“Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves” – Ernest Dimnet
Anu Dev
When my dad suggested that I look at a Salman Khan video on the web last year, I thought he was certainly setting me up for one of his famous pranks. I mean, I liked some of Salman’s movies and all that but it wasn’t as if he’s on the top of my hit parade.
It was actually a prank but one that literally became a life changing experience.
The video on YouTube was by Salman Khan all right, but definitely not the Bollywood Sallu. This Khan was the holder of three degrees in maths and physics from MIT and a MBA from Harvard – not haunts favoured by Sallu. The founder of Khan Academy (KA) basically teaches through videos.
But to say it so starkly is like saying that a Ferrari gets you from point A to point B. It does – but it’s the way it’s done that knocks you off your feet. Now even before KA I’ve been exposed to teaching videos – but the difference is how KA implements the technique.
Each video explains a discrete concept in say maths or physics (two subjects on my platter) at a pre-college level.
Khan does not mix multiple topics in the same video and so the very short video can be replayed until the concept is grasped – and then move to another.
Most helpfully and innovatively, I can receive immediate feedback and my comprehension level by answering questions on the site. Another innovative feature is a ‘learning map’ through which one can visualise how to integrate and connect the concept to other concepts – even in other fields.
Frankly, I believe that the KA approach is the wave of the feature – you learn at your own pace and you choose how to internalise and interlink concepts in your knowledge base.
Especially for a country like ours where we have a shortage of good maths and science teachers, the approach is going to be revolutionary. It will open up new vistas under the OLPF.
Salman Khan, who was born in the U.S., actually began the project through sheer serendipity. He was trying to teach a younger cousin maths over the telephone and then other relatives got in line. He figured making simple videos using off-the-shelf technology and posting them on YouTube would be more efficient.
The response was so phenomenal from outsiders that Khan realised he was on to something. He quit his very lucrative job in finance and began to produce the teaching videos full time.
Presently KA has about 3000 videos that have been viewed over 200 million times.
Khan has received recognition and funding from other technology pioneers such as Bill Gates (who confesses his daughter learns maths from KA) and Google. He has recently hired two other teachers.
The videos are now used in some school systems in the U. S. and in several communities across the world. The students go through the video at night and they go over the material with a live teacher in school the next day. This is pretty much what I have been doing in CAPE maths and Physics right now. So a shout out to KA. But I still look at Sallu’s movies for relaxation.
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