching:
a) Students vary in their learning capability and how they perceive a given problem. Their pace of learning are different. Some learn at a faster pace than others and this difference affects both the fast as well as the slow learners.
b) Students varying nature - some are extrovert and some are introvert. The extrovert gang asks their problems within the class and the introvert are not able to put up their problems.
c) Teachers also find it hard to give 100% attention to each student.
Hence these and some other limitations are catered by the Khan Academy. It has something for everybody - be it students, teachers, professionals, MBAs etc.
These problems have led to the coming up of various creative solutions:
a) To learn and solve within the intimacy of your rooms, at your own pace and time, the Academy have came up with a kind of portal shown below:
b) To teach everything
c) Help Teachers - They don't have to ask the students - what you do/ do not understand, provide them with as much data as possible, diagnose the problem of the student, what videos are being watched, are paused, are stopped, which exercises are being solved. Hence it allows them to pay 100% attention on each student and it makes the interaction as productive as possible. They have also collaborated with "LOS ALTOS" which have led to 100% student-teacher interaction.
d) Peer-to-Peer interaction: It leads to better peer-to-peer interaction.
Rows - Students
Columns - Topics to learn
Green - Student is proficient
Blue - Student is working on it
Red- Student is stuck
A student who is proficient (green) in any topic can teach the student who has stuck (red) in that subject. In this way, peer-to-peer interaction is increased and it leads to better learning.
eg. A street kid in Kolkata working on different errands for his family can take out 2 hours and use this interactive tool. Also a student can help this kid or vice versa promoting peer-to-peer interaction.
- Teamwork
Khan Academy has a highly dedicated team working towards the organizational vision and mission. Teamwork plays a very important role in the success of the academy.
To know more about the individual members of the small team they have - please refer the below link.
Overall, this innovative solution to the method of education is revolutionzing this sector. It has converted the world into a "Global One-room classroom".
That's all folks - Happy to share with you all what all I learnt about the "Khan Academy".
Looking forward to come up with more such articles.
!!!! Happy Learning Folks !!!!
Hats off to Salman Khan. Nice innovative ideas. Well potrayed.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great piece!! the website is of great help!!
ReplyDeleteSatisfied to see such blogs.. dr mandi
ReplyDelete