

Sal Khan is MIT's 2012 Commencement speaker - tilt
http://tech.mit.edu/V131/N57/khan.html

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mgh2
He is also speaking at Rice's commencement =P!
[http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID...](http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=16359&SnID=919846179)

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plainOldText
Awesome. If there's someone who can say something interesting about education
then that's Salman Khan.

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fratrik
He's also giving the commencement at Rice University.
[http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID...](http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=16355)

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dskhatri
Wow, what an amazing year for him! I enjoyed this recent talk where he spoke a
lot more freely than at TED: [http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/15484-rethinking-
education---sa...](http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/15484-rethinking-education---
sal-khan-3-mit-degrees-85487485-lessons-delivered).

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bradfeld
As an MIT alum, I'm proud that MIT is having a commencement speaker who is
working on something fundamentally disruptive to the status quo of education.
It's an enlightened point of view - "disrupt yourself before someone else
does."

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spindritf
It's nice that his work is getting more and more recognition, especially from
an established educational institution, but it really would make more sense to
have him speak to the new students, not those who are already graduating.

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mgh2
It seems that this post will have some competition, watch out:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3322024>

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cadr
Nice. One of mine was Carly Fiorina - would have much preferred to have Sal.
(The other year was the Car Talk guys - that was fun.)

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ilamont
I, too, would have preferred to have Sal. We had another Fortune 500 CEO -- it
wasn't a bad speech, but the speaker was unknown to most of the crowd and is
not regarded as an innovator/trailblazer/person who has made as large an
impact as Sal has in his field.

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hmottestad
"Khan Academy, a popular online educational resource — more popular, even,
than MIT’s OpenCourseWare"

Khan Academy is to OpenCourseWare as a castle is to a small, below ground,
flat.

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kevinalexbrown
Except MIT's OpenCourseWare has a lot harder stuff. I'm not saying Khan
Academy isn't doing good things - it is, but it's designed for a fundamentally
different audience, even if there is some overlap. Kahn Academy is for kids,
or to get a basic handle on things. For that it is superb, better than
anything out there. OpenCourseWare is in general high-level, sophisticated,
and far more in depth. Just because you watched Kahn Academy's presentation on
diffeq, for instance, doesn't mean you'd be able to breeze through
OpenCourseWare's diffeq.

Edit: BTW I wholeheartedly think Kahn Academy is awesome.

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rdouble
Khan Academy has expanded quite a bit and is not just for kids. The sections
on Finance and Banking are better than any of the college lectures available.

Khan Academy material is generally better than a recorded college lecture
because it is designed specifically for web video. Even in the good
OpenCourseWare lectures, or similar videos from Stanford, at least half the
video is wasted time.

I was pretty excited when videos of real classes from respected universities
became available online for free. I have watched quite a few from places like
MIT and Stanford. One unexpected result I've had is that I have been mostly
unimpressed. The lectures were not better than the lectures I went to at the
no-name college I attended. My conclusion is that college lectures really
aren't an efficient way to disseminate education, and they are even less so
when they are recorded on video. I am now much more excited for Khan Academy's
expansion into more advanced topics.

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p2e
"My conclusion is that college lectures really aren't an efficient way to
disseminate education, and they are even less so when they are recorded on
video."

I'm curious about how you came to the conclusion that lectures are less
efficient when they are recorded on video. It seems to me that (for the
student which doesn't speak up and engage the instructor in class -- most
students?), that a recorded lecture would provide a near identical experience.
I would expect that recorded recorded lectures would also allow students to
slow down, decompose, repeat, and revisit portions of the lecture in order to
better grasp the information at their own pace.

Is it the issue of not being physically surrounded by students or faced by an
instructor that you're not keen on? Perhaps a lack of physical accountability
to keep students attentive and on-point?

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transphenomenal
For me personally, if I have the opportunity to ask questions, I will think of
questions to ask and as a byproduct, think about the lecture more critically.
If I am unable to ask questions, I am less likely to think critically. Of
course, I have just realized this and now that I am aware of this, I can
possibly put a stop to this and get more out of video lectures and even real
life lectures where questions are discouraged.

