Tune in to the other Salman Khan

On the Internet, he is often referred to as Bill Gates’ favourite teacher – and this is not one of those Internet memes that convert barely verifiable factoids into gospel truth. At the sixth Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado in July this year, Microsoft founder Gates gave an overwhelming endorsement to Salman ‘Sal’ Khan of Khan Academy – the Internet’s largest and most popular database of educational videos – by saying he found his work “amazing”.

Gates went on to say that he often used Khan’s short online tutorials to teach his kids maths and biology. In 2009, the Khan Academy had also received the Microsoft Tech Award for education.

From being useful to one of the world’s richest men to reaching out to children with severely limited access to education (let alone private tutorials from a Harvard MBA), Sal Khan’s videos – 1600-plus of them on the academy’s dedicated YouTube channel with nearly 70,000 views a day and 19 million views overall —  have found rare universality.

In Bangalore, a number of NGOs working with children have plans to start using them to explain basic math concepts to underprivileged children. Ashoka Fellow Vishal Talreja, co-founder and executive director of Dream A Dream Foundation, says they have used Khan’s videos and plan to scale up usage.

“I went through the site again recently and realised that it has the potential to help our students. We plan to start using it more often now,” says Talreja.

Education has always been a passion for Khan, a former hedge fund manager in Silicon Valley, where he continues to live today. While at MIT, where he acquired an MS in electrical engineering and computer science before going to Harvard for an MBA, Khan was the recipient of the Eloranta Fellowship, which he used to develop web-based math software for children with ADHD. He also volunteered teaching gifted students at the Devotion School in Brookline, MA.

The academy started small with Khan teaching his cousin maths in the form of small capsule videos. At that time, he was a hedge fund manager with a Silicon Valley fund that later wound up. Khan took away some capital, living on his savings and his wife’s earnings while he produced his videos single-handedly.

The simple, startlingly basic videos feature a virtual blackboard, some doodling and simple graphics and Khan’s slow, patient voice explaining concepts ranging from equation solving to calculus derivatives in 15-minute tutorials that strip the subject down to its basics.

“I believe that someone who truly understands the core concepts will thrive academically regardless of the curricular context. Someone who experiences the joy and satisfaction of true understanding will never again be satisfied with the superficial type of learning that most students have grown accustomed to,” says Khan.

Apart from the math topics such as algebra, calculus, statistic, trigonometry, precalculus and probability, there are also videos on organic chemistry and biology.

Why is he doing this? “I can’t imagine a better use of my (or anyone’s) time,” he says. “With just a computer and a pen-tablet-mouse, one can educate the world. Even better, the content never goes old. My (or your) great-great-great grandchildren could learn from the very same videos.”

The academy envisions becoming a ‘free classroom of the world’ someday. “I hoped that it would one day help empower the underprivileged.  I didn’t think the opportunity to do so would come so quickly,” he told DNA in an e-mail interview.

“Anyone can use the videos however they like, and for as long as they like. The videos are free for learners,” he says, adding that he is seriously exploring translating the content into major world languages.  “Several of these are, of course, on the Indian subcontinent.  We hope to eventually have the content translated into every major language.”

‘Scaling up’ for him means producing more videos — not monetising his project to add to his nest egg, says the entrepreneur who has repeatedly rejected offers from venture capitalists. He has accepted donations, though, which he says enable him to “take a salary for the time being.” “When I'm 80, I want to feel that I helped give access to a world-class education to billions of students … I already have a beautiful wife, a hilarious son, two Hondas and a decent house. What else does a man need?” he asks.
(Log on to http://khanacademy.org to access Sal Khan’s videos)