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."

Comments

can't resist

[meekg]

KAHHHHHHN !!!!!1!

Re:can't resist

[PatPending]

KAHHHHHHN!

Re:can't resist

[iknowcss]

It's the math of Kahn ;)

Hey I used him to learn partial derivatives

[NotSoHeavyD3]

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.

Tip for kdawson

[andy1307]

Kahn = Jewish

Khan = Muslim

Re:Tip for kdawson

[EvanED]

Khan = Muslim

Or a genetically-engineered Indian.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[JanneM]

Kan = Japanese

Can = beer coming right up

Re:Tip for kdawson

[fishexe]

Khan = Muslim

Or a genetically-engineered Indian.

Or a Genghis.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[value_added]

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. ;-)

Re:Tip for kdawson

[Third Position]

TFA says:

Khan's mother is from Calcutta; his father was a pediatrician from Bangladesh. His parents divorced when he was 3, and his father died when he was only 13. By high school, he was growing up in a New Orleans suburb with a hardworking single mother and a fiercely protective elder sister.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[xigxag]

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. ;)

Re:Tip for kdawson

[O('_')O_Bush]

I think the point he was making is that any intellectual that has considered their place in life and moral philosophy are alike where it matters, regardless of religious creed or lack thereof.

I'm a Baptist, and I share those beliefs. So do many atheists, Hindus, Muslims, and others.

Religion just isn't important when forming a viewpoint about someone, and only causes problems if one falls into the "pride and self-righteousness" category.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[drinkypoo]

On a slightly different note, I find it a little sad that slashdot contributors are able to correctly spell Nordic/Germanic names with umlauts and complex non-English vowels (immediate example: Piratbyrån), but screw up the spelling of a name as simple as Khan

We don't spell words like Piratbyrån, we copy and paste them. But we don't do that with a simple, short name, because anyone can get Kahn right. Er Kon. Er...

Re:Tip for kdawson

[perryizgr8]

what he said ^^
seriously people, most religious, god-believing individuals have these exact same notions and concepts like you atheists. please stop pretending to be enlightened elitist bastards.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[Jawnn]

In other words, he's an atheist. ;)

I don't see where he stated anything of the sort. Quite the contrary, I see the thoughtful musings of an agnostic in his statements. It may also be that he is a most devout Pastafarian, but recognizes that an inflexible adherence to any dogma, including the one that insists that there is no deity, is quite literally a fool's errand.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[mcgrew]

In other words, he's an atheist. ;)

Or Bhuddist of Hindu. I'm not sure of the Hindu religion, but Bhuddists worship life, and that statement would fit their philosophy completely.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[Afell001]

Atheist - a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Agnostic - a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.

Pride - a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

Self-righteousness - confident of one's own righteousness, esp. when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others.

Mr. Khan isn't saying he doesn't believe in God, nor is he saying that God is unknowable...what he is saying, is that it doesn't matter what you think about God, but what does matter is how our existence on this earth impacts the other people living here, and if we have their welfare in our hearts, and we have the humility to see past our differences, then it doesn't matter to what diety (or none at all) we attribute this to, in the end we share the same goal, and that is what really matters.

The true enemy of society isn't religion, but rather the sociopaths who manipulate it to their own ends. They are difficult to recognize until they finally play their hands and the damage is done, but these are the people who have given religion a bad name. They take the religious zealots and turn them into weapons that tear down and destroy all that society has built. We have seen this in all the major religions to date, as well as almost any cultural divide where a schism can be made and exploited by people who want to manipulate the masses to their own ends (i.e., race, sex, creed, etc.).

That is why those of us who carry our faith close to their hearts need to be wary of anyone who tries to speak to that faith. We should always question the motives of anyone who tries to persuade us to their way of thinking. Look to the motives of such individuals, and look to how they treat with those around them. This is where religion fails.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[dido]

The funny thing is 'kan' can mean in Japanese a can or tin as well, if it's written using the kanji U+7F36. Oddly enough it's not one of the many wasei-eigo terms Japanese imported from English, as it's really one of the on-yomi (Chinese) readings of that kanji. The technical term for such a thing is a false cognate. It's written '', just in case Slashdot ever stops being one of the last few sites to survive to the 21st century while remaining stubbornly ignorant of Unicode.

Re:Tip for kdawson

[Maxo-Texas]

I find it amusing that they can spell such names but have loost the ability to spell loose.

'Feynman' level?

[Anonymous Coward]

When people stumble out of his lectures looking like they've been hit by a bus, then he'll have reached the 'Feynman' level. Right now IMHO he's already doing a better job of addressing normal students.

Re:'Feynman' level?

[moteyalpha]

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}

Re:'Feynman' level?

[Anonymous Coward]

A testimonial from the Khan academy home page. "My eldest kid is dancing around in my room here because she is so excited that she finally found someone that teaches like this."

I've listened to both Khan and Feynman and I found Khan way better.

Everything Old is New again

[KarmaOverDogma]

I think this is a very interesting way of bringing and old, maybe ancient, method of teaching back to the fore again.

If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, not just spouting knowledge according to a set curricula, like we do today.

If used well, this strikes me as having a real impact for learning, and teaching, in a more natural way. I for one would love to see more of this kind of thing going on and being acknowledged as a legitimate and effective way to teach and learn.

I wish him and the viewers all the best.

Re:Everything Old is New again

[Dialecticus]

If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, ...

By modern standards he would most likely have been labeled a troll. After all, aren't trolls using a form of Socratic irony to spur debate?

Re:Everything Old is New again

[wmitty]

If I recall correctly, Socrates taught by answering questions and encouraging new ones, not just spouting knowledge according to a set curricula, like we do today.

Socrates was unusual then and now in that he tought by asking questions encourage his students to think for themselves and discover answers on their own.

While what Khan is doing is great and praisworthy, it is not the Socratic method.

Re:Everything Old is New again

[Attila Dimedici]

Actually, we are not sure how much Socrates used what we know as the "Socratic Method" since most of our examples are from the writings of Plato (where he uses Socrates as a character in dialogues designed to present a point that Plato wanted to make). Socrates left no writings and for the most part all we know about him is what was said about him in the writings of his students works on philosophy.

Re:Everything Old is New again

[pikine]

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.

Gee I wonder who could've posted this one

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Gee I wonder who could've posted this one

[blackraven14250]

Deliberately editing the submission to exaggerate a number by that much is messed up. I can see increasing 95k to 100k for the sake of simplicity, but seriously, 70k to 100k?

I wish...

[spiffydudex]

I had knowledge of this site sooner. My Linear Algebra professor was horrible at giving lectures.(I wasn't the only one who thought so) After reviewing some of the linear material, Khans videos are helpful even after several weeks of summer. In fact the videos on the Gram-Schmidt helped explain what I completely missed the first time.

I congratulate you Khan for your hard work to help educate the people of the world. I know it will serve me well in the upcoming year.

Re:I wish...

[TheTurtlesMoves]

So you passed linear algebra, but fail at google foo? ;)

Does he tech Klingon?

[Joe The Dragon]

Does he tech Klingon?

Re:Does he tech Klingon?

[jcwayne]

No, but he do tech English.

Re:Does he tech Klingon?

[noidentity]

Be easy on the guy; he's a native Romulan trying to improve his relations with Kingons, sheesh.

Re:Does he tech Klingon?

[mcgrew]

My hovercraft is full of eels!

Spell it correctly. Its Khan.

[MasterOfUniverse]

not kahn.

Re:Spell it correctly. Its Khan.

[blake182]

not kahn.

It's KHAAAAAAAAN!

Web programmers, You can help!

[KPexEA]

http://code.google.com/p/khanacademy/

Slashdot QC Fail, but Thanks Anway

[VoxMagis]

Would have been nice if they had spelled the name right. My GOD, KDawson didn't even have to do anything like actually verify or read the site to review, he could have just looked at the two links in the damn summary.

Still, I had heard inklings of something like this somewhere before, but never hunted it down. Thanks for providing it. As someone that came to a mind-boggling late interest in actually learning any real math, I may have found a place to spend some serious time.

Thanks so much to Mr. Khan - a noble and important effort to drag those of us in dark ignorance into some level of glimmer.

Khaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!

[lennier]

From Youtube's heart I vlog at thee.

Instructional Design

[BlueBoxSW.com]

In addition to the things listed above, he obviously has a pretty good grasp of instructional design principles.

I watched a couple videos, and has either studied it or learned from trial and error somewhere along the line.

Let us not forget this important glue that holds together solid instruction of any kind.

Re:Instructional Design

[RichMan]

> and has either studied it or learned from trial and error somewhere along the line.

It is explained in the FAQ which is linked from the slashdot summary that he uses the youtube time profile of the videos to refine the process.

Also doing an Masters in EE/CS will usually get you a fair amount of time in front of a class doing the problem solving sessions if not actually lecturing for the undergrads. That is a lot of practical trial and error in the teaching process.

Re:Tip for kadwson

[Qubit]

I, for one, I think that kadwson is doing a fine job with his spelling in these articles.

Re:s/Kahn/Khan

[fishexe]

You forgot your trailing slash. And you want us to think you actually use sed. Come on.

It's kinda sad...

[Maestro4k]

That the first thing I thought when I read he licenses it all under Creative Commons was "Bet ASCAP would be pissed about that".

But this is a wonderful thing he's doing, kudos to him and I wish him luck. Will have to check out some of his lectures sometime.

Re:It's kinda sad...

[CoolGopher]

That the first thing I thought when I read he licenses it all under Creative Commons was "Bet ASCAP would be pissed about that".

Am I the only who reads that acronym as Ass-Cap?

Re:Youtube?

[rtfa-troll]

Is it possible to ask that just a bit nicely???

Is there a place where I can get the videos without a flash wrapper? It would be really appreciated? If not, would someone be willing to set it up so that this Kahn guy doesn't have to spend his time doing it? If not, does someone have 20TB or so of space and a really big connection so I can set up torrents for this.

I mean the guy's obviously put quite a bit of effort into this.. the effort to write a bit more tha.... oh get off my lawn :-)

Re:Youtube?

[wisty]

Torrents would be good if you were in a place where youtube was blocked ... like about 1/4 of the world's internet users.

Re:Youtube?

[0100010001010011]

Pirate Bay Link

PoV of Maths Faculty

[kipling]

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.

Re:Everything Old is New again -- But why?

[popo]

When I read stories like this though, I'm forced to ask the question: Why lectures?

For me, studying from hypertext is infinitely more effective. I can pause whenever I like, check additional sources, cross-reference, backtrack, etc.

Personally, I think the hypertext is the greatest educational medium ever created. Universities clearly prefer lectures for a variety of (I would say) self-interested reasons. But unless you simply learn 'better' from spoken dialogue -- which is fine -- I think lectures are a very dated medium which are difficult to edit, expand upon and randomly access.

Access to lectures is great. I'm glad Kahn is doing this. But IMHO the true educational power of the web exists in the web's original, native medium: Hypertext.

Thank you!

[Some1too]

I can't say that enough! As an older person who was returning to university your mathematics and physics exercises and videos were a life saver! I truly appreciate all the hard work and effort you've put into your educational materials (website, videos, lessons etc). They helped me immensely and I don't doubt for a second they will continue to do so when I finally begin my full time studies in September. It's people such as yourself that really help make a positive difference in our world. You're inspirational, thank you and keep up the excellent work. One last time: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Some1too.

FAQ - How can you help?

[asadsalm]

From the site:

==============

How can I/you help?

The biggest thing is getting the word out. The students who use the site seem to really get excited by how quickly and deeply they can learn from it. Right now (5/2010), there are about 200,000 students using the site per month; no reason why it shouldn't be 20 million!

If you like to code or work on user interface design, you might be able to help on the Khan Academy applications which we are doing as an open source project

Re:Youtube?

[Rysc]

Why is parent modded offtopic?

  - someone posts videos of free content on youtube
  - youtube is not a very free place
  - someone else requests the videos be delivered in a less restricted manner

Sounds topical to me.

Re: Lectures + Web

[TaoPhoenix]

It's a question in educational design.

Lectures are just "Auditory Articles". The start of any educational module is a "TFA". Let's just presume the minimum = 1 sentence. If it's really hard (like an equation) the instructor should stop and either explain, or "wait for next week after it gels". (In really scary cases it "never gels" and then you just say "I'm not good at that". In "rolling thunder" topics like History, no one sentence is earth shattering, but reading something like Thorstein Veblen in the original might get you 3/4 of the way through until you say "Wait, What?"

In a really good .edu , the lectures would be recorded and posted so you don't have to scribble furiously. Then you just go investigating your own personal hyperlinks, and either ask them in lecture if they're right "centrally on topic" or office hours if they're baroque. The Prof knows he can't just stand there in silence for 45 minutes. It's like radio dead air. The savviest prof I had "repeated the book" - but she picked the parts she *knew* were "loaded bear traps" and then hyperkinetically amped up the mood until people stopped protecting their egos and really dug into it.

I agree the modern web is just a powerhouse - I daresay the 5 years I've spent on Slashdot is damn near equivalent to a course's worth of CS for NonMajors 101.

This should be the way of the future...

[hesaigo999ca]

Teaching in the future, will be more tailored to the individual, learning what he needs to forgetting about what he does not....
What I also see happening in the near future with this sort of teaching is that you will end up with many people overlapping knowledge..and collaborating more, if I know about general physics but buddy beside me knows more, for my present day problem I will consult with him, and he will have his use, where as the rest will be what I learned from this style course, unless I want to specialize, then I become like buddy for THAT specialization, not forgetting what I already know in many other fields...

Sort of like star trek, where self worth and social stature, is based more on what you know, so if you study to know more, you will be used more hence become more important within the community... I consider this to be the wave of the future....no more books, no more
schools per se...more just learning off the web, then applying your craft, and knowledge to the problem at hand...

Need to do taxes, read up all about it, then if you are still uncertain about a point, that point will be smaller and quicker to review with a specialist, then going to see an accountant for ALL your taxes...

ClickToFlash (if you're using Safari Mac)

[alispguru]

If you're using Safari on a Mac, install ClickToFlash, which in addition to letting you leave Flash off until you absolutely need it, shows YouTube video with an H.264 wrapper.

Online / TV Lectures

[bjs555]

I stumbled across the Khan lectures a couple of months ago and I think they're great. Many thanks to Salman Khan.

Another series of lectures that appeared on television about 30 years ago is a show called The Mechanical Universe. They're not as deep as some of the Khan lectures but a bit more polished (not that it matters a lot). The Mechanical Universe lectures are available online at:
http://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html

Too bad there isn't more of this kind of material on television. Maybe one of the cable companies could buy the Khan lectures and make them available as an on-demand feature.

I'm against it

[zogger]

Of course I am also against state "license" of straight marriages as well. Unconstitutional crapola.

Why the two camps don't join together and demand the END of licenses to love and live with someone else is beyond me. They are both demanding to have LESS RIGHTS than what you are freely born with. Marriage is between you and partner(s) and your community and that should be it.

It's none of the government's business *at all* who you marry, and a violation of civil rights IMO-1st amendment, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th- to require some permission/permit/license from big brother to get married. Violates all of them one way or the other.

Every single solitary law/regulation whatever that is on the books regarding some government "marriage license" should be stricken and be made null.

USA marriage licenses are an archaic holdover from extremely racist jim crow miscegenation "don't mix the races" so called "laws". The same with gun control laws, they all started out with trying to deny born - with second amendment rights to people of other than Caucasian extraction.

Any contractural living arrangements, child care provisions, insurance, economic issues, whatever, are just that..and can be handled with a normal contract. There is no reason whatsoever for any marriage "license" other than overreaching big brother action.

But you see, it is much preferable for big brother and the two corrupt criminal political party gangs, who make up big brother, to keep people divided and conquered, so that's why both political gangs insist and demand to have a "license" for a born-with right.