Khan Academy founder and executive director Salman Khan wants to democratize education so anyone, anywhere can get a great education.
Today, Khan had to settle for Denver. But it’s safe to say he accomplished his mission.
Khan gave the keynote speech for the annual Colorado Innovation Network Summit, a gathering of the Mile High State’s political and corporate leaders. The event will continue tomorrow, but it’s hard to envision anyone topping Khan’s lively and insightful speech.
The Khan Academy creates online courses that offer instructional videos and exercises. Khan talked about the nonprofit Khan Academy’s ambitious work to change the U.S. education system and help people in the developing world get access to top notch instructors and lessons. The academy has attracted the attention of big names in the tech world, like Bill Gates, and top policy makers like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Khan told a humorous history of the Khan Academy’s origin and rise to prominence, outlined its future plans, and shared its philosophy. The presentation wasn’t directly about ways to foster innovation, but it contained a lot of insights into how innovations happen and the hallmarks of successful innovators. Here are six things Khan taught me.
Lesson: Have a mission and be able to deliver your message. The Khan Academy’s goal is to provide “a free world class education for anyone anywhere.”
“This thing we call education, this thing that used to be scarce, we can make ubiquitous … and a basic human right,” Khan said.
That’s a super-ambitious goal, and one that could be dismissed as impractical or too airy. But Khan is a masterful presenter, able to use humor to illustrate his points and offer clear explanations. He’s a natural teacher, and he’s able to inform listeners about the academy in a slowly building way that reveals its potential.
By the time he’s through, you understand the challenges, the company, the technology, and the cause, and you kind of want to be a part of it.
Here’s a TED talk Khan gave in 2011 that hits some of those themes and shows Khan in action.
Lesson: Innovation isn’t all about technology or trendy concepts. Khan Academy videos have reached 50 million people in 216 countries, Khan said. About 1,400 people have volunteered to provide translations or subtitles, and lessons are in an array of languages.
The academy needs a lot of technical resources and talent to support that, but I’d say Khan didn’t spend much time talking about technology per se. His talk also was free of all the dreaded buzzwords that clutter up pitches or bad TED talks.
The Khan Academy’s program lets it distribute lessons to almost anyone with Internet access. It uses data to improve lessons and track progress, and makes data available to teachers for almost instantaneous feedback. Tests developed by the Khan Academy also can adapt while students are taking them, meaning it can hone in on what a student is struggling with.
It’s cool stuff, but Khan didn’t go on and on about it. The technology is a tool, but it’s part of a bigger story.
Lesson: Necessity remains the mother of invention. The start of the Khan Academy is pretty well known: one of Khan’s young relatives was struggling with her math homework, and being a good cousin—with multiple degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard—he wanted to help.
With some patient instruction, Khan helped his niece turn her test scores around, understand subjects like calculus that were well beyond her grade level, and learn to love math. Khan’s extended family saw her turnaround, and they wanted his help, so he started posting the lessons on YouTube.
Khan was focused on solving a deceptively mundane problem, not disrupting an industry
