Inspiring::Salman Khan, math master of the Internet

Salman Khan, math master of the Internet
James Temple, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 14, 2009
During the years Salman Khan spent scrutinizing financials for hedge funds, he rationalized the profit-obsessed work by telling himself he would one day quit and use his market winnings to open a free school.
Salman Khan, the creator of Kahn Academy.Salman Khan, the creator of Kahn Academy, records “A Form…Salman Khan in his home studio in Mountain View is surrou… View More Images
Instead, he started one almost by accident.
It began with long-distance tutoring in late 2004. He agreed to help his niece Nadia, then a seventh-grader struggling with unit conversion, by providing math lessons over Yahoo‘s interactive notepad, Doodle, and the phone.
Nephews and family friends soon followed. But scheduling conflicts and repeated lectures prompted him to post instructional videos on YouTube that his proliferating pupils could watch when they had the time.
They did – and before long, so did thousands of others. Today, the Mountain View resident’s 800-plus videos are viewed about 35,000 times a day, forming a virtual classroom that dwarfs any brick and mortar school he might have imagined. By using the reach of the Internet, he’s helped bring education to the information-hungry around the world who can’t afford private tutors or Kaplan prep courses.
“With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time,” Khan, 33, said. “I can't imagine a better use of my time.”
via Salman Khan, math master of the Internet.