Khan Academy

The Khanacademy.org, a non profit educational organisation, was created in 2006 by Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business school. It started with Khan remotely tutoring one of his cousins in mathematics and science, interactively using Yahoo Doodle Images. He later shifted to You tube video tutorials which currently has over 150 million total views, with a subscriber base of 320,000. It has a free online video data base of 3200 videos.

The academy in itself is an example of creative problem solving. A problem once identified can be solved creatively by optimizing the resources available, as in the case of Salman Khan. A creative solution to the problem can also help in minimizing the cost incurred and may have other varied applications.

The success of this interactive, conversational tutorials suggests a new innovative way of learning, without any boundaries. For any system or organisation to perform well, it must change and evolve with time. For instance, when Kodak invented the camera, it became very successful, but it did not keep up with the changing world and reached on the verge of bankruptcy. Similarly, the classroom medium of learning has been prevalent for years and has not changed with technological advancements and it is imperative that such developments be also incorporated into the system. It also raises a question on the relevance of physically attending classes against the use of video lectures and suggests a paradigm shift in the methods of teaching.



http://www.khanacademy.org/talks-and-interviews/v/khan-academy-vision-and-social-return


With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere," the academy defines the concept of globalization, wherein the world is a 'border-less' space with all the customers 'equidistant' from the organization. The individuals can learn about the various topics of mathematics, science or any other field from even the most remote location of the world, where education is still to reach. The offline versions of these videos have already been distributed by not-for-profit organisations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Such tutorials can add another chapter to the future of education in under-developed countries and help in reaping the benefits of globalization in the true sense.


These types of innovative organizations can help in optimizing the available resources to obtain the best possible output and in envisaging the technologies to have a better tomorrow.