I just came across some really exciting material this weekend.  Apparently the biggest “school” in the world right now is run and taught by one person.  I put school in quotes because it’s not a school in the traditional sense – it is just one guy who started making tutoring videos for his cousins on YouTube.

1,400 videos later it is now the largest open courseware project in the world with more views than MIT, Stanford, Berkeley or any other school – and 200,000 monthly users.

Here is a video of Sal Khan’s talk where he discusses what the “Khan Academy” has turned into.

It’s easy to dismiss this as just a web phenomenon that isn’t comparable to regular education.  After all, there is no interaction in a YouTube video so you can’t ask the teacher a question.  There are no discussions amongst students, no written papers, and no grades.

Yet it also comes with some non-obvious advantages.  For example, each student can go at their own pace, there are fewer distractions (each video features just a simple blackboard), and students can easily review material several times without needing to take notes.

Perhaps more importantly, a truly great teacher can now reach 200,000 students a month instead of 20.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of this last point.  Imagine how many students are sitting right now, bored out of their mind, in a classroom with a sub par teacher (or worse, in a developing country without a teacher at all)?  What if they instead had access to one of the best teachers in the world?

The implications of that are really staggering.

Sal Khan is one of those people with a natural gift for teaching.  After watching the video above, I went to check out his page on YouTube.  What’s amazing is that I actually found myself engrossed in several topics that I hated in school.  Watching YouTube videos is just too easy!

And he is great at breaking complex ideas down into simple parts.  Just as an example, check out his series on banking and the fractional reserve system.  In just 10 minutes I feel like I understand our current financial crisis more fully.

What do kids like to do when they aren’t doing their homework?  Watch YouTube videos.  Now they may be one and the same.

Sal Khan may have just done the impossible: made learning fun.  And I’ll make a tall claim: his simple YouTube videos could actually be more effective than the vast majority of public school education that is being delivered today.

Yes, it’s still a new technology and not a drop in replacement for schools…yet.  But I think we’re witnessing the birth of something big here, and I’ll be watching it closely.

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

P.S. In other education related news, check out this math teacher’s novel approach.  The education space is evolving rapidly.

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