Sal Khan - where is the academy heading?

This BBC interview with Sal Khan goes beyond how Khan Academy evolved and touches on where its heading.

Sal talks about why Khan Academy has become so popular - your own pace, time, location etc. It's informal, bite-sized videos which do have mistakes, and can students relate to. It also discusses how the Khan Academy platform and teacher Dashboard helps students and teachers recognise the gaps in learning. It giving students a comprehensive base to learn further, and it gives teachers understanding of student decision making processes. 

You hear about what its like working at the Khan Academy. It attracts not only the biggest brains, but the biggest hearts - they want to be a part of the mission for education.

In terms of what next for Khan Academy, Sal discusses his reponsibility for making sure its for anyone anywhere. This means working with other organisations to help developing countries to have access to the internet. 

Sal admits that Khan Academy has been made the 'poster child' for the flipped classroom, but that 'flipped' learning is only the beginning. What he intends to aspire to is mastery based, self-paced, peer to peer learning - the term 'flipped' however is catchier!

The interview asks Sal to address critics of his non-profit venture, saying it is just like having a text book via video. His response is to ask the users, who disagree.

A new and exciting venture of Sal's is the Khan Lab School. It comprises of one class with 30 students ages 5-12yrs.  Students work together, but also independently,  and their is a culture of learning, self-direction. It promotes full-day and full-year learning, where school becomes more like the rich 'life' learning of summer break.

The school is a lab - just like the classroom, failure is not a bad thing. The school will keep evolving, take calculated risks, and explore opportunities. 

BBC Educators series: Salman Khan
Khan Lab School (blog)
Tinkering School (Khan Lab School's day at...)
Khan Academy website (get started!)