A True Innovator in Education    [25-11-2011] Using the Internet for teaching and learning has been very useful for students in this century. It has changed the way children are taught and transformed teaching methods. An educator named Salman Khan is a major contributor to the academic revolution. He is the creator of Khan Academy, an online source with over 2,700 instructional and educational videos. Subjects from algebra to art history are taught. The academy is fully nonprofit and Khan has been working full time to expand the project. Khan started as a tutor for his young cousin. He taught him math by using Yahoo! Doodle Notepad and posted the videos online on Youtube. Now, a number of schools use the videos from Khan Academy in their curriculum. This new method of teaching is unique: students are instructed to watch the videos at home after school, and then they work on problems and questions the next day at school. This is called the “flip” method because the problem sets should be given for homework. But many say that this technique helps students interact with one another and lets teachers help the students. Many believe that Khan Academy may very well change the way students are taught. “My mission is to accelerate learning for students of all ages. With this in mind, we want to share our content with whoever may find it useful,” said Mr. Khan. The education enthusiast also wants to develop his project globally, especially for those in secluded areas in Africa and Asia, where education is not balanced among children. “With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time. I can’t imagine a better use of my time.” The online source does not necessarily need any teachers involved with the learners. Many individuals are theorizing that Mr. Khan’s development can bring in a “new golden age of the autodidact.” An autodidact is a person who has learned a subject without having a teacher or even any formal education; he or she is essentially a self-taught person. Many believe that Mr. Khan’s model will be very useful not only at the elementary or middle school level but also in higher education. Notable colleges - like Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and UC Berkeley - already have set up websites that mimic Mr. Khan’s. Mr. Khan has four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard. He got a perfect score on the math section of the SATs, which is like the CSATs for Korean high school students. He has received degrees in mathematics, electrical engineering, computer science, and holds and MBA in business.     출처: 어린이 영자신문 키즈타임즈 (www.kidstimes.net)