his aspiration for Khan Academy: act as tutor for every learner in the world
(like Aristotle to Alexander the Great)
"if everyone had access to great education, how many more billions of people might
attain purpose & meaning in their lives?"
new technology: explore/invest while others consider it a toy;
world-changing opportunities are rare - jump on them
every ~6 months: hackathon, work on anything related to mission
use AI to tackle more ambitious projects
"entrepreneurship is really the creativity of knowing
how to put resources together in order to create value"
reading, writing, arithmetic are essential; rest to round out skills
education & healthcare are sectors where market forces don't necessarily
lead to great outcomes (because of the tragedy of the commons)
New York (India) spends ~$40 k ($500-$1.2 k) per student per year
1:1 instructions (tutoring at student's time & pace) is most effective way to learn
caring & student-attuned instructor presents clear learning objectives, assessments,
specialised feedback until student demonstrates real grasp of material
make learning truly student-oriented
AI raises floor for students with little access to personalised learning
or world-class coursework
an algorithm rephrasing what you said can make you feel heard
AI as Socratic tutor, debating partner, career coach
most important role of tutor: provide motivation & accountability
AI takes transparent notes on you from your conversations
AI will have learned to represent you
students have to do a pre-mortem on their work before they hand it in
Khanmigo logs student-ai conversations & makes them available to teachers:
"We worked on the paper for about four hours. Sal initially had touble coming up
with a thesis, but I was able to help him by asking some leading questions. The
outlining went pretty smoothly. I just had to help him ensure that the conclusion
really brought everything together. Sal did most of the writing. I just helped him
tidy up the grammer and strengthen his argument in the third paragraph.
Based on the rubric for the assignment, I'd recommend Sal get a B+ on the assignment.
Here is a detailed breakdown of how I rated this paper in the dimensions on the rubric.";
"We didn't work on this essay together, it just showed up, so we should be suspicious."
mastery learning: give student opportunity & incentive to address knowledge/skill gaps
Khan Lab School & Khan World School focus on mastery learning;
students gain 1.5-3 years of math learning in 1 year; advisers regularly check-in with
students to set goals & hold them accountable
adaptive assessments: change next qs based on previous answers
platform he founded during pandemic for free peer, small-group, Zoom tutoring
that certifies knowledge/skills: https://schoolhouse.world/
wannabe-tutors take videos explaining their reasoning to show mastery;
that video is submitted for peer review to vet the soon-to-be tutor;
tutors are reviewed by students after each lesson
based on session transcripts, AI gives tutors feedback
on how they could have improved the sessions
"most efficacious platforms are transparent & free", "make information accessible"
Sola: grew up in Taliban-controlled Afghan heartland; taught herself via Khan Academy;
now quantum computing researcher at Tufts University