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Khan Academy Delivers 100,000 Lectures Daily
eldavojohn writes "Working from the comfort of his home, Salman Khan has made available more than 1,500 mini-lectures to educate the world. Subjects range from math and physics to finance, biology, and current economics. Kahn Academy amounts to little more than a YouTube channel and one very devoted man. He is trying to provide education in the way he wished he had been taught. With more than 100,000 video views a day, the man is making a difference for many students. In his FAQ he explains how he knows he is being effective. What will probably ensure his popularity (and provide a legacy surpassing that of most highly paid educators) is that everything is licensed under Creative Commons 3.0. He only needs his time, a $200 Camtasia Recorder, an $80 Wacom Bamboo Tablet, and a free copy of SmoothDraw3. While the lecturing may not be quite up to the Feynman level, it's a great augmenter for advanced learners, and a lifeline for those without much access to learning resources."
It was just personal curiosity since I had heard of it but boy, he was so straight forward about it I understood very quickly. The guy deserves his success.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Original article: 70k views per day
Original Slashdot submission: 70k views per day
Front page post after editing: Over 100k views per day
Stay classy, kdawson.
Khan = Muslim
Or a genetically-engineered Indian.
Or a Genghis.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Kahn = Jewish
Khan = Muslim
Last I checked, "Muslim" was recognised as neither an ethnicity, nor a nationality. But don't get that in the way of trying to make life simple for yourself or others.
Salman Khan, IIRC, was born in New Awlins, and his parents are from some province in India. Someone else can add to that if they're so inclined.
Either way, he's an amazing guy. The word would be a better place if there more "Muslims" like him around. ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feynman_Lectures_on_Physics Feynman is astounding and had a natural grasp of the science. One of the strangest things I learned was that there is a 100 volt per meter field everywhere on the Earth.
I have viewed some of the videos at Kahn Academy and it is nice to see worked out examples as this is the best way to teach. Simply stating the relationships doesn't ever seem to help me.
Like programming, I have to write something before I really understand what it means. if("Khan"=="Kahn"){P=NP;kdawson=editor}
In his FAQ, Khan says about his religion, "If you believe in trying to make the best of the finite number of years we have on this planet (while not making it any worse for anyone else), think that pride and self-righteousness are the cause of most conflict and negativity, and are humbled by the vastness and mystery of the Universe, then I'm the same religion as you."
In other words, he's an atheist. ;)
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
I work at a University, teaching Maths across many levels.
Khan's screencasts are nice - patient demos of how to do standard calculations. They are fairly traditional in some ways - 21st century chalk+talk.
They are mostly useful for the "what to do" as even these contain enough of the "why" to put it in context.
They complement what we do in formal classes, so we are happy to informally refer students on to them.
-- open source? sounds like the real book --
I tried to do what Socrates would do as a teaching fellow. A student complained in the course evaluation that I should not ask questions before they learn about the subject. I also took a top-down approach, reviewing course material in a way hoping that if a student is interested or needed to know more, he would ask questions to clarify. Several students commented that I glossed over detail and that I was too vague. A number of students thought I was boring. I tried to explore related knowledge that they wouldn't find on textbook, and a few students said that I digressed, and I went off tangent.
On the positive side, one student did comment that he found my method of teaching intellectually challenging, and that he learned a lot, which he described as a strength.
Socrates would not have wanted to teach students who only want to be spoon fed, who do not want to learn, who only want to get good grades, and eventually their diploma, so they could work for an industry that they're just in it for the money. Students nowadays feel entitled. Entitled to be knowledgeable without making the effort to learn. Entitled to get good grades without learning anything. Entitled to get diploma without passing courses. Entitled to get a job. Entitled to get high salary. Entitled to get their material satisfaction. And finally, entitled to blame everyone else including their college professor if they don't get what they want.
I once had a signature.