Sal Khan on How Technology Can Humanize the Classroom
This is a really fantastic TED talk with Sal Khan of the Khan Academy, a non-profit company that develops educational videos and software to help kids learn at their own pace. This is exactly the sort of thing I hope we see more of at the intersection of technology and education.
You’ll notice at the end Bill Gates comes out and asks Khan a few questions. He ends the segment by telling the audience that they’re getting a taste of the future of education. I hope he’s right. For one thing, the software that Khan has developed allows teachers and parents and students to track their progress in extraordinary detail and without the threat of punishment looming over their heads.
And the entire concept is just brilliant. By allowing kids to do the lecture portion of class outside of class, teachers are able to spend much more time with children one-on-one in the class actually teaching.
This is the sort of effort I hope the Gates Foundation focuses on in coming years, though I do wonder if the
