philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Online Learning, Personalized

• Khan Academy began six years ago when Salman Khan, an Ivy League-trained math whiz decided to train his cousin in high school math over YouTube lectures.
• The online math and science lessons currently attract up to 3.5 million viewers a month and include a database of 2,700 instructional videos and corresponding exercises.
• The lectures include footage of Khan writing on the screen while he talks the viewer through problems and follows with exercises for practicing concepts.
• For the first time, 36 schools nationwide have integrated the digital lessons into their school curriculum, allowing students to take math and science lessons through a combination of teachers and computers.
• "For teachers, there is an analytics dashboard that shows both an aggregate picture of how the class is doing and a detailed map of each student's math comprehension," reports The New York Times. The lessons are free for anyone with an Internet connection, and Khan's team is supported by donors such as Bill Gates and Google.
• Recently, Khan Academy extended its offerings to include art history lessons covering subjects such as the Rosetta Stone and Caravaggio.