StarBulletin.com

Khan's tutorials display promise of broadband


By

POSTED: Sunday, March 07, 2010

Imagine if you could go online and find a math, science or economics tutor that could help you get your daughter through a high school trig equation or your son to master a college finance course. Envisage also that this would be presented in a clear, concise and even entertaining manner. Naturally it would be free of charge.

Well, folks, look no more. Welcome to the Khan Academy.

Working out of his home in Silicon Valley, Salman Khan, a former hedge fund analyst, could be transforming the way people all over the world will learn math and other subjects.

Khan, an MIT math and science grad with an MBA from Harvard, was doing very well at his employer's hedge fund but got hooked on education after he helped one of his cousins, a seventh-grader who was having trouble with math.

He tutored her online with a blackboard on the screen. That led him to eventually place math lessons on YouTube. It didn't take long before he was a worldwide phenomenon. (See http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=po3DAsr6mDE)

So what is the secret teaching method employed by Khan Academy that makes it so successful?

None of the 1,200 or so tutorials he's posted are more than 10 minutes long, which he reckons is the limit before your eyes glaze over. The YouTube format allows you to look at his material over and over again till you get it.

Floyd Loving, a math teacher at Myron B. Thompson Academy charter school on Oahu, is a big fan of the Khan Academy and uses it regularly for his students.

“;Whether you are listening to him discuss arithmetic calculations or advanced calculus and beyond,”; said Loving, “;Mr. Khan picks bite-size topics and comfortably explains the concept(s) with simple terms and illustrations. For students, he is like having a smart brother or uncle who is always glad to help and never gets tired of repeating himself. For teachers, it is like team teaching with someone who believes in your students and will help you individualize learning.”;

The Khan Academy is a perfect example of the promise of broadband. We need bandwidth to leverage current applications like YouTube and future Web-based media.

Khan's math lessons will not single-handedly help our kids score better on math and science tests, but his online tutorials are certainly a step in the right direction.