1 minute read
READING 3 Khan Academy
Khan Academy
Salman Khan records one of his tutorials for the Khan Academy.
Advertisement
Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold. 9.4
Have you ever had trouble keeping up with a class? Have you been bored because your class moves too slowly for you? Either way, learning in a group can sometimes be frustrating.
Khan Academy, created by Salman Khan in 2006, has quickly become the largest “school” in the world. Students learn online at their own pace with short videos. With over 10,000 lectures in many different subjects, it has attracted about 18 million students a month, from kindergarten through high school. Amazingly, Khan has never charged any money for his videos. They are available to anyone anywhere in the world with a computer and an Internet connection.
Salman Khan didn’t start out to create a revolution in instruction. In 2004, his niece asked him for help in math. He started to create math videos for her to view online. Then he decided to make his videos available to anyone who wanted to get math help. One day, he received an email from a stranger who improved his math grade by using Khan’s videos. The email said, “You have changed my life and the lives of everyone in my family.”
Khan’s life has changed, too. In 2009, he quit his job and started making more instructional videos. At first he focused on math, but over the past few years, he has added many other subjects, including history, science, and art. Volunteers have helped translate his videos into at least 25 different languages. Khan has personally created over 3,000 videos.
At first Khan had no funding for his project. Since he started to appear on TV, he has attracted financial support from many people, including Bill Gates. So far, he has raised more than 40 million dollars.
Many teachers have started to use Khan’s lectures to supplement1 their classroom instruction. Because most of today’s students are digital natives, it is not surprising that Khan Academy has become so popular with today’s students.
1 to supplement: to add to
