Khan Academy: Free, Online STEM Education Videos

Salman Khan has created a growing library of over 2000 engaging educational videos — all free on YouTube — in arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, statistics, calculus, biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, history, finance, economics.  See www.khanacademy.org for the entire library, including 9-minute video overview of all of it.

Sal’s recent 20-minute TED talk (video) explains how he aims to revolutionize and invert education (i.e., lectures will be at home via video, and what was once homework will be done in school), with each student progressing at his/her own pace and teachers coaching individuals and small groups.

The Los Altos, CA school district is piloting this approach with two 5th grade classes and two 7th grade classes.  The approach includes computer-based drilling and assessment, with software for teachers to see progress of students by subject matter in fairly fine-grained detail, and software to support coaching.  Here’s a blog about the Los Altos pilot and another blog about it.