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  • - Hi everyone.

  • Welcome to the "The Daily Homeroom" livestream.

  • This is just a way for all of us to stay in touch

  • during this time of school closures.

  • And as we have in homeroom homeroom in the real world,

  • the physical world which we all now really miss,

  • it's a time for us to come together,

  • to make announcements, to answer questions,

  • and that's what we wanna do here.

  • So, as we go into the meat of this homeroom conversation,

  • and it's really just going to be

  • a really informal session today of being able

  • to ask myself and my team member Dan is going

  • to join us as well, literally any question.

  • So, go on to Facebook, go on to YouTube,

  • and ask anything you would like (laughs)

  • of me or the team here at Khan Academy.

  • What we have already been putting out for all of y'all,

  • parents, teachers, students, over the last several weeks

  • is based on the realization that Khan Academy exists,

  • we never could've foreseen this type of a situation.

  • But, we wanna create structures and support

  • so that you can use all the content,

  • and all the software that we've been making.

  • Which is all free.

  • It's all non-commercial in a way that meets your needs

  • as a parent, student, or a teacher.

  • And so, you can see right over here,

  • these remote learning resources we've been putting out.

  • Things like teacher webinars, parent webinars,

  • lesson daily schedules for students of different ages.

  • Also, we put out learning plans recently in math

  • so that students could learn through the end of the year,

  • and through next summer, or this coming summer

  • so that they can not stop learning.

  • I do wanna give a special shout-out

  • to several corporate partners who

  • are helping support all of this.

  • Many of y'all know, Khan Academy's a not-for-profit,

  • and with a mission of providing you

  • free world-class education for anyone, anywhere,

  • and that's only possible through philanthropic donations

  • from folks like yourself and from some of

  • our corporate partners that you see listed here.

  • These are folks that literally

  • just stepped up in the last few weeks.

  • We have other folks who have been helping us

  • keep going over the last several years,

  • but we were running at a deficit even going

  • into this situation and our deficit increased

  • because our traffic now is 2.5,

  • actually approaching three x of what it typically is.

  • We're trying to do more supports,

  • trying to accelerate some content software programs

  • that we normally would've done in a few years

  • so we can do it sooner than later.

  • Bank of America, AT&T, Novartis, Google.org, and Fastly,

  • all organizations that are really

  • helping Khan Academy deliver on its mission.

  • But with that, I would love to

  • literally answer any question you have,

  • and I'll issue a challenge to surprise me.

  • And I have team members, we have team members,

  • who are looking at the message boards on Khan Academy

  • and they are going to surface any questions,

  • and Dan will also help me surface

  • any questions that folks might be having.

  • Let's see, we have some questions.

  • I could start while everyone's warming up

  • with some questions we had from last year.

  • Sorry, from last Friday that we never got to.

  • One person Abderrahman (mumbles) Hasan from YouTube asks,

  • "How come Khan Academy is running a deficit,

  • "and what will that have an impact on the provision

  • "of free world-class education as you do now?"

  • That's a very good question, Abderrahman,

  • so, you know, we're running at a deficit

  • because, you know, simple math, we're spending more

  • than we are bringing in in philanthropic donations.

  • And we are able to do that in the near term.

  • We do have a little bit of reserves,

  • but obviously that's not something

  • that we're going to be able to do indefinitely.

  • So, what we've been, the reason why we've been spending more

  • than the resources we've been bringing in,

  • is the belief that these things need to be out there.

  • They'll be able to serve students,

  • parents, and teachers that much more,

  • and the hope that folks are going to step up

  • whether they're individual donors, or corporations,

  • or foundations to allow us to do this work.

  • So, running a not-for-profit, there's always this tension

  • of sometimes you wanna move ahead

  • because you think some work, especially,

  • we're a bit of a unique non-for-profit

  • that we are, we do software and content.

  • We aren't your traditional not-for-profit

  • that, you know, maybe does other types

  • of great work like running a soup kitchen,

  • or providing malaria nets, or things like that.

  • And so, a lot of our work has to be front-loaded

  • in terms of expense, in terms of, you know,

  • we have approaching a hundred engineers at Khan Academy.

  • We have designers, product managers

  • who are all thinking a year a head,

  • two years ahead of what to build.

  • And so, sometimes we have to say,

  • "Okay, let's build it and hope

  • "that we're going to be able to support it."

  • But it's a constant, it's a constant tension

  • that we are trying to figure out.

  • But my, you know, it's my intent

  • that Khan Academy, hopefully, doesn't disappear.

  • You know?

  • When I do wake up in the middle

  • of the night that is my main concern.

  • I wanna ensure that Khan Academy is an organization

  • that doesn't just last through my lifetime,

  • but has the financial foundation

  • that it can last well beyond any of our lifetimes

  • to serve hopefully billions of folks in generations to come.

  • But, that is, you're hitting at a very real issue

  • for me and the team here.

  • So--

  • - Sal, we have another question.

  • Sal, we have a great question

  • from YouTube from Selena Chang.

  • She says first, "Hi, Sal.

  • "Hope you and your family are doing well."

  • Selena's been engaging in online courses

  • at Khan Academy and meditation and her question is,

  • "What are some of the habits that she can enforce

  • "to optimize productivity and learning?".

  • - So, take anything, Selena,

  • anything I have with a grain of salt.

  • I'm always trying to optimize my productivity,

  • and learning as well, but the things that I found

  • are definitely, some form of structure helps,

  • and it doesn't have to be, and I actually wouldn't

  • make that structure too intense.

  • I think it's actually bad if your day

  • is completely chopped up into very small sections

  • because then you don't have time to do some deeper things,

  • to do some more creative tasks.

  • So, what I try to do personally,

  • and I've talked about this on the livestream before,

  • is I try to have some easy wins early in my day.

  • So, I wake up, I do that meditation, I, you know, get ready.

  • I make the bed which I've talked a lot about

  • that gives you an easy win.

  • And then when I, in normal times if I'm coming to the office

  • or I'm working from home during quarantine,

  • I try to, I find the morning is when I get

  • my most productive creative work, so that's

  • actually when I try to do some videos.

  • So, I try to do two, three, four videos

  • in that morning time period.

  • And then I'm able to, and then I feel really productive,

  • and then I try to go into the rest of the day.

  • If I'm a student what I would try to do is,

  • in that morning period, I would try to tackle

  • the subjects that maybe you find take

  • the most cognitive load for you,

  • and I would also make sure that you have

  • a little bit of time so, you know,

  • there's kinda this tension between having fragments

  • of time to make sure you touch on everything,

  • and then longer blocks of time so you can go deeper.

  • I would try to ensure that you get every day,

  • some amount of math, every day some amount of reading,

  • every day some amount of writing,

  • and then free up time in your afternoon for maybe,

  • if you wanna go deeper and say,