
Salman Khan, math master of the Internet - kqr2
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/13/BUKV1B11Q1.DTL&tsp=1
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dpatru
Khan did the obvious thing for someone trying to make good use of his time: he
recorded his lectures so that he wouldn't have to repeat them. This allowed
him to create lectures for most of the K-12 math and physics curriculum
single-handedly and without government support in about five years. Khan is
not a teacher by training nor, as far as I can tell, is he a member of the NEA
(National Education Association.

How much would a government-backed program to deliver 35,000 lessons per day
on any of 800 topics have cost? How much is government paying now to do the
same thing? What would education be like if it was completely consumer driven
with no government support? Khan is serving a market for free that is already
being served by government for billions of dollars. In other words, an
entrepreneur would have a hard time in education because the government is
already giving away so much for "free".

My intuition is that there are great efficiencies to be gained in any industry
that "benefits" from government support. Besides education, other industries
that could benefit from innovation would be transportation (especially roads
and bridges), health care, courts, corrections, and police.

The reason why more innovation is not happening in these areas is that
government support is removing the incentive to be more efficient. The people
performing these services are not rewarded for drastically cutting costs.

It could be the case that these industries are already operating at peak
efficiency, but the fact that there is no obviously better way is not proof of
this. Innovation is sometimes only obvious after someone with the motivation
to look for it has implemented it. If someone had asked the department of
education to make instructional materials for the entire K-12 math curriculum
and deliver it to tens of thousands of students a day for 5 man-years of work,
the dept would have said it couldn't be done.

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cma
I more or less agree with you, but the elephant in the room is that he is
doing this all over a network that began as the government funded ARPAnet,
which I think takes the libertarian utopian edge off of your point somewhat.

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dondraper
Here is a direct link to his webpage <http://www.khanacademy.org/> he seems to
have quite a variety of subjects

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azharcs
Well this was the first time I've heard of Khan Academy, and wow they have a
wide variety of topics and explained in a very simple manner. This is the kind
of stuff, which makes me love Internet.

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dylanz
There was a post on Reddit a few weeks ago, where someone asked "What is
something you have learned completely via the internet?".

One of the replies was from a guy (Iamnotthatotherguy) who spent 2 hours each
night, 4 days a week, dedicated to learning math online. He referenced the MIT
Open Courseware courses, and the Kahn Academy as his primary sources. He spent
2 years on this schedule, and no claims to know most of the mathematical areas
quite well. I think his goal was statistical learning and AI, and it sounds
like he got there.

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anthropocentric
FYI - this format was popularized by Academy123 (a Los Angeles area startup
that was acquired by Discovery Education).

They used Win32 software running on Tablet PC's and captured a teachers voice
and handwriting in real time.

At their peak, they had about 400 teachers working from home creating
thousands of 3-5 minute mini-videos each day.

See some examples here:
[http://www.nutshellmath.com/textbooks_glossary_demos/demos_l...](http://www.nutshellmath.com/textbooks_glossary_demos/demos_list_geometry.html)

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mahmud
Not to be confused with the other Salman Khan, a Bollywood dance-meister:
<http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Salman+Khan>

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estacado
I think his best work was in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam with Aishwarya Rai.

