Brave New Words - How AI Will Revolutionize Education, Sal Khan
(back to books)
- Substrat: the days of static learning are over
- 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