Sal Khan: the man who tutored his cousin – and started a revolution

Khan Academy founder tells how he has Remote Web Site educational tutoring his cousin in Louisiana

Sal Khan has a simple mission: to free education, world class for anyone, anywhere. Naturally, people think he's crazy. The craziest part is not the "world class education" in part because many people want. And not even "for anyone, anywhere" part. This is the part "free."

crazy or not, is an idea that has attracted the attention of Downing Street in Washington DC. And like many crazy ideas, it started by accident.

Khan - working as a financial analyst in 2004 after earning degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard - began remote tutoring his cousin, Nadia, in Louisiana, he had trouble with math. . "Then the rest of the family learned that he had a free tutoring," he said, and parents began to take part requests came too - until a friend suggested that he could shoot tutorials, post on YouTube and let family members see that whenever they wanted

"YouTube? YouTube was for cats playing the piano, mathematics does not matter," said Khan remembers thinking. "I came up with the idea that it was not my idea and decided to give it a try."

Since 2009, Khan has devoted full time to the Khan Academy, mentoring, counseling and testing in khanacademy.org educational portal offering free content to anyone with Internet access willing to work through videos and concise exercises more narrated by Khan himself.

"It is no exaggeration to say that there is a coming revolution in education, led by Sal Khan," says Rohan Silva, Downing Street adviser on technology.

Using the Internet to expand access to education is not in itself revolutionary. Successful applications of Apple's iTunes U and the emergence of large open courses online - MOOCs doubled -. In institutions such as Stanford University shows appetite is

But Khan Academy is different. Although arts also has tutorials, computer and information sciences, his heart remains secondary mathematics, which is coupled with hand holding video instruction with exercises, addition and multiplication base to go further in algebra and calculation. No accredited requirements, one course at their own pace combined with a sophisticated card that progress and highlights weaknesses, making it easy for parents to use to help a child with homework without knowing the intricacies software algebra.

there an easy way to see what the fuss is all about: the site allows anyone to register and start watching tutorials and take interactive quizzes that are at the heart of method Academy

The concept is simple: watch a video in which Khan says about the study, and then take the online tests that follow. The response time of software and missteps score, encouragement to do good or just persevere. Then, after checking that dominates the subject, you are invited to go to a related topic.

In a classroom, students can move at their own pace, and make repeated viewings of tutorials if you do not understand the first time. The teacher can monitor the progress of your own laptop, and intervene to give an explanation when they see a child with difficulties.

• "I started this as a hobby," said Khan, 36, told a packed audience at the London School of Economics last week, after the inevitable question about the status purpose nonprofit academy is their "Although my friends in Silicon Valley were quick to ask." What is your business model, she said "No I have a business model"
• a figure slightly dressed casually elegant American contrasts with teenagers playing heavy metal, the 36-year-old owes much to the transformative power of education. The son of immigrants from Bangladesh and India, was born in the Deep South of the United States. "Louisiana was the closest to Southeast Asia as the United States could get: I had spicy food, moisture, giant bugs and a corrupt government," Khan wrote in his book, The School One World
• business model or not, that Khan Academy has a lot of fans, and about 6 million active users per month, not to mention tens of millions of views of his 4000 tutorials online. When Khan asked the public to the London Stock Exchange the amount of usage of your site, perhaps half of hands, with some timidity.

Since the Khan took a conscious decision to stay out of the camera making, and in the early days used a rather crude drawing software on a black background to mimic a blackboard. Cordially Khan and his melodious voice combine to make tutorials available, and with a period of 10 minutes initially set up by YouTube and concise.

spread that he was tutoring in basic math without restriction. Khan began to notice the glowing reviews that appear in your videos. Then the letters began to arrive. One that caught his attention was a woman with two disabled children who used the videos. "She said her family pray for my family every night," said Khan is concerned. "To put this in context, at the time, I worked for a hedge fund."

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