How often do you see a 3 degree holder from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
with an MBA from Havard School of Business and a cosy job as hedge fund analyst
at Connective Capital Management, quit his job and focus on teaching.
Yes! Welcome to the wonderful world of Mr. Salman Khan.
Salman Khan has done something
that most of us won’t even dare to. He created the KHAN ACADEMY – a non-profit
organisation, providing high quality education to anyone,anywhere. His website www.khanacademy.org, supplies free online
collection of more than 3000 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on teaching mathematics,
history, healthcare and almost any subject under the sky.
It all started in 2004 when Mr. Khan was tutoring his cousin
Nadia using Yahoo Doodle pad. When other relatives asked for a similar lecture,
Mr. Khan decided to upload Youtube videos and thus it all started. Infact, he
is heard saying in one of his videos that his cousins prefer his videos to him
teaching them in person.
Innovative Method of Pedagogy
The videos are not the regular mundane lectures that we witness
in classrooms. Viewers are taught with the creative insight of the highest
kind. Mr.Khan says that one should learn something like derivatives just how
one learns how to ride a bicycle.
The examples used in
the videos help even the weakest of the students to grasp the basic concepts
with relative ease.
Impact of Khan
Academy
In the U.S. some of the schools actually use these videos in
their classrooms to explain the learning concepts. The students go through the
videos on the previous day and solve exercises in the classroom on the next
day.
In case of under privileged children, these videos provide a
source of some basic concepts and help them educate themselves. This is
particularly important in today’s globalised world where you are what you know.
Support for Khan
Academy
The project is funded by donations. It has significant
backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and Google. Apart from
these there are numerous contributors to this non-profit organisation.
Learnings from Khan
Academy.
One of the key aspects of Khan Academy is that it is free
for all and targets, arguably the most important issue today – Education or
rather the lack of it. If we keenly focus on Managerial Approach followed by
Mr. Khan, we see that he motivates his target audience as well as his peers
alike. These are the traits of Theory Y type of manager.
Another key aspect is that he has focussed on the consumer
more than anything else. Being a non-profit organisation with adequate
financial backing from corporate big shots, the focus of his organisation is
not profit but the welfare of his customers.
Khan academy has created something which has immense
potential to grow and succeed. Let’s all hope that we see more people following
this ‘Khan’tastic approach.
goooooooooooood again... dr mandi
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOk, to begin with, I am completely bowled by the idea.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your belief in it & our effort to bring it forward. It just leaves me admiring the fact that a guy who could be earning all the money for himself chose to contribute to the world, & to the people.
And, for your write up, I really liked that you presented it. An MIT guy.., backed by Google.., free education.., authenticity of material as schools in US use it.., hope for under privileged.. Amazing!
I would be happier if you would have wrote about the organizations/institutes/NGOs using these materials.. that would have given the write-up a comeback node to people where they might get back to get the information about those groups, they might want to associate themselves with.
But, in all its really beautiful.. :)