The Path of Khan

Last night I went to the Castro Theatre to see a Q & A with Sal Khan of the Khan Academy. I’d never been to that theater before, so the venue alone was kind of a treat. It’s a huge, classic place that looks like it hasn’t been altered much from when it opened in 1922.

It was also inspirational to hear Sal talk about the history of KA and where he thinks education will go in the future.

A couple of takeaways:

Overall, I tend to agree with most of what he predicted about the future of education, but I also think that time will tell. Sal gave Google as an example of a company that might begin to value online certificates as much as, or more than, traditional measurements. I suspect that the real indication of change in this area will be when non-tech companies begin to accept new certificates. At that point, there may be a real pressure for ordinary people to consider online education as an alternative to traditional schools, rather than simply a supplement.