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  • >>What Khan Academy is most known

  • for is there's a library for about 2,500 videos.

  • Right now they're all made by me in English,

  • although we are translating them, and they're everything

  • from basic addition all the way to vector calculus

  • and the French Revolution.

  • And there's a video on the debt ceiling, so a very comprehensive set

  • of videos, and we keep add -- I keep adding more right now.

  • But we've augmented it now that we've gotten funding this past year

  • with an exercise platform, and it's an exercise platform that --

  • I'd actually written a primitive version of it for my cousins many

  • of years ago, actually before I'd even made the first video,

  • but I didn't have the bandwidth nor the talent

  • to properly do that justice.

  • And so when we got funding, I said, "This is where I think a lot

  • of the meat is is actually giving people exercises and feedback

  • and letting the videos complement that".

  • >>My name is Salman Khan, and I'm the founder of the Khan Academy,

  • and I'm currently its only faculty member,

  • but that might be changing soon.

  • >>And we generally view ourselves in kind of the top

  • of the first inning right now.

  • We got our funding about nine months ago, and we were able

  • to hire a real engineering team to work on this,

  • so we still think it's in early days.

  • Our goal is to have this exercise.

  • The video libraries keep going, cover everything that we can cover,

  • do justice to in this type of a form factor, have exercises

  • where someone can start at one plus one equals two.

  • It focuses on mastery-based learning,

  • where you master a concept before you progress to the next.

  • It focuses on self-paced differentiated learning.

  • Any kid can learn at their own pace, and they can also provide that data

  • to parents or teachers, so they can use them

  • in maybe a more structured framework.

  • So, if it's used in a classroom,

  • a teacher can finally have every kid going at their own pace

  • and have the teacher really focus on what we would consider kind

  • of higher value-add activities, which is running simulations with students,

  • doing actual interventions, getting the students

  • to teach each other the concept.

  • >>We don't want to force a role out to every school in the country.

  • What we want to do -- and this is what we're trying to do

  • in our pilot program this year is we want to show

  • that this is a viable way to run a classroom that has positive outcomes,

  • both subjective and objective outcomes

  • in multiple different use cases,

  • so it works in an affluent public school district like Los Altos, but,

  • frankly, some of the most amazing numbers we saw in Los Altos were

  • in the remedial classes, where the students were not affluent.

  • But it works in charter schools.

  • It works in private schools.

  • It works in public schools.

  • It works with different demographics, and we think if we can show

  • that it works and that if we can give a toolkit

  • so that we can document how it's worked in all of these classrooms

  • and we can give it to any student -- any teacher or parent in the world,

  • then, you know, let the world decide for themselves

  • if it's something they want to do, and we'll hope to support them more

  • and more in doing it and making it a richer and richer offering.

  • >>I mean, I think everyone can testify

  • that in college they learned most

  • of what they're learning the night before the exam from their peers,

  • and then all the way fast-forward to now, what we're seeing

  • in Los Altos is what's happening is all the kids are working

  • at their own pace.

  • They are watching the videos on their own when they have a question.

  • Some students might get 90 percent from a video.

  • Some students might get 60 percent from a video, but when they start

  • to connect with each other, they can start to point out other things,

  • and then they can look for other resources on the Web

  • and they get each other to 100 percent.

  • And this is something I really want to stress is that we don't --

  • there's a mindset, and I think some of the press that's been written

  • about this makes it sound like we think or someone thinks

  • that Khan Academy is this tool that's going to get --

  • you just watch a video and, bam, 100 percent.

  • And hopefully that happens.

  • You know, we're going to try to make the videos as good as possible,

  • but what we think it does is it takes lecture out of the room.

  • We think we're really effective in getting the lecture out of the room

  • and allowing these videos to be consumed in a way

  • that different people can take what they can from them

  • and from other things on the Internet, frankly,

  • and then when they go into the classroom,

  • since the lecture's off the table now, they are now liberated

  • to actually communicate with each other and they're liberated

  • to have a conversation about mathematics.

  • They're liberated to, like, sit next to their teacher.

  • So the power, the real beauty isn't actually like, you know,

  • some magic that Khan Academy has a neural plug-in to your brain

  • and can deliver -- the real magic, I think, is that class has

  • so much potential that we're letting happen now, because we're taking all

  • that other stuff that was kind

  • of disrupting traditional class out of the way.

  • And so the real magic is actually what happens

  • when you let people talk to each other.

  • >>For me, like, the deepest learning happens with a project-based story,

  • but the projects can only be useful if people go into the projects

  • with the core toolkit that -- so they can understand what's actually going

  • into -- going in an analytical way.

  • So every student working at their own pace,

  • it doesn't matter what grade they are, what age they are.

  • In fact, we're starting a few pilots with multi-age groups

  • in the same classroom, and some can work on things

  • that are below grade level.

  • Some can work on things that are above grade level,

  • but what it does is at least on the core concepts it allows every student

  • to make sure that they have at least the core basics done and gives data

  • to the teacher on where there is need.

  • And then what we're hoping is it informs the teacher enough,

  • saying, "You know what?

  • I think the students in my class are ready for this type of a project

  • and that type of a project".

  • And I think right now we are putting it on the teacher, like,

  • "We've kind of liberated a lot of this core stuff off of you.

  • You won't have to give the traditional lecture.

  • You won't have to do the traditional homework, but you how have,

  • I would say, maybe a larger responsibility to do more

  • of this less-traditional stuff, which is invent an interesting project

  • or find an interesting project".

  • Two summers ago I was running a little summer camp myself

  • and I wanted to experiment with this, just eat my own dog food,

  • to some degree, on what's going on.

  • So what I did is I had the students that used the videos

  • and the primitive kind of the exercises back then

  • to learn a little bit about probability and multiplying decimals

  • and fractions and all that.

  • And then what I wanted them to really internalize what probability is

  • and what expected value is.

  • I did a bunch of simulations.

  • One of them had the -- I don't know

  • if you've ever played "Settlers of Catan".

  • It's like a trading game, right?

  • So, like, we're all in one civilization

  • and we can build roads, but we trade.

  • Like, to build a road you need, like -- I don't know.

  • I forgot -- like, two woods and three bricks, and you can build a road.

  • And you might have four woods, and so we'll try to trade.

  • We're competitive, but we're also trading with each other,

  • but obviously if you see students who've already mastered the basics

  • of probability, they've watched some of those videos on expected value,

  • then this would be an ideal exercise for them,

  • because they're really going to internalize what expected value is.

  • >>A large degree of what we're doing is being inspected directly

  • by teachers, so a lot of those dashboards,

  • a lot of the new modules you see,

  • a lot of the videos you see are direct feedback from teachers saying,

  • "Hey, Sal, we need a video like this," or, "Hey, Sal,

  • can you do another video"?

  • or, "That's not the language we use.

  • Can you change the language in a different one"?

  • You know, the traditional reform mindset towards education is let's

  • micromanage teachers more.

  • Like, a good number of really great teachers are getting handicapped

  • by this micromanaging, teaching to the test, whatever else,

  • and forcing on Tuesday, September 27 you have to cover this,

  • and you can't question that and you have to say these words

  • and you have no time to run your own project and you have no time to think

  • of your own curriculum or whatever you want to do.

  • We genuinely feel like the teachers are getting liberated here.

  • Do what you want on whatever day and the students are going

  • to do what they want on this day, and we're freeing tons of class time

  • for you to do what I think you went into teaching to begin with.

  • Like, when I ran my little summer camp --

  • and I won't claim to have 30 years of experience and all the rest,

  • but what was fun for me was not having to give a lecture

  • on these common multiples, not having to give a lecture on probability,

  • to know that that was out of the way and getting

  • to do this super fun simulation

  • where the kids are trading pieces and all this.

  • And I felt like I was able to express my creativity.

  • I was able to go home and say, "What would be a really cool way

  • to understand this concept intuitively"?

  • And when I went to classroom, that's what we did,

  • and I felt like it was a much richer experience.

  • And so we genuinely feel and we genuinely hope that it's doing

  • that for teachers, and the teachers of Los Altos have expressed that,

  • that they love -- that they feel liberated.

  • They feel like they have data that they've never had before.

  • The fifth-grade teachers, they teach all the classes, because they're

  • in elementary school, and they feel handicapped

  • in their other classes now, because they are doing that -- the lecture.

  • They are doing the stuff that I would say is lower value

  • than what they're doing in their math classes, which is the projects,

  • which are the one-on-one interactions.

  • And so they're actually asking us as quickly as possible,

  • "When are the grammar videos coming?

  • When are the grammar exercises coming so I can do more interesting things

  • with that part of my day in class"?

  • >>So, one of the neat things is

  • when I make these videos I sometimes imagine that my kids,

  • who are right now two and a half and one months old --

  • one month old will be the future viewers

  • of this video 15 years, 20 years in the future.

  • So, all the videos, to some degree,

  • I view as for them and for other students.

  • But the ones that I've kind of -- especially now having a daughter --

  • thought about making is actually kind of like life-advice stuff.

  • And I don't know if I'll put this in a separate place someplace,

  • or it might not make Khan Academy in the first couple --

  • like, even dating advice, because there's a reality

  • that right now I can call on my cousins,

  • who are about 15 years younger than me,

  • and they take me kind of seriously.

  • They're like, "You know, Sal isn't that far from the action.

  • He kind of remembers what my life is like," but they completely zone

  • out their 50-year-old parents.

  • And I kind of feel like my daughter and son will be likely to listen

  • to the 34-year-old Sal and not the 50-year-old Sal.

  • So I can kind of do a time-shift now, just like, "Look,

  • if you know you're not going to marry the guy, end it," you know?

  • Don't let this turn into one of those momentum relationships.

  • You don't know what'll happen, you know?

  • Or, like, these are what you should look for and this is what it means

  • to be a good person, and this is what --

  • I think that that could be an interesting thing.

>>What Khan Academy is most known

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