LinkedIn Speaker Series  Salman Khan

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Jeff: I want to start by introducing Sal.

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He really needs no introduction,

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particularly for a group
that's this passionate

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about education, but as you all know,

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In day is about transformation

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and we love to be able to welcome folks

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who I think are illustrative
of true transformation

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and Sal is absolutely an example of that

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within the realm of education,

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which is something all of us
here are so passionate about.

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So, for those that don't know,

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I've been interested in education reform

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and I may have to amend that.

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I love the title of your TED
talk, which is Reinvention,

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Reinventing education because I think
at this point we need reinvention.

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I don't think reform is
going to get it done.

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I may have borrowed that line from Sal,

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but I've been interested in
education reform and reinvention

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really since back graduating
high school and at the time

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was thinking about the best
way to make a difference

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and thought about going into teaching,

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thought about administration,

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thought about getting
involved in public education

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in some regard and the other
alternative was going into business.

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And people oftentimes say,

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"Well, how can you go into business

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and make a difference
in terms of education?"

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And the belief, the thesis was,
amass enough influence and resource

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where I'd ultimately have
the chance to do that.

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And long story short, being in business

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led to meeting and extraordinary
guy named Charles Best,

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who's the founder and
CEO of donorschoose.org,

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which is a philanthropic
marketplace for teachers

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very close to my heart
and being in business

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brought me to TED this year and I had

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the extraordinary
privilege to see Sal Khan,

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the founder of The Khan
Academy, give a TED Talk

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that literally brought the house down.

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So, for all the talks that
I was in attendance for

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and there was some wonderful talks,

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this talk that Sal gave
literally lit the place up.

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People were vibrating with
energy on what was possible

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because I think there was a lot of people

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in the audience that day
who know how challenging

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it's going to be to make a difference

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in terms of education.

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For those of you in the audience who have

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committed some of your time and energy,

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you know that's the case and the reason

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I wanted Sal to be here today was because,

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to a large extent, and this
may be a big statement,

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I think he may have cracked the code.

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I think he may have
secretly cracked the code

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on how we can improve education.

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So, long story short, I
think you all know by now,

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but Sal was in the hedge fund business

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and was asked to help
out, it was your cousins?

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Sal: Cousins.

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Jeff: Your cousins with
some math questions

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they had, so did a YouTube video

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and they raved about it and he'll tell you

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a little bit more about
the feedback he got

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that was the impetus to
do more and, of course,

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fast forward today, he's got
over 2,200 12 minute videos

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from everything, algebra
to American history

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and it's helping people learn in ways

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that were really unimaginable
before the web came along.

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And it's gone way beyond that,
so there's a back-end system

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that he and his team have put together

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that, for lack of a better term, I'd say

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has created a true
adaptive learning platform

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that's going to scale
and we're going to talk

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a little bit about that and
if he doesn't mention it

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one of my favorite Q and A parts
of the entire TED conference

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was an exchange between
Bill Gates and Sal.

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So, with that, how about a huge
round of applause for Sal Khan.

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(applause)

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Welcoming him to LinkedIn and Sal,

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I'm going to ask him a few
questions to get started

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and he'll talk a little
bit, but we'd really love

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for this to be a brainstorming session.

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I think we've got a lot of
incredible talent in the audience

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We're going to be recording
this so potentially

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we can inspire some folks who are going

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to see this remotely at some point

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and maybe they can get involved too.

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So, let's start with the beginning.

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I know most people here saw the video,

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but just talk a little bit
about Khan Academy came to be.

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Sal: Yeah, it was
literally, as you mentioned

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and I'm sure some of you all know,

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I was an analyst at a hedge
fund in Boston in 2000-

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this is 2004, fall 2004 and
my cousin and her family,

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her two younger brothers,
my aunt and uncle came

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and visited me in Boston
right after our wedding.

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Our wedding was in New
Jersey and they came up

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to just kind of tour
the sights and actually,

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while we were touring Boston, it
was the fourth of July weekend

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and I remember while we were
waiting for the fireworks

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to start over the Charles, I
would kind of give them my battery

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of brain teasers that I
use just as a time killer.

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I'm sure you probably all use them
as interview questions and what not.

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(laughter)

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They're very good, interview-

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And I remember, Nadia, who was
12 at the time was super engaged.

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Most people when you give
them brain teasers like this,

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my aunt and uncle,
everyone else were like,

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"What's the answer?"

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But Nadia was like, "No,
don't tell me the answer!"

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And she would like walk
out and these were hard,

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CSE logic problems, 100
people who can't see -

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There's all sorts of crazy things
and I was really impressed.

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The next day we were touring MIT
and in front of the whole family,

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I said, "Nadia, you
should think about MIT.

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"I saw you've got some
skills," and she didn't pay -

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My aunt, her mother, gave my uncle
this weird look when I said that.

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I didn't make much of it
and then the next morning

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(unintelligible) who
is Nadia's mom told me,

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"That's really nice what you
said about Nadia yesterday,

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"but she's actually being
tracked into a slower,

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"not even the regular algebra track."

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I was like, "That's impossible."

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One, I saw what she did two nights ago

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and we share a certain
amount of DNA. (laughter)

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When Nadia woke up, I said,

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"Hey, Nadia, I don't
believe this placement exam.

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"What was the problem?"

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She said it was units.

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I was like, "Two nights
ago you were tackling stuff

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"that's a million times harder than units.

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"What do you say when you
go back to New Orleans

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"we get on Yahoo Doodle and speaker phone

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"and if you're willing to do
a little bit of extra work,

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"I'm willing to spend half
an hour an evening with you,"

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and she was up for it,
so that was the genesis.

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Jeff: You referred during your TED
talk to what made it so effective.

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Half-jokingly that they
liked you better in video

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than they did in real life.

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Sal: Non-jokingly, actually.

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Jeff: In all seriousness.

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Talk a little bit about
the magic of what you did

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and the efficacy and how
you built on it from there.

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Sal: It all started where I left off.

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I started tutoring Nadia
kind of live, but remotely.

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Then I started tutoring her
brothers and the whole time

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I just had a doodle note
board and speaker phone.

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She only heard me, she didn't see me,

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and we just saw the same thing
that each of us were writing.

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Fast forward about two
years, so now we're going

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into November of 2006, I
was having trouble scaling.

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The first time you give a lecture
on the greatest common divisor

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it's kind of fun, the 20th
time it kind of sucks.

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How do I do this?

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It was actually a buddy that recommended

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that I put it up on YouTube, which
I was very dismissive of at first.

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That's for dogs on skateboards,
that's not for serious mathematics.

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When I got over the idea
that it wasn't my idea,

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I decided to give it a shot
and it was interesting,

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because I was like,
"Okay, how do I do this?"

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"I don't have a video
camera, should I go get one?"

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I was like, "No, because
that would cost money."

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With Nadia, we just had this screen going,

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so there must be some type of
software that captures a screen.

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I didn't even know there were
screen capture software existed.

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I did a web search, I found
some freeware that did it,

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and I needed an art program.

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I only used Microsoft Paint
for the first 500 videos

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and just started doing it and
when I put those first videos up,

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the first collection of
videos, 20 or 30 videos,

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my cousins literally did tell
me that they preferred me

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on YouTube than in person.

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I think there's a lot of things.

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Since then, I've heard a lot of feedback.

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One is just the form factor.

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This is true of any on-demand video.

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You can pause, you can
repeat, you can review stuff

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that you should've learned
last week or last year

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or a couple of years ago, you
don't have to feel embarrassed.

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You can do it when you're ready for it,

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you can go ahead, it's
not a one-size fits all,

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but that's true of all on-demand video.

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Khan Academy is not the
first on-demand video.

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MIT open courseware
started doing this in 2001.

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I'm sure there's people
who did it before that.

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I think the feedback I get
over and over again from people

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is that they appreciate
how conversational it is.

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To some degree, that wasn't by design.

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It was literally like I didn't
care, because it was for my cousins.

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They're not paying me, so I said,

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"Let me just make some videos for them."

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There's literally an early
video where I answered

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a telemarketer call during the
video and I don't edit it out.

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It's just there, I'm like, "I'm
not interested in Dish Network.

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"Please stop bothering
me," and I (laughter).

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(unintelligible) Exactly, how to
say no to obnoxious telemarketers.

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People enjoy the conversational nature.

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Early on, because these
are for my cousins,

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I didn't have a script, I
didn't have a lesson plan even.

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Some of those early videos, actually,
I kind of cringe at them now,

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because I'm like, "Hmm, what
should I talk about now?"

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and I just do, "Let's talk about this."

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People really like the idea
that I'm expressing exactly

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what's going on in my brain right now.

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It's not some thing that's
made by some bureaucracy

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to meet some state standard and
one group of people write a script

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with some computer graphics and
then another group of people

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just read the script while
the computer graphics happen.

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They like the organic nature.

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A lot of people, once
again, the form factor

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that's kind of our brand now,
I did it because I didn't want

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to have a video camera, but people
say it actually feels intimate,

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it actually feels like you and
I are sitting next to each other

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and looking through the concept together.

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This is kind of crazy.

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I've gotten letters
from people who've said,

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"Not only does it feel
like I'm next to you,

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"it feels like you're in my brain."

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When they go normally,
on an everyday basis,

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when they go and think they
think in their own voice,

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but as soon as they get to a math
test, all of sudden they say,

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"Well, let's see what the next
-" and they hear me. (laughter)

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The other thing is, it had
to be limited to ten minutes.

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I guess that was another
Khan Academy innovation,

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but once again, YouTube
limited to ten minutes,

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so I had to do it and that
was really good discipline

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and now I've gotten tons of feedback

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and I've actually dug up research

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that shows people actually
can't pay attention

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in any reasonable way for
more than 10 to 18 minutes.

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After they do, they zone
our for five minutes.

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After zoning out for five minutes,
they realize they were zoning out.

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They say, "Oh my God,
let me pay attention,"

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and then they can only
zone in for nine minutes

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and then they zone out for nine minutes.

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The zoning out gets worse
and the zoning in gets worse

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as you go through a lecture.

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The only reason why we
have 60 minute lectures

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is because of logistics.

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All of these things have
been an organic process

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and I think our trick is to not lose any

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of that very grounded approach
that we started off with.

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Jeff: One of the most revelatory
things you mentioned in the TED talk,

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I think, is directly akin to
this notion of interactivity,

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but you put some real data behind
it, some anecdotes behind it.

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That is kids who would otherwise
be left behind in school

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because they're not keeping
pace with the class,

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in terms of the fundamental
building blocks.

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When allowed to learn on
their own through your tools,

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once they got through that
fundamental building block,

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they then got ahead in the next block.

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Sal: Yeah.

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Jeff: So could you talk
a little bit about that,

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because that's a big deal.

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Sal: There's a couple of
trains of thought there.

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We first saw it in a summer
camp that we tried out

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the primitive version of Khan Academy with

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and literally, six weeks into the camp,

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I was just curious, I literally
just did a database query,

00:11:51.921 --> 00:11:54.364
like who was more than one
standard deviation behind

00:11:54.364 --> 00:11:56.534
four days into the camp, and now is more

00:11:56.534 --> 00:11:59.565
than one standard deviation
above the class average

00:11:59.565 --> 00:12:02.981
at the end of the camp and
there was this one girl.

00:12:02.981 --> 00:12:05.313
I won't mention the name for privacy,

00:12:05.313 --> 00:12:07.566
but I talked to her later and
literally, she just had to get

00:12:07.566 --> 00:12:10.398
positive and negative numbers,
adding and subtracting them

00:12:10.398 --> 00:12:12.813
out of the way and after she
did that, she just raced ahead

00:12:12.813 --> 00:12:14.422
and we started looking
for it more and more.

00:12:14.422 --> 00:12:15.899
There's other things we found.

00:12:15.899 --> 00:12:18.124
Not only that, which is a big
deal, the kid that otherwise,

00:12:18.124 --> 00:12:20.648
would have been tracked as a
slow students is now showing

00:12:20.648 --> 00:12:24.096
that if they just had the
chance to really digest

00:12:24.096 --> 00:12:26.315
the information properly,
if you think about it,

00:12:26.315 --> 00:12:29.230
that's actually a property of someone
who is probably innately gifted,

00:12:29.230 --> 00:12:31.065
is someone who really wants
to digest something properly,

00:12:31.065 --> 00:12:33.316
not just understand the
mechanics and probably

00:12:33.316 --> 00:12:35.563
some of those people are
being left behind right now.

00:12:35.563 --> 00:12:38.813
It allows them to race ahead,
but the other interesting thing,

00:12:38.813 --> 00:12:44.231
we've seen this in Los Altos, is there
are some classically rock star students,

00:12:44.231 --> 00:12:47.680
the ones that are always straight
A, they're really competitive,

00:12:47.680 --> 00:12:50.041
when you force them to
start at the beginning,

00:12:50.041 --> 00:12:52.347
from the most basic
concepts, even some of them

00:12:52.347 --> 00:12:55.233
start to stumble at things that
they really should have learned

00:12:55.233 --> 00:12:58.308
in third or fourth grade and what
they've probably done since then

00:12:58.308 --> 00:13:01.306
is just they've been very good at
pretending around their deficiencies

00:13:01.306 --> 00:13:05.877
or getting around them and so
almost everyone has these gaps.

00:13:05.877 --> 00:13:09.418
That same summer program where
that first student was at,

00:13:09.418 --> 00:13:11.505
one thing we saw over and over again,

00:13:11.505 --> 00:13:14.145
there was actually two groups.

00:13:14.145 --> 00:13:15.900
This was seventh graders.

00:13:15.900 --> 00:13:17.794
In one group, the teacher said,
"Oh no, this would be silly

00:13:17.794 --> 00:13:20.363
"to make my seventh
graders start at 1+1=2,"

00:13:20.363 --> 00:13:22.552
so we started all of
them at sixth grade math.

00:13:22.552 --> 00:13:24.336
The other group, we're like,
"Yeah, let's just start them off

00:13:24.336 --> 00:13:28.772
"at 1+1=2," and we saw the group
that didn't have the chance

00:13:28.772 --> 00:13:32.412
to remediate, they just
hit a wall at some point.

00:13:32.412 --> 00:13:34.690
They just couldn't progress,
or some subset of them

00:13:34.690 --> 00:13:37.051
couldn't progress at some point,
while the group that started

00:13:37.051 --> 00:13:41.495
at 1+1=2, one, it was surprising
how many really basic weaknesses

00:13:41.495 --> 00:13:43.275
some of these seventh graders had.

00:13:43.275 --> 00:13:45.454
Literally, adding two-digit
numbers, knowing how to regroup

00:13:45.454 --> 00:13:48.705
or carry or things like this,
but once they got through that,

00:13:48.705 --> 00:13:51.204
just as a group, they way
outperformed the other group.

00:13:51.204 --> 00:13:53.955
Even their worst performers were better

00:13:53.955 --> 00:13:55.686
than the best performers
in the other group,

00:13:55.686 --> 00:13:59.357
which is a narrative that I
think we've been observing.

00:13:59.357 --> 00:14:02.038
No matter what you do, you get the
best algebra teacher in the room,

00:14:02.038 --> 00:14:04.954
you have an innately gifted kid,
no matter how hard the kid works,

00:14:04.954 --> 00:14:07.788
if that kid has trouble
with third grade math,

00:14:07.788 --> 00:14:13.507
there's really no way that you can
do it in a standard education model.

00:14:13.539 --> 00:14:15.072
Jeff: Speaking of
standard education models,

00:14:15.072 --> 00:14:17.538
talk a little bit about
the software platform

00:14:17.538 --> 00:14:21.288
you guys have been developing,
the success you've had,

00:14:21.288 --> 00:14:24.372
in terms of working with Los
Altos as a school district,

00:14:24.372 --> 00:14:28.622
and the impact that the
videos plus the software

00:14:28.622 --> 00:14:31.205
in the classroom is having
on classroom dynamics.

00:14:31.205 --> 00:14:34.758
Sal: Yeah, the software,
I've hinted at it.

00:14:34.758 --> 00:14:36.998
If you saw the TED talk you
kind of know what it is,

00:14:36.998 --> 00:14:40.789
but it's actually stuff that I started
working on before the first video.

00:14:40.789 --> 00:14:44.705
A few months into working
with Nadia and her brothers,

00:14:44.705 --> 00:14:46.951
I would point them to random websites.

00:14:46.951 --> 00:14:49.051
I was like, "Hey, there's a site
that has a couple of cool problems.

00:14:49.051 --> 00:14:51.651
"Why don't you work on those,"
or, "Here's another site,"

00:14:51.651 --> 00:14:53.534
and the next morning
I'd have no information

00:14:53.534 --> 00:14:56.262
of what they did, I didn't
believe them that they said

00:14:56.262 --> 00:14:58.670
they did the problem or how
many they got right or wrong.

00:14:58.670 --> 00:15:02.409
I started writing this little
javascript problem generator

00:15:02.409 --> 00:15:03.742
and I was really just trying
to make sure that they had

00:15:03.742 --> 00:15:06.529
the core skill down, that they
really just understood the core skill

00:15:06.529 --> 00:15:07.910
and I put a little database
behind it so I could see

00:15:07.910 --> 00:15:10.470
when did they do the problem,
did they use the hints,

00:15:10.470 --> 00:15:12.884
and whatever else.

00:15:12.884 --> 00:15:14.466
Then over time I had a
bunch of these modules

00:15:14.466 --> 00:15:17.480
and I got tired of assigning, "Oh
now you're ready for this module,"

00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:18.679
So I said, "Hey, if you get
ten in a row on this module

00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:20.716
"it'll automatically
assign you to the next,"

00:15:20.716 --> 00:15:22.466
and that's where the whole knowledge tree,

00:15:22.466 --> 00:15:24.784
if you saw the TED talk, came about.

00:15:24.784 --> 00:15:25.574
It was originally something for me.

00:15:25.574 --> 00:15:27.067
It was a tool for myself to
understand all the modules I'd built

00:15:27.067 --> 00:15:29.865
and the dependencies and then I said,

00:15:29.865 --> 00:15:31.732
"Well, it'd be cool for
a student to see it,"

00:15:31.732 --> 00:15:33.535
and once I did my cousins loved that.

00:15:33.535 --> 00:15:34.686
It was like Legend of
Zelda all of a sudden.

00:15:34.686 --> 00:15:39.014
They could see, "Hey, I could get
over there," and all the rest.

00:15:39.807 --> 00:15:41.939
Fast forward, the summer
camp started using it.

00:15:41.939 --> 00:15:44.988
Even there, we said, "Hey, every
kid can now work at their own pace.

00:15:44.988 --> 00:15:48.061
"The tools, the videos are there and
now the teacher can just intervene

00:15:48.061 --> 00:15:51.268
"when someone's stuck,"
and then you fast forward

00:15:51.268 --> 00:15:56.024
to November of 2010, Los Altos
school board literally just met

00:15:56.024 --> 00:15:58.026
with myself and Shantanu,
who's our president,

00:15:58.026 --> 00:16:01.144
and said, "We've heard great
things about what you're doing.

00:16:01.144 --> 00:16:02.195
"We want to learn more about
it and what would you do

00:16:02.195 --> 00:16:05.312
"if you had just whatever you wanted
to do with the math classroom?"

00:16:05.312 --> 00:16:08.813
and we said we'd have every
student work at their own pace,

00:16:08.813 --> 00:16:10.645
the role of the teacher,
they won't have to lecture,

00:16:10.645 --> 00:16:12.979
they won't have to grade papers.

00:16:12.979 --> 00:16:16.730
I don't want to say just, but
they will walk into a room

00:16:16.730 --> 00:16:18.979
and they'll get a dashboard and
the dashboard will tell them

00:16:18.979 --> 00:16:23.311
where every student is
working, who's stuck on what.

00:16:23.311 --> 00:16:26.978
If they want to dive deeper they
can press a couple of clicks

00:16:26.978 --> 00:16:28.861
and they can see exactly what
a student's been working on

00:16:28.861 --> 00:16:31.812
and really diagnose what's
probably wrong with the student

00:16:31.812 --> 00:16:33.758
and then use that information to either do

00:16:33.758 --> 00:16:36.340
a very focused intervention themselves

00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:39.115
or get some of the student's
peers to do an intervention.

00:16:39.115 --> 00:16:40.334
What it does is it does a couple things.

00:16:40.334 --> 00:16:42.835
One, now everyone can
work at their own pace,

00:16:42.835 --> 00:16:45.503
the teacher's time is fully
leveraged and it's focused,

00:16:45.503 --> 00:16:48.808
and really just narrowing in
on exactly what the weak points

00:16:48.808 --> 00:16:52.976
for the students are, and the
third thing is probably not obvious

00:16:52.976 --> 00:16:56.149
from the TED talk and if we've had
critics that's in this third area,

00:16:56.149 --> 00:16:58.534
it's that, "Okay, yeah
Khan Academy, the videos,

00:16:58.534 --> 00:17:01.124
"that's probably really
good for basic skills,

00:17:01.124 --> 00:17:03.124
"and even the videos it's good
for conceptual development,

00:17:03.124 --> 00:17:04.914
"but what about project-based learning?"

00:17:04.914 --> 00:17:07.395
There's this whole school of
thought of constructivist learning

00:17:07.395 --> 00:17:09.831
and it's always these math wars.

00:17:09.831 --> 00:17:10.914
There's always been this argument

00:17:10.914 --> 00:17:13.936
between the tiger mom school of learning

00:17:13.936 --> 00:17:17.342
and the constructivist Seymour
Papert play with Legos enough

00:17:17.342 --> 00:17:22.742
and eventually you'll
know calculus. (laughter)

00:17:22.742 --> 00:17:25.350
It's been like a war, right?

00:17:26.648 --> 00:17:28.770
People, the first time
they see Khan Academy,

00:17:28.770 --> 00:17:30.589
they think we are the tiger mom version,

00:17:30.589 --> 00:17:34.552
because it's like core
skills, it's lecture.

00:17:34.552 --> 00:17:37.014
The other thing I think really
differentiates our lectures over others

00:17:37.014 --> 00:17:38.488
and this was actually a surprise for me,

00:17:38.488 --> 00:17:42.598
is I made my lectures geared
towards someone like myself

00:17:42.598 --> 00:17:44.680
when I was 12 years old or 13.

00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.931
I wanted the rationale, I wanted
the conceptual development.

00:17:47.931 --> 00:17:49.515
I wanted my cousins to have that.

00:17:49.515 --> 00:17:52.403
I wanted them to really
innately understand math.

00:17:52.403 --> 00:17:55.181
I didn't think early on
that that would be popular.

00:17:55.181 --> 00:17:57.573
I thought that most students
would want the formulas.

00:17:57.573 --> 00:18:00.098
Most students wouldn't want
to think about the intuition.

00:18:00.098 --> 00:18:02.413
The surprising thing is over
and over again we get feedback

00:18:02.413 --> 00:18:05.431
from the students you
wouldn't normally associate

00:18:05.431 --> 00:18:06.841
with students liking math saying,

00:18:06.841 --> 00:18:09.789
"I'm angry that my teacher did
not introduce the intuition.

00:18:09.789 --> 00:18:11.109
"Now it's easy."

00:18:11.109 --> 00:18:14.765
Over and over again we get that,
but what we're in this debate

00:18:14.765 --> 00:18:18.395
between what's derisively
called the drill and kill

00:18:18.395 --> 00:18:20.232
and the constructivists,
what we're saying is,

00:18:20.232 --> 00:18:22.634
"No, it's not an either
or proposition now."

00:18:22.634 --> 00:18:24.182
What's happening in those
Los Altos classrooms

00:18:24.182 --> 00:18:27.206
are so much of the blocking and
tackling is being taken off,

00:18:27.206 --> 00:18:30.431
one, from the class time and
from the teacher's shoulders,

00:18:30.431 --> 00:18:33.811
that the teacher not only can
dive in and do very focused

00:18:33.811 --> 00:18:36.431
and meaningful interventions,
but all of this class time

00:18:36.431 --> 00:18:40.385
is freed up to do these
investigations, to do these projects.

00:18:40.385 --> 00:18:43.014
I'll challenge any classroom out there

00:18:43.014 --> 00:18:45.931
to see if they can do more project-based
learning and investigations

00:18:45.931 --> 00:18:48.058
than these Los Altos classes are doing

00:18:48.058 --> 00:18:49.626
and I would challenge
any classroom out there

00:18:49.626 --> 00:18:51.729
to see if they can do more
core skills development

00:18:51.729 --> 00:18:53.632
than these Los Altos classes are doing.

00:18:53.632 --> 00:18:56.017
It's kind of the best of both worlds.

00:18:56.017 --> 00:19:00.149
Jeff: One of my favorite parts of
your talk that I alluded to earlier

00:19:00.149 --> 00:19:03.033
was during Q and A with Bill Gates.

00:19:03.033 --> 00:19:06.368
At one point, everything that Sal
talks about sounds so extraordinary.

00:19:06.368 --> 00:19:08.450
It sounds like vision.

00:19:08.450 --> 00:19:11.699
How could it possibly be real,
how could we get so much good

00:19:11.699 --> 00:19:16.368
from one guy, a small team, a non-profit?

00:19:16.368 --> 00:19:18.253
At one point, Bill said,
"So, what would it take

00:19:18.253 --> 00:19:20.950
"to scale this to every
classroom in the country?

00:19:20.950 --> 00:19:22.534
"How long would that take?"

00:19:22.534 --> 00:19:23.726
Your response was -

00:19:23.726 --> 00:19:29.002
Sal: Yeah, technically, I'm giving little
asterisks now, by the way. (laughter)

00:19:29.002 --> 00:19:34.003
It can be adopted tomorrow
or now by every classroom.

00:19:34.003 --> 00:19:37.830
It's self-service, the dashboard's
everything, if a teacher goes.

00:19:37.830 --> 00:19:41.925
The realistic answer is there has
to be some type of deployment,

00:19:41.925 --> 00:19:44.035
but there's no reason why it doesn't,

00:19:44.035 --> 00:19:46.470
there's no fundamental barrier
for it being used tomorrow

00:19:46.470 --> 00:19:48.572
by every classroom in the world.

00:19:48.572 --> 00:19:50.420
Jeff: I think that's a
great jumping off point

00:19:50.420 --> 00:19:53.420
to open it up to the group here.

00:19:53.420 --> 00:19:55.256
We just want to do a
little brainstorming today.

00:19:55.256 --> 00:19:57.669
Sal's very interested in your
thoughts and I'd love to know

00:19:57.669 --> 00:20:00.088
how this group of people, how LinkedIn,

00:20:00.088 --> 00:20:02.386
how some of the folks who,
ultimately, may be viewing this

00:20:02.386 --> 00:20:05.670
can get involved, what help do you need?

00:20:05.670 --> 00:20:10.286
How can we start to dramatically
increase the footprint?

00:20:10.961 --> 00:20:11.974
Any questions or comments?

00:20:11.974 --> 00:20:14.335
Yeah, please.

00:20:17.512 --> 00:20:18.785
Audience Member: I didn't grow up here

00:20:18.785 --> 00:20:21.202
and I just saw your
TED talk a few days ago

00:20:21.202 --> 00:20:26.868
and after that I also saw the
TED talk that Ken Robinson gave

00:20:26.868 --> 00:20:29.926
about schools killing creativity.

00:20:29.926 --> 00:20:31.118
What are you thoughts about that

00:20:31.118 --> 00:20:34.596
and how has it influenced
what Khan Academy's doing

00:20:34.596 --> 00:20:37.892
and what it's planning to do?

00:20:37.892 --> 00:20:39.894
Sal: I think the Ken
Robinson talk's awesome

00:20:39.894 --> 00:20:43.894
and some people view our
talks as very aligned

00:20:43.894 --> 00:20:48.749
and some people have viewed it
that somehow they're not aligned.

00:20:48.749 --> 00:20:51.921
My point is going back to what's
going on in Los Altos classrooms

00:20:51.921 --> 00:20:54.289
is that right now, so much time is focused

00:20:54.289 --> 00:20:57.191
on the mandated curriculum from the state

00:20:57.191 --> 00:21:01.097
and so much time is focused on making sure

00:21:01.097 --> 00:21:05.402
that the worst don't do bad.

00:21:05.402 --> 00:21:09.402
There's no time for real creative work.

00:21:09.402 --> 00:21:12.799
I'd say even 95% of people
in classes right now

00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:15.522
that claim to do project-based learning

00:21:15.522 --> 00:21:17.523
or claim to do creative
things in the classroom,

00:21:17.523 --> 00:21:19.404
it's not creative, it's cookbook.

00:21:19.404 --> 00:21:22.857
It looks good, "Oh, we're
studying how we can send

00:21:22.857 --> 00:21:25.479
"a satellite to the moon," or
something, but they're not,

00:21:25.479 --> 00:21:30.608
it's some type of cookbook thing
with words in the right way.

00:21:30.608 --> 00:21:33.274
What we think and what I
hope Khan Academy enables

00:21:33.274 --> 00:21:35.359
and we'd like to pilot this
in more and more schools

00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:38.993
and it can enable a whole set of
really fundamentally creative things

00:21:38.993 --> 00:21:41.091
and some of that will
probably be on our platform.

00:21:41.091 --> 00:21:47.068
Actually, Jonathan, who used to
actually be a LinkedIn employee,

00:21:47.068 --> 00:21:48.503
for two summers we did a summer camp.

00:21:48.503 --> 00:21:53.411
We do this as R and D for what
is the future of real learning.

00:21:53.411 --> 00:21:56.867
You have this Khan Academy, the
videos, you can get a lot there,

00:21:56.867 --> 00:21:59.122
but if you really want people to
learn stuff and we did stuff with kids

00:21:59.122 --> 00:22:03.295
and this is stuff we might even
internalize into the software.

00:22:04.255 --> 00:22:06.021
It was pretty fun.

00:22:06.021 --> 00:22:07.522
It was all the games I wanted
to play with my friends

00:22:07.522 --> 00:22:11.090
at my birthday party, but
no one else wanted to.

00:22:11.090 --> 00:22:13.977
We literally would have
six kids playing Risk

00:22:13.977 --> 00:22:17.227
and we would have the other 24 kids,

00:22:17.227 --> 00:22:19.490
they would each get a
colored piece of cardboard

00:22:19.490 --> 00:22:25.610
that says, if you're holding
red at three o'clock,

00:22:25.610 --> 00:22:27.844
which is three hours from when we started,

00:22:27.844 --> 00:22:30.015
that colored piece of
cardboard would be worth

00:22:30.015 --> 00:22:33.395
the number of armies that
red army has at three o'clock

00:22:33.395 --> 00:22:35.560
and the same thing for
yellow and green and so on.

00:22:35.560 --> 00:22:37.919
We gave them $500 in Monopoly money each.

00:22:37.919 --> 00:22:41.289
They all started with one of
these and then we started the Risk

00:22:41.289 --> 00:22:47.094
and then we told the rest of the
24, "Trade the actual things."

00:22:47.094 --> 00:22:48.262
It was fascinating.

00:22:48.262 --> 00:22:50.767
We saw fifth graders start making models.

00:22:50.767 --> 00:22:52.895
There was one fifth grader who
started doing naked shorting

00:22:52.895 --> 00:22:55.436
without knowing what naked short -

00:22:55.436 --> 00:22:57.438
He would literally sell
something to someone,

00:22:57.438 --> 00:23:02.011
but say, "Wait, I'll give you the
actual security later." (laughter)

00:23:02.011 --> 00:23:04.060
Jeff: For those that don't know,
the financial derivative world,

00:23:04.060 --> 00:23:07.740
that had nothing to do with
the clothing (crosstalk).

00:23:07.740 --> 00:23:08.950
Sal: There was a little bit of that, too.

00:23:08.950 --> 00:23:12.643
No, no. (laughter)

00:23:12.643 --> 00:23:16.989
The summer camp would be shut
down if that was happening.

00:23:16.989 --> 00:23:18.322
It was fascinating.

00:23:18.322 --> 00:23:21.365
One kid came up to me and
he said how he figured out

00:23:21.365 --> 00:23:24.739
that right after someone's turn in Risk,

00:23:24.739 --> 00:23:28.040
their security went up,
because we've all played Risk,

00:23:28.040 --> 00:23:29.656
it looks like that person's
about to take over the world,

00:23:29.656 --> 00:23:34.739
but Risk has these huge swings, so
he didn't even look at the board.

00:23:34.739 --> 00:23:36.738
He just shorted whoever's turn it was

00:23:36.738 --> 00:23:42.266
and he ended up winning the
whole game, because he just -

00:23:42.266 --> 00:23:44.389
Then we played another time where
it was more of a determined,

00:23:44.389 --> 00:23:47.349
where we played a variation
called Paranoia Risk,

00:23:47.349 --> 00:23:49.797
where there's only one winner.

00:23:49.797 --> 00:23:51.963
Everyone's trying to eliminate
one person from the board.

00:23:51.963 --> 00:23:54.973
As soon as one person is
eliminated from the board,

00:23:54.973 --> 00:23:57.349
the person who was trying
to eliminate them, wins.

00:23:57.349 --> 00:24:01.516
Now, we said, "If you're
holding the color of the winner,

00:24:01.516 --> 00:24:04.050
"that's worth 100 and
everyone else is worth 0."

00:24:04.050 --> 00:24:05.357
Now it's pure probability.

00:24:05.357 --> 00:24:08.275
That security should trade,
if it's trading at $65,

00:24:08.275 --> 00:24:10.692
you're saying there's a 65% chance -

00:24:10.692 --> 00:24:12.099
I didn't tell them this ahead of time.

00:24:12.099 --> 00:24:13.193
It was amazing how many times

00:24:13.193 --> 00:24:15.943
the security started selling
for like $150 or $200.

00:24:15.943 --> 00:24:18.959
There was serious bubble
mentality going on.

00:24:18.959 --> 00:24:19.876
Anyway, I'm going on.

00:24:19.876 --> 00:24:23.375
I could talk for hours about this,
and we played Settlers of Catan,

00:24:23.375 --> 00:24:25.208
one time with separate board games.

00:24:25.208 --> 00:24:27.321
Then the second time around we
let them trade across countries

00:24:27.321 --> 00:24:29.366
and say, "Hey, how come we -

00:24:29.366 --> 00:24:30.968
We actually had a pariah
state that couldn't trade

00:24:30.968 --> 00:24:33.372
and we compared the development
to the ones that trade.

00:24:33.372 --> 00:24:35.305
Anyway, you get the general idea.

00:24:35.305 --> 00:24:38.089
There's a lot of stuff that can be
done, if class time is freed up,

00:24:38.089 --> 00:24:40.508
that's really deep, that
gives people understanding.

00:24:40.508 --> 00:24:44.092
In one round of the Risk,
I was the market maker

00:24:44.092 --> 00:24:46.116
and these students try to
find out (unintelligible)

00:24:46.116 --> 00:24:48.672
what a market maker is, what is a
secondary market versus a primary.

00:24:48.672 --> 00:24:49.621
All of this stuff.

00:24:49.621 --> 00:24:54.673
It might be relevant to you guys
very soon, I don't know. (laughter)

00:24:54.673 --> 00:24:58.227
My vision, to answer your
question, my vision is more of that

00:24:58.227 --> 00:25:00.463
without giving up the stuff that kids need

00:25:00.463 --> 00:25:03.590
to really prove to the world
on the SATs, the AP tests

00:25:03.590 --> 00:25:06.663
that they know those core skills, as well.

00:25:06.663 --> 00:25:08.361
Jeff: Sometimes people ask the question,

00:25:08.361 --> 00:25:10.409
What happens if some of
our best and brightest,

00:25:10.409 --> 00:25:13.693
rather than go into the financial
world and hedge fund trading,

00:25:13.693 --> 00:25:16.815
they were to go into areas like education?

00:25:16.815 --> 00:25:18.218
That's part of what happens.

00:25:18.218 --> 00:25:20.519
You get this brilliance
supplied in the right ways.

00:25:20.519 --> 00:25:21.863
Sal: There could be a good sequel to that,

00:25:21.863 --> 00:25:23.528
where there's a guy who's -

00:25:23.528 --> 00:25:25.827
I won't name any names, but he's a quant

00:25:25.827 --> 00:25:29.445
at a very prominent
hedge fund and he went -

00:25:29.445 --> 00:25:32.611
Pretty much, he left that fund
and I think he's being paid

00:25:32.611 --> 00:25:35.859
not to work in the industry
now, because he knows too much,

00:25:35.859 --> 00:25:42.068
so he might be your analytics guy
if things work out. (laughing)

00:25:42.068 --> 00:25:43.484
Christina: One of my
all time favorite books

00:25:43.484 --> 00:25:45.651
is Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age

00:25:45.651 --> 00:25:48.099
and in it he's got the Young
Lady's Illustrated Primer

00:25:48.099 --> 00:25:50.317
and this rich guy builds this
book so his granddaughter

00:25:50.317 --> 00:25:53.369
can have this tremendous education
and one of the aspects of it

00:25:53.369 --> 00:25:56.203
is that all the content and the
learning materials are in there,

00:25:56.203 --> 00:25:59.895
but there are these ractors
who are people who are tracking

00:25:59.895 --> 00:26:01.811
and watching as they
move through the book,

00:26:01.811 --> 00:26:04.917
they actually have a dashboard
with metrics in the book.

00:26:04.917 --> 00:26:08.218
I'm thinking about our social
network and your materials,

00:26:08.218 --> 00:26:10.043
whether it's e-books or videos,

00:26:10.043 --> 00:26:12.855
and wondering if we could
create Khan ractors,

00:26:12.855 --> 00:26:15.493
who would be indexed, either
the videos or materials,

00:26:15.493 --> 00:26:18.043
and they would be people who
were certified and volunteered

00:26:18.043 --> 00:26:19.862
so that the kid at any point
where they're stumbling

00:26:19.862 --> 00:26:23.127
could maybe hit a button,
get an IM, start to engage

00:26:23.127 --> 00:26:26.460
with that community to get that kind
of personalized stuff worldwide.

00:26:26.460 --> 00:26:28.460
Sal: Yeah, that's exactly -

00:26:28.460 --> 00:26:30.210
We have to figure out the
details of how we implement that,

00:26:30.210 --> 00:26:32.993
but that's our next level,
because the first level is videos,

00:26:32.993 --> 00:26:35.780
the second level are these
exercises and dashboard,

00:26:35.780 --> 00:26:37.158
the next level's the community.

00:26:37.158 --> 00:26:39.411
We're pushing two million
unique users a month

00:26:39.411 --> 00:26:43.410
and that's enough, that's
critical mass, that's growing.

00:26:43.410 --> 00:26:44.485
There's a couple things.

00:26:44.485 --> 00:26:48.028
One is just the model of
volunteerism, peer-to-peer,

00:26:48.028 --> 00:26:51.060
"Hey, I'm at my desk, I have an hour
free, I would like to tutor someone."

00:26:51.060 --> 00:26:54.912
We could facilitate that and you'll
have the same data as a teacher

00:26:54.912 --> 00:26:56.578
and we could pair up people appropriately,

00:26:56.578 --> 00:26:58.243
based on what they know
and what they don't know.

00:26:58.243 --> 00:26:59.708
And get the kids tutoring.

00:26:59.708 --> 00:27:02.704
It's either that model or
we're thinking of having

00:27:02.704 --> 00:27:05.078
some kind of a perpetual office hours.

00:27:05.078 --> 00:27:07.709
Volunteers could say, "Hey,
I'll be free at this time.

00:27:07.709 --> 00:27:11.214
"I'm in Malaysia and I'll
be free from 2:00 to 3:00 PM

00:27:11.214 --> 00:27:13.076
"and I know these set of topics."

00:27:13.076 --> 00:27:14.785
If we get a critical mass,
and you actually don't need

00:27:14.785 --> 00:27:16.887
that many people, but if
you get enough people,

00:27:16.887 --> 00:27:19.357
you could have exactly what you
said as soon as you're stuck.

00:27:19.357 --> 00:27:20.991
It's not even something
that has to be scheduled.

00:27:20.991 --> 00:27:23.225
As soon as you're stuck,
you say, "I need help,"

00:27:23.225 --> 00:27:25.864
and it immediately points you.

00:27:25.864 --> 00:27:29.632
I'm actually on page 85
of Diamond Age right now,

00:27:29.632 --> 00:27:31.493
so I haven't gotten to the ractor part.

00:27:31.493 --> 00:27:33.243
(unintelligible) Oh, is it?

00:27:33.243 --> 00:27:35.873
Yeah, but we're clearly
reading the same books,

00:27:35.873 --> 00:27:39.277
but yes, that's where -

00:27:39.277 --> 00:27:43.713
It's funny, each layer, we actually
think that's going to be the big play,

00:27:43.713 --> 00:27:45.578
not what we've already done.

00:27:45.578 --> 00:27:48.828
Jeff: Would love to throw it
out there as a Hackday challenge

00:27:48.828 --> 00:27:50.744
for those of you in the room or watching.

00:27:50.744 --> 00:27:53.243
It'd be pretty cool to
do something very similar

00:27:53.243 --> 00:27:57.194
and I had a similar idea based
on originally hearing you speak.

00:27:57.194 --> 00:27:59.411
With 100 million members, professionals

00:27:59.411 --> 00:28:03.136
with the right kind of
skills and backgrounds,

00:28:03.136 --> 00:28:07.103
one of the things that
was most exciting to me

00:28:07.103 --> 00:28:10.742
was that anyone can come
online to lend a hand

00:28:10.742 --> 00:28:13.328
and help mentor and answer questions.

00:28:13.328 --> 00:28:15.611
I think it would be a very
cool hack to figure out a way

00:28:15.611 --> 00:28:17.546
to do exactly what Christina
was just suggesting.

00:28:17.546 --> 00:28:21.076
Click a button and we could
pair up the right kids

00:28:21.076 --> 00:28:24.660
with the right mentors from among
our professional membership.

00:28:24.660 --> 00:28:27.560
The other idea that's probably
a little more in depth

00:28:27.560 --> 00:28:32.666
than a hack is to start to
leverage everything you've done

00:28:32.666 --> 00:28:35.878
for the kids for vocational training

00:28:35.878 --> 00:28:40.334
because one of the things
we all hear increasingly

00:28:40.334 --> 00:28:43.547
is that it's not that there's
not jobs available at times

00:28:43.547 --> 00:28:45.000
or in certain geographies.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:46.834
There are jobs available, it's
just that people don't have

00:28:46.834 --> 00:28:49.085
the skills to take advantage of them.

00:28:49.085 --> 00:28:52.960
If we could somehow
re-skin some of the backend

00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:56.585
and add vocational training modules

00:28:56.585 --> 00:28:59.066
and then again, partner up
the people that need to learn

00:28:59.066 --> 00:29:02.416
with the professional membership,
we could really do some good.

00:29:02.416 --> 00:29:05.418
Sal: Yeah, absolutely.

00:29:05.418 --> 00:29:07.473
Especially with the ...

00:29:07.473 --> 00:29:10.611
Yeah, that's a way to donate your time.

00:29:10.611 --> 00:29:13.929
There could even be some
badging that transcends

00:29:13.929 --> 00:29:16.028
what you all are doing
and what we're doing.

00:29:16.028 --> 00:29:18.847
It becomes part of, "Hey,
I'm a proud volunteer,"

00:29:18.847 --> 00:29:20.924
or even your badges -

00:29:20.924 --> 00:29:23.729
It's funny, because we thought
about doing Facebook integration.

00:29:23.729 --> 00:29:27.132
It's on our pipeline and
before we've done it,

00:29:27.132 --> 00:29:29.347
we have students who
are copying and pasting

00:29:29.347 --> 00:29:31.065
their badges they get on Khan Academy

00:29:31.065 --> 00:29:35.604
and bootstrapping the iteration
forth, they're so proud of it.

00:29:35.604 --> 00:29:38.396
Something like that
and the volunteer badge

00:29:38.396 --> 00:29:41.945
could be a pretty
powerful mark of whatever.

00:29:41.945 --> 00:29:43.546
Jeff: Yeah, so call to
action, for anyone interested

00:29:43.546 --> 00:29:44.967
in the next -

00:29:44.967 --> 00:29:45.896
Sal: And also developing modules.

00:29:45.896 --> 00:29:48.730
Developing modules is actually
a very easy thing to contribute,

00:29:48.730 --> 00:29:52.287
if anyone's interested, like, "Hey,
I have an expertise in probability

00:29:52.287 --> 00:29:53.560
"and it doesn't look like there's a module

00:29:53.560 --> 00:29:57.145
"that teaches and quizzes that aspect."

00:29:57.145 --> 00:29:59.812
We actually do that as part of our
interview process for our developers.

00:29:59.812 --> 00:30:04.601
If it takes them more than a day, we're
like, "Well, we're not hiring." (laughs)

00:30:04.601 --> 00:30:06.603
Jeff: What's the best
way for folks watching

00:30:06.603 --> 00:30:08.035
who would like to contribute a module?

00:30:08.035 --> 00:30:09.229
What's the best way for them to do that?

00:30:09.229 --> 00:30:16.349
Sal: Right now, you can actually go,
on our page is says "contribute".

00:30:16.349 --> 00:30:19.622
There's a way you can
go to our software wiki

00:30:19.622 --> 00:30:23.628
and how do you check out the code,
how do you see where all the ...

00:30:23.628 --> 00:30:25.512
There's even specs out
there for unbuilt modules

00:30:25.512 --> 00:30:28.045
if you don't have an
idea of what to build.

00:30:28.045 --> 00:30:29.154
They're all in javascript.

00:30:29.154 --> 00:30:31.214
They're pretty straightforward.

00:30:31.214 --> 00:30:33.687
Thinking about the learning is
probably harder than the programming.

00:30:33.687 --> 00:30:35.926
Jeff: Okay, Nick.

00:30:35.926 --> 00:30:37.661
Nick: Thanks for being here, first of all.

00:30:37.661 --> 00:30:40.878
My question is I've got two
kids and what I've learned

00:30:40.878 --> 00:30:42.666
in my experience with them is they have

00:30:42.666 --> 00:30:44.934
completely different ways of learning.

00:30:44.934 --> 00:30:47.798
Specifically, my son has
dyslexia, so for him,

00:30:47.798 --> 00:30:52.508
he's had to put a lot of energy
into doing well in school and so on.

00:30:52.508 --> 00:30:55.628
I wonder how the program accommodates kids

00:30:55.628 --> 00:30:59.183
who have learning challenges,
disabilities, and so on.

00:30:59.183 --> 00:31:03.518
Sal: This is, again, another
surprising thing that wasn't by design.

00:31:03.518 --> 00:31:05.422
When I started, I viewed
it as for my cousins,

00:31:05.422 --> 00:31:07.290
maybe catered to someone like myself,

00:31:07.290 --> 00:31:10.547
or probably a lot of you all, when
you all were 12 or 13 years old.

00:31:10.547 --> 00:31:14.296
Some of the biggest feedback
we get are from parents

00:31:14.296 --> 00:31:17.599
and students with learning disabilities.

00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:22.049
Dyslexia, ADHD, actually some parents

00:31:22.049 --> 00:31:25.086
of autistic students have
loved it and what it is,

00:31:25.086 --> 00:31:27.373
dyslexia, probably the main -

00:31:27.373 --> 00:31:30.524
One is the videos are
very, it's not just -

00:31:30.524 --> 00:31:33.165
I've been told this by
dyslexics, that just the fact

00:31:33.165 --> 00:31:36.623
that I'm writing it out, it's not
just printed text that just pops up,

00:31:36.623 --> 00:31:39.374
is a big deal, the fact that
I'm talking while I'm doing it,

00:31:39.374 --> 00:31:41.123
it helps integrate everything
and that's the same thing

00:31:41.123 --> 00:31:42.738
for people with ADHD.

00:31:42.738 --> 00:31:44.131
The fact that I'm using
these different colors

00:31:44.131 --> 00:31:46.440
for the different concepts.

00:31:46.440 --> 00:31:47.790
I think the biggest thing, and once again,

00:31:47.790 --> 00:31:49.584
this goes to the form factor,
is that it's self-paced.

00:31:49.584 --> 00:31:54.082
I think a lot of a dyslexic
student, they're stressed,

00:31:54.082 --> 00:31:55.518
and as soon as you're
stressed, you can't learn.

00:31:55.518 --> 00:31:57.419
That's the thing that most -

00:31:57.419 --> 00:32:00.188
There's stress if it's taking
you half a second longer

00:32:00.188 --> 00:32:04.194
to process something, but
you have this assembly line,

00:32:04.194 --> 00:32:06.195
move along at the same
pace, that's going to leave

00:32:06.195 --> 00:32:09.556
your son behind and now
there's none of that stress.

00:32:09.556 --> 00:32:13.628
He can take as much time as he
needs to digest the concept.

00:32:13.628 --> 00:32:16.058
Yeah, it's weird.

00:32:16.058 --> 00:32:17.793
I don't want it to seem like
this is a cure all for everyone,

00:32:17.793 --> 00:32:22.342
but we didn't design it, but
the gifted students love it,

00:32:22.342 --> 00:32:24.622
the students who are
falling behind love it,

00:32:24.622 --> 00:32:27.622
the adult learners, so it
is one of those things.

00:32:27.622 --> 00:32:29.350
If you just give people a chance to learn,

00:32:29.350 --> 00:32:32.930
you don't talk down to them,
you respect their intelligence,

00:32:32.930 --> 00:32:34.488
you don't just teach them formulas,

00:32:34.488 --> 00:32:38.289
and you give them instant
feedback, it's amazing,

00:32:38.289 --> 00:32:40.094
it kind of works for everybody.

00:32:40.094 --> 00:32:41.360
Nick: Thank you.

00:32:41.360 --> 00:32:45.198
Jeff: Sal, at root in all of
this, is a product that has proven

00:32:45.198 --> 00:32:47.834
to be incredibly effective
and you mentioned earlier,

00:32:47.834 --> 00:32:51.172
YouTube originally had limitations
on the duration of the video

00:32:51.172 --> 00:32:53.842
and that certainly contributed
to the form factor,

00:32:53.842 --> 00:32:56.728
but I'm assuming over time
there's been a lot of iteration.

00:32:56.728 --> 00:32:58.896
From a product development perspective,

00:32:58.896 --> 00:33:01.312
could you shed a little light on
the approach that you've taken,

00:33:01.312 --> 00:33:04.019
because you're doing something
very right, obviously and -

00:33:04.019 --> 00:33:07.477
Sal: Yeah, I've learned
now that there are words

00:33:07.477 --> 00:33:11.479
to describe our process, lean and
agile and all of this kind of stuff.

00:33:11.479 --> 00:33:16.187
It is literally just put stuff
out there and see what happens.

00:33:17.902 --> 00:33:19.433
There's that, that's kind
of the process, and I think,

00:33:19.433 --> 00:33:23.158
in terms of the actual
thing that goes out there,

00:33:23.158 --> 00:33:26.705
it's amazing how much money
and resources have been wasted

00:33:26.705 --> 00:33:29.210
on trying to make educational
materials that look polished,

00:33:29.210 --> 00:33:31.909
that look like this, and as soon as
you watch them you're disengaged.

00:33:31.909 --> 00:33:35.868
I think it's this focus on
the end user and nothing else

00:33:35.868 --> 00:33:41.119
and not trying to pretend when I
started and now as an organization,

00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:45.523
we never want to fake
that we're good quality.

00:33:45.523 --> 00:33:47.861
A lot of these attempts
to really polish up things

00:33:47.861 --> 00:33:49.319
are to fake that it's good quality,

00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:53.198
because to maybe the
buyer who's not the user,

00:33:53.198 --> 00:33:55.166
the buyer might superficially
look at something and say,

00:33:55.166 --> 00:33:57.152
"Oh, there's computer graphics,
that must be good quality,"

00:33:57.152 --> 00:33:59.150
but I think the big takeaway
from the Khan Academy

00:33:59.150 --> 00:34:00.517
if something is really going
to take on, it just has

00:34:00.517 --> 00:34:02.639
to purely cater to the user.

00:34:02.639 --> 00:34:07.653
Even if it is scrappy and not the most
professional thing, it'll still resonate.

00:34:07.653 --> 00:34:10.450
In terms of the process,
I'm now getting approached

00:34:10.450 --> 00:34:13.954
by a lot of - I want other
people other than myself to teach

00:34:13.954 --> 00:34:15.955
and I've been approached
by some medical schools

00:34:15.955 --> 00:34:19.818
and others, "We want to do
something like this in our program."

00:34:19.818 --> 00:34:24.151
I've sat through some of
those meetings and they go on.

00:34:24.151 --> 00:34:25.432
We have to talk to this department.

00:34:25.432 --> 00:34:29.537
So now my policy is when
anyone wants to say,

00:34:29.537 --> 00:34:31.568
"We think we have some
people who might be able

00:34:31.568 --> 00:34:33.736
"to make videos and we want to use them,"

00:34:33.736 --> 00:34:36.899
I say, "No preliminary meetings,
just come to my office,

00:34:36.899 --> 00:34:39.151
"I'll go take a walk, and make the videos.

00:34:39.151 --> 00:34:42.517
"I'll show you how to do it," and I
just want them to start making videos.

00:34:42.517 --> 00:34:43.847
They're like, "Wait, we haven't planned."

00:34:43.847 --> 00:34:45.901
I was like, "No, they teach these classes.

00:34:45.901 --> 00:34:47.852
"Just tell them to come
make a 10 minute video

00:34:47.852 --> 00:34:51.521
"and then we'll talk about
how we can improve them."

00:34:51.521 --> 00:34:53.358
It kind of scares these people,

00:34:53.358 --> 00:34:59.298
the fact that they might actually
produce something. (laughter)

00:34:59.298 --> 00:35:00.818
I think that's the take.

00:35:00.818 --> 00:35:03.870
Even in our organization, since
we're such a small organization,

00:35:03.870 --> 00:35:08.540
we're like six people, going
on eight or seven people now.

00:35:08.872 --> 00:35:12.806
We're very bandwidth constrained,
so we're starting to -

00:35:13.008 --> 00:35:14.423
I tell Shantanu, who's our
president, if me and him

00:35:14.423 --> 00:35:15.756
are in the same meeting at the same time,

00:35:15.756 --> 00:35:19.211
there's something wrong with our process.

00:35:19.211 --> 00:35:22.604
We force people to go on walks
for meetings, so it's a fixed -

00:35:22.604 --> 00:35:24.589
I don't want to -

00:35:24.589 --> 00:35:26.423
Jeff: By all means (crosstalk)

00:35:26.423 --> 00:35:28.008
Sal: Okay, yeah, we do that.

00:35:28.008 --> 00:35:30.894
A lot of the (crosstalk)

00:35:30.894 --> 00:35:32.340
It's funny, if it's an important meeting,

00:35:32.340 --> 00:35:34.007
I say I'm going to go
to El Camino and back.

00:35:34.007 --> 00:35:37.563
If it's a shady meeting I'm
going to the train stop and back.

00:35:37.563 --> 00:35:46.316
(crosstalk) (laughter)

00:35:46.316 --> 00:35:47.713
You kind of know where
you fit in the hierarchy

00:35:47.713 --> 00:35:50.483
(laughter) how long of a walk.

00:35:50.483 --> 00:35:52.651
The other thing is we actually
want to eat our own dog food,

00:35:52.651 --> 00:35:54.852
which is the reason why
we're able to scale,

00:35:54.852 --> 00:35:57.588
why such a small organization
is able to, on some level,

00:35:57.588 --> 00:36:00.391
educate two million kids and
maybe 200 million kids eventually,

00:36:00.391 --> 00:36:02.595
or whatever, is that we're
using these technologies.

00:36:02.595 --> 00:36:06.066
Even our board meetings,
right now our board meetings,

00:36:06.066 --> 00:36:07.454
we spend three hours
just giving an update.

00:36:07.454 --> 00:36:10.859
I'm like, "This is silly, I'm
just going to make YouTube videos,

00:36:10.859 --> 00:36:13.327
"explaining what we've
been up to the last week."

00:36:13.327 --> 00:36:14.998
I have the screen - Huh?

00:36:14.998 --> 00:36:17.363
(unintelligible) It's a
roadshow and our board can pause

00:36:17.363 --> 00:36:23.370
and repeat it and now
(laughter) we're thinking

00:36:23.370 --> 00:36:25.776
of making this a practice
across the organization,

00:36:25.776 --> 00:36:28.242
where we're going to
get everyone Camtasia,

00:36:28.242 --> 00:36:29.443
and everyone at the end of the week,

00:36:29.443 --> 00:36:31.578
instead of writing me an email, like,

00:36:31.578 --> 00:36:32.912
"Hey, this is what I've been up to."

00:36:32.912 --> 00:36:34.282
They'll have their computer right there,

00:36:34.282 --> 00:36:36.717
"This is what I'm working
on," and just archive it.

00:36:36.717 --> 00:36:40.255
That way when we go into meetings,
we're all on the same page,

00:36:40.255 --> 00:36:41.423
we know what everyone's been up to.

00:36:41.423 --> 00:36:42.755
If someone says something
that's unfamiliar,

00:36:42.755 --> 00:36:44.874
I don't have to pause the
meeting, I can go back

00:36:44.874 --> 00:36:48.229
and see what they're up to and
actually get a much better -

00:36:48.229 --> 00:36:50.264
Actually, I've told a
bunch of people this.

00:36:50.264 --> 00:36:52.501
I have a buddy who's
working at another startup

00:36:52.501 --> 00:36:54.503
and I told him this idea
and he bought into it

00:36:54.503 --> 00:36:58.820
and he told their CEO, because she
wanted him to write a white paper

00:36:58.820 --> 00:37:01.607
about what he's up to and he's like,

00:37:01.607 --> 00:37:03.206
"Well how about I do a screencast,

00:37:03.206 --> 00:37:04.945
"because now you can pause, repeat.

00:37:04.945 --> 00:37:07.816
"It'll be me explaining it as
a human being and I can show -"

00:37:07.816 --> 00:37:08.849
It was funny, they had a lot of,

00:37:08.849 --> 00:37:11.290
"No, that's silly, it
needs to be a white paper,"

00:37:11.290 --> 00:37:14.122
but no it doesn't, it
should really just be -

00:37:14.122 --> 00:37:16.691
It takes 10 minutes to
make a 10 minute video,

00:37:16.691 --> 00:37:18.791
especially if it's just
for internal consumption,

00:37:18.791 --> 00:37:23.195
as opposed to a day to write a white
paper that no one's going to read.

00:37:23.195 --> 00:37:25.313
Yeah, that's what we're up to.

00:37:25.313 --> 00:37:29.059
Jeff: I was just reminded of
effectiveness of the RSA animations,

00:37:29.059 --> 00:37:35.155
which is very similar, in terms
of mapping out and (crosstalk)

00:37:35.155 --> 00:37:37.608
You hear folks, a lot of people
in the audience today, I'm sure,

00:37:37.608 --> 00:37:39.012
they'll rave about them.

00:37:39.012 --> 00:37:44.539
They'll say, "Have you seen this
on motivation?" (unintelligible)

00:37:44.539 --> 00:37:47.403
Audience Member: Hey Sal,
thanks for being here.

00:37:47.403 --> 00:37:49.834
A few weeks ago, we watched
Waiting for Superman

00:37:49.834 --> 00:37:53.330
here at LinkedIn and it
was incredibly moving.

00:37:53.330 --> 00:37:54.511
Sal: Depressing. (laughs)

00:37:54.511 --> 00:37:57.694
Audience Member: Yeah, very depressing.

00:37:57.694 --> 00:37:59.248
I learned about the Khan Academy

00:37:59.248 --> 00:38:02.249
after watching that
movie here at LinkedIn.

00:38:02.249 --> 00:38:05.701
After spending time on your
site, it was pretty obvious to me

00:38:05.701 --> 00:38:09.284
that what you have developed
can be the super hero solution

00:38:09.284 --> 00:38:11.925
for schools that don't have resources,

00:38:11.925 --> 00:38:14.897
for kids that don't have
resources, to help them learn.

00:38:14.897 --> 00:38:18.433
I'm just wondering if part
of the Khan Academy's charter

00:38:18.433 --> 00:38:21.768
is to get those kinds of
resources into the hands of kids

00:38:21.768 --> 00:38:23.670
where they don't have computers at home

00:38:23.670 --> 00:38:26.174
or the school systems
don't have computers.

00:38:26.174 --> 00:38:27.452
Is that part of the conversation?

00:38:27.452 --> 00:38:30.116
Sal: Yeah, absolutely.

00:38:30.116 --> 00:38:31.124
There's a couple of things here.

00:38:31.124 --> 00:38:32.533
One of the things, this is something

00:38:32.533 --> 00:38:34.566
that we're very protective
of as an organization,

00:38:34.566 --> 00:38:36.485
is the reason why I think we're resonating

00:38:36.485 --> 00:38:38.535
where a lot of other attempts,
governmental attempts,

00:38:38.535 --> 00:38:40.618
NGO attempts, for profit
attempts have all failed,

00:38:40.618 --> 00:38:44.092
is that everyone else is
trying to reform the beast.

00:38:44.092 --> 00:38:45.860
They're trying to go in
there and chisel at it

00:38:45.860 --> 00:38:49.329
and lobby this or that and all the rest.

00:38:49.329 --> 00:38:52.285
The reason why I think we've
worked is we've ignored the beast.

00:38:52.285 --> 00:38:55.836
We've just done our own thing
and go straight to the student.

00:38:55.836 --> 00:38:57.202
At the same time, this Los Altos thing,

00:38:57.202 --> 00:38:59.285
which kind of fell in
our lap, proves that no,

00:38:59.285 --> 00:39:01.308
this can help the beast.

00:39:01.308 --> 00:39:07.382
I shouldn't call it the
beast anymore. (laughter)

00:39:07.382 --> 00:39:12.552
What we're doing is, and this
wasn't our plan even a month ago,

00:39:12.552 --> 00:39:14.435
but especially the TED talk
took this to the next level,

00:39:14.435 --> 00:39:16.833
we are building a rollout SWAT team,

00:39:16.833 --> 00:39:18.851
and what we're going to do
over the next six months -

00:39:18.851 --> 00:39:20.193
The other thing we want to be careful of

00:39:20.193 --> 00:39:22.305
is not rolling out too fast and ruining.

00:39:22.305 --> 00:39:23.805
We're the Trader Joe's model.

00:39:23.805 --> 00:39:25.688
We want a community to really
want us and we're like,

00:39:25.688 --> 00:39:28.895
"Okay, you've got to
give us the right space,"

00:39:30.139 --> 00:39:34.094
We want the SWAT team over
the next 6 to 18 months,

00:39:34.094 --> 00:39:37.072
we're reached out now by about
10 school districts a day

00:39:37.072 --> 00:39:39.008
who want to do this and so we want to pick

00:39:39.008 --> 00:39:43.852
the 10 or 15 that are the
most likely to be a success.

00:39:43.852 --> 00:39:47.356
Hopefully they won't mainly be affluent
school districts like Los Altos.

00:39:47.356 --> 00:39:49.884
We're looking for underserved communities,

00:39:49.884 --> 00:39:51.565
some charter schools,
some independent schools,

00:39:51.565 --> 00:39:53.763
some regular middle class private
schools, all of the above.

00:39:53.763 --> 00:39:58.031
Some fancy private schools, and
we're actually going district wide

00:39:58.031 --> 00:40:00.050
in fourth, fifth, and sixth
grade in Los Altos, as well.

00:40:00.050 --> 00:40:02.740
So if you have a fourth or fifth
or sixth grader in Los Altos,

00:40:02.740 --> 00:40:08.428
you'll start hearing me in your
house whether you like it or not.

00:40:09.186 --> 00:40:10.510
We want to do that and once we have that

00:40:10.510 --> 00:40:12.926
and we learn more, we can productize it.

00:40:12.926 --> 00:40:16.166
Then, we're going to explore how
it can become a more massive role.

00:40:16.166 --> 00:40:18.831
The narrative throughout
this is we're also going

00:40:18.831 --> 00:40:20.485
to make it more and more self-service.

00:40:20.485 --> 00:40:22.122
Like the first question you had asked,

00:40:22.122 --> 00:40:25.581
it can be used in any
school district tomorrow.

00:40:25.581 --> 00:40:27.829
To some degree, that's
another volunteer opportunity.

00:40:27.829 --> 00:40:30.079
If your school district isn't
doing it and you think they should,

00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:32.662
you guys can become
the ambassadors for it.

00:40:32.662 --> 00:40:34.248
You guys all have the same -

00:40:34.248 --> 00:40:36.079
If you guys go to our website,
it'll be pretty obvious

00:40:36.079 --> 00:40:38.137
how you could implement
this in a classroom.

00:40:38.137 --> 00:40:40.412
You could be that person that
goes to the school district

00:40:40.412 --> 00:40:43.209
and say, "Look, we can do this."

00:40:43.209 --> 00:40:45.414
The Los Altos people are awesome
about other people coming in

00:40:45.414 --> 00:40:47.945
and observing the classrooms.

00:40:47.945 --> 00:40:51.005
If it's local, you say,
"Hey, why don't we go meet

00:40:51.005 --> 00:40:53.280
"with those Los Altos people,
observe their classroom,

00:40:53.280 --> 00:40:54.332
"and then we'll implement it here,"

00:40:54.332 --> 00:40:55.434
and you guys can shepherd it,

00:40:55.434 --> 00:40:58.365
make sure their firewall is set
up, whatever, so it happens.

00:40:58.365 --> 00:41:00.865
I think that, by itself,
could be a pretty, actually,

00:41:00.865 --> 00:41:04.365
that might be the most
powerful way to volunteer.

00:41:04.365 --> 00:41:06.200
Jeff: Sal, how do teachers respond to it?

00:41:06.200 --> 00:41:08.365
Do they feel like it's an incredible tool

00:41:08.365 --> 00:41:12.150
that helps take their
classrooms to the next level?

00:41:12.150 --> 00:41:13.652
At times, do they feel threatened by it?

00:41:13.652 --> 00:41:15.088
What kind of response do you get?

00:41:15.088 --> 00:41:17.365
Sal: We get a positive selection bias.

00:41:17.365 --> 00:41:19.057
The ones that reach out to us are the ones

00:41:19.057 --> 00:41:20.726
that are probably using us on some level

00:41:20.726 --> 00:41:22.865
and those teachers are
excited, more excited

00:41:22.865 --> 00:41:25.207
than I even thought, originally.

00:41:25.718 --> 00:41:28.769
I think the really skilled
teachers, the reason

00:41:28.769 --> 00:41:30.066
why they went into teaching is they wanted

00:41:30.066 --> 00:41:35.233
to form bonds with students, they
wanted to be creative themselves

00:41:35.233 --> 00:41:38.927
and test the children's creativity,
but when they go into a classroom,

00:41:38.927 --> 00:41:41.131
there's 30 kids, all different
levels, they have to do

00:41:41.131 --> 00:41:43.397
all of this classroom
management, "Be quiet,"

00:41:43.397 --> 00:41:46.317
and actually, that's almost more of the -

00:41:46.317 --> 00:41:49.105
If I had to become a teacher
tomorrow in a real classroom,

00:41:49.105 --> 00:41:50.650
that's the stuff I would have to learn.

00:41:50.650 --> 00:41:52.651
I actually did volunteer once in college

00:41:52.651 --> 00:41:54.877
and literally within ten
minutes, all of the kids

00:41:54.877 --> 00:41:58.114
were standing on top of the table
and I had no idea what I did wrong.

00:41:58.114 --> 00:42:00.047
It was like this ...

00:42:00.047 --> 00:42:02.066
The teachers want to be
this liberated person

00:42:02.066 --> 00:42:06.085
who can form bonds, who can
dig in, who have the data,

00:42:06.085 --> 00:42:08.223
so the teachers who've
seen that, they love it.

00:42:08.223 --> 00:42:09.492
These Los Altos teachers love it.

00:42:09.492 --> 00:42:11.962
I spoke to all of the Los Altos
elementary school teachers

00:42:11.962 --> 00:42:14.336
and they're pretty much,
as far as I can tell,

00:42:14.336 --> 00:42:16.033
it seems like they're on board.

00:42:16.033 --> 00:42:20.971
I think the resistance comes from people

00:42:20.971 --> 00:42:22.919
who aren't familiar with
what we're trying to do

00:42:22.919 --> 00:42:26.745
and they just see the headline,
they just get a glimpse

00:42:26.745 --> 00:42:29.379
of kind of what it's
about, so unfortunately

00:42:29.379 --> 00:42:34.251
there have been headlines like,

00:42:34.251 --> 00:42:36.722
"Is This the Solution to
Our Education Problem?"

00:42:36.722 --> 00:42:41.192
We think it is on some level, but
people have a knee jerk reaction

00:42:41.192 --> 00:42:43.494
to this kind of panacea type thing.

00:42:43.494 --> 00:42:46.419
They're like, "Oh no, this
isn't it and this is going to be

00:42:46.419 --> 00:42:47.922
"just drill and kill learning."

00:42:47.922 --> 00:42:49.399
They'll say all of that type of thing.

00:42:49.399 --> 00:42:51.636
There's obviously a lot of people on -

00:42:51.636 --> 00:42:54.420
We try to stay out of political
debates, but there's a lot of people

00:42:54.420 --> 00:42:57.558
who view Khan Academy
as an empowering tool

00:42:57.558 --> 00:43:04.903
against things like teachers'
unions or against things like -

00:43:06.283 --> 00:43:09.307
When someone in a teachers'
union sees someone else say,

00:43:09.307 --> 00:43:12.740
"Oh, now that Khan Academy's here,
this is going to get you guys,"

00:43:12.740 --> 00:43:15.581
they immediately react against it.

00:43:16.516 --> 00:43:19.234
We try not to enter those
debates, but what I will say is

00:43:19.234 --> 00:43:21.233
no, we're empowering the teachers.

00:43:21.233 --> 00:43:22.901
It's going to free up their time.

00:43:22.901 --> 00:43:25.817
Right now, this is why teachers
are, I think, so frustrated

00:43:25.817 --> 00:43:27.649
is every time there's a
new study that comes out

00:43:27.649 --> 00:43:29.805
that shows that schools are falling behind

00:43:29.805 --> 00:43:32.650
and we're falling behind Senegal
or whatever, some other country,

00:43:32.650 --> 00:43:37.539
the reaction of policymakers
is we have to micromanage more.

00:43:37.539 --> 00:43:40.651
The belief is that the micromanagement
is all around the focus

00:43:40.651 --> 00:43:43.444
of de-risking the worst teachers,

00:43:43.444 --> 00:43:46.682
de-risking the worst
students, on some level.

00:43:46.682 --> 00:43:50.971
What it does is it completely
straps everyone else.

00:43:50.971 --> 00:43:53.693
What we're doing now is
we're liberating everyone.

00:43:53.693 --> 00:43:55.621
You can cater to everyone
and to some degree,

00:43:55.621 --> 00:43:58.400
you are de-risking the
teacher who might not have,

00:43:58.400 --> 00:43:59.652
and I'm not saying this is most teachers,

00:43:59.652 --> 00:44:01.362
but in any industry there is a bell curve

00:44:01.362 --> 00:44:04.471
and there is the bottom 5%
of teachers and 5% of kids

00:44:04.471 --> 00:44:06.247
are in front of the bottom 5% of teachers

00:44:06.247 --> 00:44:09.499
and you can de-risk them because
now they have an alternative

00:44:09.499 --> 00:44:13.880
and now the top 95%, or the top
50%, or the top 5% of teachers

00:44:13.880 --> 00:44:17.050
are liberated to fully express
their abilities, their creativity.

00:44:17.050 --> 00:44:20.750
They could think of stuff like my
trading game or even better stuff.

00:44:21.416 --> 00:44:23.898
I would say on the whole, the ones
that have watched the TED talks,

00:44:23.898 --> 00:44:27.235
the ones that have understood what
we're trying to do are pretty excited.

00:44:27.235 --> 00:44:30.004
The one other dimension
is, and this is happening

00:44:30.004 --> 00:44:33.364
in Los Altos classroom,
there's fifth graders doing

00:44:33.364 --> 00:44:36.220
the chain rule in a Los Altos classroom.

00:44:36.220 --> 00:44:38.449
As a teacher, that can
be a little daunting.

00:44:38.449 --> 00:44:39.865
You're a fifth grade
teacher, you signed up

00:44:39.865 --> 00:44:41.781
to be a fifth grade
teacher, and there's a kid

00:44:41.781 --> 00:44:44.780
doing calculus in the room.

00:44:44.780 --> 00:44:47.032
What we saw from the one
teacher when we observed it,

00:44:47.032 --> 00:44:50.004
she literally, and he was
marked by the dashboard as red,

00:44:50.004 --> 00:44:51.501
he wasn't understanding the chain rule,

00:44:51.501 --> 00:44:55.241
so she's like, "I'd better intervene,"
but what was really powerful

00:44:55.241 --> 00:44:59.781
was that she went and
she said, "You know what?

00:44:59.781 --> 00:45:03.282
"I haven't seen this since college
and I forgot how to do this

00:45:03.282 --> 00:45:04.515
"or what this was all about.

00:45:04.515 --> 00:45:06.531
"Why don't we learn it together?"

00:45:06.531 --> 00:45:08.656
I was there observe -

00:45:08.656 --> 00:45:10.991
It immediately clicked with the kid.

00:45:10.991 --> 00:45:13.394
It almost felt like he respected
the teacher ten times more

00:45:13.394 --> 00:45:16.189
because she was willing
to let down her guard

00:45:16.189 --> 00:45:21.418
as the source of all correct
answers in the world.

00:45:22.402 --> 00:45:24.588
A teacher has to feel comfortable.

00:45:24.588 --> 00:45:27.694
Actually, on the same
line, there was a reporter

00:45:27.694 --> 00:45:30.103
who was doing a story on one
of the fifth grade classrooms

00:45:30.103 --> 00:45:32.807
and there was one girl in there
who was doing trigonometry

00:45:32.807 --> 00:45:34.498
and the reporter sits
down next to her and says,

00:45:34.498 --> 00:45:36.890
"Do you think this is fifth grade math?"

00:45:36.890 --> 00:45:44.274
and the girl goes, "No, I think
it's sixth grade." (laughter)

00:45:44.274 --> 00:45:45.890
Jeff: Go ahead.

00:45:45.890 --> 00:45:48.879
Ron: Thank you for being here.

00:45:48.879 --> 00:45:51.917
I watched your TED talk twice.

00:45:51.917 --> 00:45:55.224
Once I discovered it on
LinkedIn today, by the way,

00:45:55.224 --> 00:45:59.025
and it was like 11 PM,
something like that.

00:45:59.025 --> 00:46:01.991
I watched it, I was completely blown away,

00:46:01.991 --> 00:46:04.496
I called my wife, "I need
to show you something,"

00:46:04.496 --> 00:46:07.199
so we watched it together the second time.

00:46:07.199 --> 00:46:13.269
It made me deeply depressed (laughter)

00:46:13.269 --> 00:46:24.048
and I love your system (crosstalk)

00:46:24.048 --> 00:46:29.554
The problem here is that you
have two aspects in this system.

00:46:29.554 --> 00:46:32.353
One is you learn at your pace.

00:46:32.353 --> 00:46:35.019
The second one, you
exercise collaboratively,

00:46:35.019 --> 00:46:38.398
in the room with other kids.

00:46:38.398 --> 00:46:41.853
It needs to be implemented in
the school system in some way.

00:46:41.853 --> 00:46:45.570
You can't do that without
implementing in the school system.

00:46:45.570 --> 00:46:48.138
School systems are slow.

00:46:48.138 --> 00:46:50.436
My kid is four and a half years old.

00:46:50.436 --> 00:46:55.676
I want her to do that in two years.

00:46:56.046 --> 00:46:59.313
I don't live in Los Altos. (laughter)

00:46:59.313 --> 00:47:01.717
Sal: Neither do I.

00:47:01.717 --> 00:47:03.485
I have another interesting
story to tell you.

00:47:03.485 --> 00:47:07.220
I don't live in Los Altos, either, but
I'll say I have another interesting -

00:47:07.220 --> 00:47:10.592
Ron: Actually, I was growing
up in the third world

00:47:10.592 --> 00:47:12.758
and I made it here to the Silicon Valley,

00:47:12.758 --> 00:47:16.300
which I think is quite
an achievement for myself

00:47:16.300 --> 00:47:19.501
and now I feel as if I'm
back to the third world,

00:47:19.501 --> 00:47:23.345
because my kid will not be that genius.

00:47:23.345 --> 00:47:28.744
It will create a few million genius
kids and a couple of billions

00:47:28.744 --> 00:47:32.258
who are as dumb as they
are right now. (laughing)

00:47:32.258 --> 00:47:37.753
Sorry. (crosstalk)

00:47:37.753 --> 00:47:42.251
How can we scale it fast?

00:47:42.251 --> 00:47:47.863
I have two years. (laughter)

00:47:47.863 --> 00:47:50.539
Sal: I'm actually very close to your -

00:47:50.539 --> 00:47:54.970
I actually live about 100 feet
from the Los Altos district border.

00:47:54.970 --> 00:47:58.637
I live in Mountain View, near Cuesta Park

00:47:58.637 --> 00:48:03.211
and the same house costs $300,000
more, literally 200 feet away,

00:48:03.211 --> 00:48:07.221
because of this discrepancy
in the school system.

00:48:07.221 --> 00:48:09.897
One of these fifth graders actually
goaded me on when I heard the story,

00:48:09.897 --> 00:48:13.027
is that on that same news
piece, these kids were doing,

00:48:13.027 --> 00:48:16.197
they call it a rocket run, where
the teacher sets up this thing,

00:48:16.197 --> 00:48:17.838
where they measure how
fast they can do something.

00:48:17.838 --> 00:48:20.423
They usually do a very simple exercise.

00:48:20.423 --> 00:48:22.370
They took all this footage
when they went to the classroom

00:48:22.370 --> 00:48:24.145
and some of these kids
are doing trigonometry

00:48:24.145 --> 00:48:26.307
and all sorts of crazy stuff,
but the footage they showed

00:48:26.307 --> 00:48:29.865
on NBC nightly news was
these kids doing arithmetic.

00:48:29.865 --> 00:48:32.244
When I talked to the teacher,
they loved the news piece,

00:48:32.244 --> 00:48:34.329
but they really didn't like the
fact that the footage showed

00:48:34.329 --> 00:48:37.411
them doing arithmetic,
but in the news piece,

00:48:37.411 --> 00:48:41.494
they mistakenly said this
was a pilot in Mountain View,

00:48:41.494 --> 00:48:43.994
so one of the kids said, "Well, at least
they think we're in Mountain View,"

00:48:43.994 --> 00:48:50.019
(laughter) which I had the same reaction.

00:48:50.019 --> 00:48:54.458
I was like, "No, Mountain
View must come back."

00:48:54.458 --> 00:48:59.577
The simple answer is we're
trying to go as fast -

00:48:59.577 --> 00:49:01.800
It seems like this will
work is if we can do

00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:05.804
enough powerful use cases.

00:49:05.804 --> 00:49:07.441
The bay area is going
to be disproportionately

00:49:07.441 --> 00:49:09.209
where most of these use cases are.

00:49:09.209 --> 00:49:12.325
Already, I've been told
by Los Altos people,

00:49:12.325 --> 00:49:14.825
Palo Alto unified, none of
these are cheap areas either,

00:49:14.825 --> 00:49:20.187
but all of them have started to
tour them and they seem interested.

00:49:20.187 --> 00:49:23.695
If you can do these
really powerful use cases.

00:49:23.695 --> 00:49:28.434
Probably the scariest thing is
when people all over the country,

00:49:28.434 --> 00:49:31.972
like you, see that there are
kids in these 10 or 15 schools,

00:49:31.972 --> 00:49:35.035
of all different, not just
affluent neighborhoods,

00:49:35.035 --> 00:49:37.494
but across the board, they're
learning at their own pace,

00:49:37.494 --> 00:49:40.700
they're engaged in mathematics,
the classroom is fun,

00:49:40.700 --> 00:49:43.198
and they're doing
trigonometry or whatever,

00:49:43.198 --> 00:49:45.402
you're going to get
scared and you're going

00:49:45.402 --> 00:49:49.869
to really rock the boat in
your local school district,

00:49:49.869 --> 00:49:50.491
you and the other parents.

00:49:50.491 --> 00:49:55.040
I think the PTA is probably the
biggest, strongest influence.

00:49:56.029 --> 00:49:57.358
Hopefully we can address
your school district,

00:49:57.358 --> 00:50:01.824
maybe it'll be one of the
15, but massive change,

00:50:01.824 --> 00:50:02.901
that's what it's going to be.

00:50:02.901 --> 00:50:05.164
It's going to be parents
having that visceral reaction

00:50:05.164 --> 00:50:09.631
that you just had, because
that's the best way to disrupt.

00:50:09.631 --> 00:50:12.092
I have a two year old, so
I have about three years

00:50:12.092 --> 00:50:15.802
to get Mountain View
up to speed. (laughter)

00:50:15.802 --> 00:50:17.374
Ron: Thank you very much.

00:50:17.374 --> 00:50:20.072
Jeff: Sal, oftentimes when
people think about hacking

00:50:20.072 --> 00:50:22.543
and ways in which they can get involved,

00:50:22.543 --> 00:50:25.233
I'm sure they're thinking
about the code, the product.

00:50:25.233 --> 00:50:26.644
You were talking about modules earlier,

00:50:26.644 --> 00:50:33.553
but I think parent-led advocacy
and demand driven approach

00:50:33.553 --> 00:50:36.318
is going to be important
to accelerate things.

00:50:36.318 --> 00:50:38.068
One of the things we may
want to start thinking about

00:50:38.068 --> 00:50:42.570
is how we create a little bit of an,
"I want my MTV" strategy or energy,

00:50:42.570 --> 00:50:47.152
where we make it incredibly simple
for parents to come together,

00:50:47.152 --> 00:50:49.035
to start requesting it
within their communities.

00:50:49.035 --> 00:50:50.235
Sal: Yeah, that'd be awesome, actually.

00:50:50.235 --> 00:50:51.653
That'd be super powerful.

00:50:51.653 --> 00:50:54.320
Yeah, an online campaign.

00:50:54.320 --> 00:50:56.388
Jeff: Maybe some folks can
get together afterwards

00:50:56.388 --> 00:50:58.019
and we can do some brainstorming on that.

00:50:58.019 --> 00:50:59.213
Michael.

00:50:59.213 --> 00:51:01.068
Michael: Hey Sal, thanks
a lot for coming in.

00:51:01.068 --> 00:51:03.236
In spirit of brainstorming,
I just wanted to throw out

00:51:03.236 --> 00:51:06.522
a possibility of LinkedIn Skills seems

00:51:06.522 --> 00:51:09.354
like a really natural connection
here with Khan Academy,

00:51:09.354 --> 00:51:12.258
because we have people on
our site who have skills

00:51:12.258 --> 00:51:14.260
and they're highlighting
the skills over time.

00:51:14.260 --> 00:51:17.562
They may be available to
help, you may be going

00:51:17.562 --> 00:51:19.736
and looking at skills,
wanting to learn them,

00:51:19.736 --> 00:51:22.635
and that could be a good jumping
off point to Khan Academy.

00:51:22.635 --> 00:51:24.581
On the flipside, coming
back from Khan Academy,

00:51:24.581 --> 00:51:27.276
over to LinkedIn, so that just
seemed like a really natural -

00:51:27.276 --> 00:51:30.013
Sal: Yeah, I'll take
another level to that,

00:51:30.013 --> 00:51:32.211
because the one thing that
we've been experimenting with

00:51:32.211 --> 00:51:36.351
is how do we increase the
teaching base beyond me.

00:51:36.351 --> 00:51:40.162
It's not a rate limiting factor
for us where we are right now,

00:51:40.162 --> 00:51:43.499
but it would be huge if everyone
taught everything they know.

00:51:43.499 --> 00:51:48.684
If you had a skill, it's funny
the first hedge fund I worked for,

00:51:48.684 --> 00:51:50.874
the (unintelligible)
retired, but then the second

00:51:50.874 --> 00:51:52.541
hedge fund I worked for,
they were so impressed

00:51:52.541 --> 00:51:55.351
by my videos on finance that I
almost didn't have to interview.

00:51:55.351 --> 00:51:58.934
They were like, "Wow, this guy
clearly knows his finance."

00:51:58.934 --> 00:52:00.883
There could be something very
interesting with LinkedIn.

00:52:00.883 --> 00:52:04.184
We could work out the details
where you teach what you know.

00:52:04.184 --> 00:52:06.686
One, that obviously has social good to it,

00:52:06.686 --> 00:52:08.352
but it's huge marketing for yourself,

00:52:08.352 --> 00:52:10.892
just because other people
will watch what you know,

00:52:10.892 --> 00:52:14.019
and if any employer says,
"Well, does he know it?"

00:52:14.019 --> 00:52:15.664
Clearly, he's teaching the subject.

00:52:15.664 --> 00:52:16.899
Michael: Your video count.

00:52:16.899 --> 00:52:18.267
Sal: Your video account, especially.

00:52:18.267 --> 00:52:19.184
Michael: 8,000 people have watched this.

00:52:19.184 --> 00:52:20.767
Sal: Exactly, especially
if other people endorse it

00:52:20.767 --> 00:52:24.434
and there's some type
of curation going on.

00:52:24.434 --> 00:52:25.307
That would be powerful.

00:52:25.307 --> 00:52:27.910
We've been thinking,
there's TED and there TEDx.

00:52:27.910 --> 00:52:29.767
I don't know if you all are
familiar with the difference.

00:52:29.767 --> 00:52:31.251
TEDx is kind of the franchise.

00:52:31.251 --> 00:52:34.584
You could start a TEDx Shoreline
and as long as it meets

00:52:34.584 --> 00:52:37.387
their standards, you do a
conference and then you record

00:52:37.387 --> 00:52:39.184
all the videos and then TED will
look at some of those videos

00:52:39.184 --> 00:52:42.099
and the good ones they'll put on TED.com.

00:52:42.099 --> 00:52:44.063
We've been thinking about doing
something like that with Khan Academy.

00:52:44.063 --> 00:52:50.916
We've jokingly called it xKhan. (laughter)

00:52:52.115 --> 00:52:53.946
This could be an interesting -

00:52:53.946 --> 00:52:55.697
I'm just brainstorming out loud.

00:52:55.697 --> 00:52:59.838
Something like this, it gels with
LinkedIn's showing what you know,

00:52:59.838 --> 00:53:02.530
your network being able
to appreciate that,

00:53:02.530 --> 00:53:04.385
and at the same time,
helping to potentially build

00:53:04.385 --> 00:53:08.478
a very powerful library
of really useful stuff.

00:53:08.478 --> 00:53:11.146
A lot of it could just be very hands-on,

00:53:11.146 --> 00:53:12.479
"Hey, I'm the office manager.

00:53:12.479 --> 00:53:15.978
"This is how I think about
ordering," very basic stuff

00:53:15.978 --> 00:53:17.890
or it could be very sophisticated stuff.

00:53:17.890 --> 00:53:19.528
Michael: Nobody knows
anybody else's job very well.

00:53:19.528 --> 00:53:22.278
Sal: Exactly, and actually,
that's a huge corporate kind

00:53:22.278 --> 00:53:25.398
of knowledge management difficulty.

00:53:25.398 --> 00:53:26.565
This would be -

00:53:26.565 --> 00:53:28.501
Yeah, right now in a lot of corporations,

00:53:28.501 --> 00:53:30.239
the ability to rise up
is based on how well

00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:32.528
you can market yourself,
but now all of a sudden,

00:53:32.528 --> 00:53:35.363
if you're like, "Wow, now I
understand what that person does

00:53:35.363 --> 00:53:40.863
"and it's brilliant," there's
all sorts of positive things

00:53:40.863 --> 00:53:43.811
that could be from that.

00:53:43.811 --> 00:53:44.426
Michael: Thanks.

00:53:44.426 --> 00:53:48.060
Jeff: What if we just created
a "tell us what you know"

00:53:48.060 --> 00:53:53.937
piece of text on the Skills page,
so it's not a status update,

00:53:53.937 --> 00:53:56.636
140 characters or less, it's 10, 12,

00:53:56.636 --> 00:53:58.840
however long the duration
would be in minutes

00:53:58.840 --> 00:54:01.394
and we could give people a
little space on their profile

00:54:01.394 --> 00:54:05.392
to upload the video and use
Skills as a jumping off point,

00:54:05.392 --> 00:54:07.477
so it's essentially
highly targeted marketing

00:54:07.477 --> 00:54:09.450
for the right people, the right expertise.

00:54:09.450 --> 00:54:12.354
We could also leverage Skills, the
module in the middle of that page,

00:54:12.354 --> 00:54:17.142
showing some of the most influential
people within that skill community.

00:54:17.142 --> 00:54:20.694
We may want to think about sending
a mail to some of those folks

00:54:20.694 --> 00:54:23.630
and it's all for good, so we could say,

00:54:23.630 --> 00:54:25.700
"How would you like to get
involved with being the first

00:54:25.700 --> 00:54:28.836
"to tell us what you know
and participate in some kind

00:54:28.836 --> 00:54:31.615
"of collaboration between the
Khan Academy and LinkedIn?"

00:54:31.615 --> 00:54:33.238
Sal: Yeah, that's something
that would be awesome.

00:54:33.238 --> 00:54:34.282
Jeff: That's a great idea, Mike.

00:54:34.282 --> 00:54:35.031
Okay.

00:54:35.031 --> 00:54:36.745
Audience Member: Hi
Sal, thanks for coming.

00:54:36.745 --> 00:54:38.448
I know your focus is primary education,

00:54:38.448 --> 00:54:42.584
but I wanted to ask you a little bit
about our university system here.

00:54:42.584 --> 00:54:46.204
There's been a lot of talk recently
about a bubble in higher education.

00:54:46.204 --> 00:54:47.653
Sal: Yeah, Peter Thiel.

00:54:47.653 --> 00:54:49.204
Audience Member: Exactly.

00:54:49.204 --> 00:54:51.036
College costs are ballooning.

00:54:51.036 --> 00:54:57.121
As a society, we're placing more
and more emphasis on credentials.

00:54:57.121 --> 00:54:58.597
Ivy league is the big thing.

00:54:58.597 --> 00:55:01.704
Everybody wants their kids
to go to the ivy league.

00:55:01.704 --> 00:55:04.124
Do you have any thoughts about
reforming that kind of system?

00:55:04.124 --> 00:55:05.738
Well, not reform, because I know -

00:55:05.738 --> 00:55:06.623
Sal: Reinventing.

00:55:06.623 --> 00:55:10.204
Audience Member: Reinventing
that system specifically

00:55:10.204 --> 00:55:14.139
and maybe if there's
anything we need to change

00:55:14.139 --> 00:55:17.617
our way of thinking, as a culture,
so that we can get back on track.

00:55:17.617 --> 00:55:22.014
Sal: Yeah, to give you all
background, Peter Thiel,

00:55:22.014 --> 00:55:24.249
one of the founders of PayPal,
he runs Clarion Capital,

00:55:24.249 --> 00:55:26.251
another hedge fund guy.

00:55:26.251 --> 00:55:30.088
He's been pretty vocal about
this bubble in higher education.

00:55:30.088 --> 00:55:32.026
He's been good at spotting
the previous bubbles.

00:55:32.026 --> 00:55:34.141
The housing bubble, the tech
bubble, and all of that.

00:55:34.141 --> 00:55:37.807
It's a bubble because
people are willing to pay

00:55:37.807 --> 00:55:39.599
ridiculous amounts of money in perception

00:55:39.599 --> 00:55:42.307
that it's a good investment
when it really isn't,

00:55:42.307 --> 00:55:44.307
which is what a bubble is.

00:55:44.307 --> 00:55:45.440
That's true with the housing bubble,

00:55:45.440 --> 00:55:48.253
that's true of the tech bubble.

00:55:49.390 --> 00:55:52.413
Beyond just talking about it,
his attempt at disrupting it,

00:55:52.413 --> 00:55:54.624
which I think is in the right direction,

00:55:54.624 --> 00:55:58.527
but I don't think it goes quite
enough, is he started this program,

00:55:58.527 --> 00:56:01.126
where he's targeting the same
kids who would otherwise go

00:56:01.126 --> 00:56:03.509
to Stanford or MIT or
Harvard or wherever and say,

00:56:03.509 --> 00:56:05.720
"Look, I'll pay you 100 grand
if you drop out of school

00:56:05.720 --> 00:56:07.965
"and come start a business."

00:56:09.059 --> 00:56:13.024
He's trying to make it so
there's something very desirable,

00:56:13.024 --> 00:56:18.425
like very prestigious to have, and
probably will help your career,

00:56:18.425 --> 00:56:21.298
that doesn't cost money, that you
would give up that other thing,

00:56:21.298 --> 00:56:22.425
you would give up the college degree

00:56:22.425 --> 00:56:24.091
and this might become more desirable.

00:56:24.091 --> 00:56:28.944
I think what would really work,
to take his thing to the -

00:56:28.944 --> 00:56:33.016
I've thrown it out as a crazy
idea three or four weeks ago

00:56:33.016 --> 00:56:34.350
and now it's getting a little less crazy

00:56:34.350 --> 00:56:38.753
is I think it would be
awesome to start a university,

00:56:38.753 --> 00:56:42.998
for lack of a better
word, in Mountain View.

00:56:44.661 --> 00:56:46.574
This first university, I don't
want to make it sound elitist,

00:56:46.574 --> 00:56:48.698
but it would focus on the
best and the brightest.

00:56:48.698 --> 00:56:50.531
It would focus on the same
kids that are applying

00:56:50.531 --> 00:56:52.679
to Stanford and MIT and Harvard
and all of this right now.

00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:54.363
I'll take a tangent on why I say that,

00:56:54.363 --> 00:56:57.502
because I think that's the
only way you can disrupt.

00:56:58.086 --> 00:57:01.097
The goal here, instead of these
students paying $50,000 a year

00:57:01.097 --> 00:57:03.262
and going into debt, they would be paid.

00:57:03.262 --> 00:57:05.976
The reason why I say that is if
you can make the best education

00:57:05.976 --> 00:57:09.847
have negative tuition, then
it's a geeky calculus analogy,

00:57:09.847 --> 00:57:13.679
by the squeeze theorem,
literally, how can anyone else

00:57:13.679 --> 00:57:18.929
justify charging anything, if the
best education is negative tuition?

00:57:18.929 --> 00:57:22.728
You get people to come
in and their curriculum

00:57:22.728 --> 00:57:27.012
is literally six months at
LinkedIn, six months at Google.

00:57:27.012 --> 00:57:30.015
They work in software engineering,
they work in product management,

00:57:30.015 --> 00:57:34.238
they work in marketing, they work
in PR, they work in accounting.

00:57:34.238 --> 00:57:37.083
Six months at Apple, six
months working for a VC firm,

00:57:37.083 --> 00:57:42.813
six months developing iPad apps,
or whatever and they are paid.

00:57:42.813 --> 00:57:45.885
Some of the money goes to the
students, maybe 30 grand a year

00:57:45.885 --> 00:57:47.385
and some of it goes to the university

00:57:47.385 --> 00:57:49.554
to set up the environment
that you should have.

00:57:49.554 --> 00:57:51.417
It's not this purely commercial thing.

00:57:51.417 --> 00:57:53.667
You have all of the things that
we all liked about college.

00:57:53.667 --> 00:57:57.528
You have a campus, you have
pretty trees to read books under,

00:57:57.528 --> 00:58:03.249
(laughter) you have venues to meet
your future husband or wife. (laughter)

00:58:03.249 --> 00:58:10.182
And you have a scaffold
of truly academic material

00:58:10.182 --> 00:58:13.001
that you can do at your own pace,
something like the Khan Academy.

00:58:13.001 --> 00:58:14.644
The faculty and you have seminars.

00:58:14.644 --> 00:58:16.167
"Hey, I'm working on
a project at LinkedIn,

00:58:16.167 --> 00:58:18.333
"but you know what, this is going
to require some signal processing.

00:58:18.333 --> 00:58:19.773
"I don't know signal processing."

00:58:19.773 --> 00:58:23.334
I go back to the campus, there
are either other students there,

00:58:23.334 --> 00:58:25.833
there's Khan Academy
resources, or there are mentors

00:58:25.833 --> 00:58:28.961
in the valley who are willing to
work with me on signal processing.

00:58:28.961 --> 00:58:30.917
Then, I learn it.

00:58:30.917 --> 00:58:32.418
You go through this, so
what's going to happen

00:58:32.418 --> 00:58:35.135
is these students are going to
end up finishing not with debt.

00:58:35.135 --> 00:58:36.417
They're going to have money saved,

00:58:36.417 --> 00:58:37.901
they're going to be way more desirable

00:58:37.901 --> 00:58:40.304
by this whole slew of companies,

00:58:40.304 --> 00:58:42.334
and they have the downside protection,

00:58:42.334 --> 00:58:44.307
because they still had a little
bit of an academic scaffold.

00:58:44.307 --> 00:58:46.644
They'll do well on the MCAT,
the GRE, if they decide

00:58:46.644 --> 00:58:51.001
they want to become a doctor or
a lawyer, they can still do that.

00:58:51.001 --> 00:58:57.720
I think if you do that, it'll be pretty
hard for Stanford to justify charging ...

00:58:57.720 --> 00:58:59.417
The other thing is, you could
go right out of the gate,

00:58:59.417 --> 00:59:01.059
because if you get the employers involved,

00:59:01.059 --> 00:59:02.528
especially these marquee employers,

00:59:02.528 --> 00:59:03.795
then maybe even the Khan Academy,

00:59:03.795 --> 00:59:07.195
because we have a brand and
it's in the right place,

00:59:08.033 --> 00:59:11.144
you don't face that difficulty
of starting a university

00:59:11.144 --> 00:59:12.285
that no one's ever heard of.

00:59:12.285 --> 00:59:14.728
People will hear of this
university on day one.

00:59:14.728 --> 00:59:17.689
I think something like
that, if that's successful,

00:59:17.689 --> 00:59:21.145
then all of a sudden the tuition
inflation becomes very hard to justify.

00:59:21.145 --> 00:59:23.864
Then you can start more and
more of these around the country

00:59:23.864 --> 00:59:26.832
at different levels,
different specializations.

00:59:26.832 --> 00:59:29.838
Audience Member: I know
Olin University in Boston.

00:59:29.838 --> 00:59:30.772
I don't know if you're familiar.

00:59:30.772 --> 00:59:31.645
Sal: Yeah.

00:59:31.645 --> 00:59:33.374
Audience Member: Tried to do
something similar to that.

00:59:33.374 --> 00:59:34.727
It was like free engineering college.

00:59:34.727 --> 00:59:36.228
Most of their professors were from MIT

00:59:36.228 --> 00:59:39.345
and they did the project
exploration (crosstalk)

00:59:39.345 --> 00:59:41.851
I know some people had
good results going there.

00:59:41.851 --> 00:59:43.049
I don't know if you've looked at that.

00:59:43.049 --> 00:59:44.728
Sal: I think the problem there, and
actually, I know Olin pretty well.

00:59:44.728 --> 00:59:49.095
My adviser at MIT actually ended
up becoming a professor at Olin.

00:59:49.590 --> 00:59:52.213
I think the problem is ...

00:59:52.213 --> 00:59:54.379
The reason why people are
paying $200,000 right now

00:59:54.379 --> 00:59:59.816
is to have a signal to send to
the job market that I kick butt.

00:59:59.816 --> 01:00:01.921
Even though Olin, I haven't gone to Olin,

01:00:01.921 --> 01:00:04.381
but I can imagine it's
probably a very good education,

01:00:04.381 --> 01:00:06.297
that's not why people
are spending $200,000.

01:00:06.297 --> 01:00:10.976
They want that signal, I went
to MIT, I went to Cal Tech.

01:00:10.976 --> 01:00:12.215
It's the brand.

01:00:12.215 --> 01:00:14.947
Olin has a problem of that
and it also has the problem

01:00:14.947 --> 01:00:17.082
with the connections,
I don't know if Google,

01:00:17.082 --> 01:00:19.133
maybe Google does, but I
don't know if Goldman Sachs

01:00:19.133 --> 01:00:21.383
recruits at Olin, though
maybe they should,

01:00:21.383 --> 01:00:25.321
because they don't know what Olin is.

01:00:26.132 --> 01:00:28.626
I think the key thing would have
to have some type of partnership

01:00:28.626 --> 01:00:30.692
with very marquee recruits.

01:00:30.692 --> 01:00:34.378
If you get an ecosystem
of ten of the top tier,

01:00:34.378 --> 01:00:36.503
the companies everyone wants to work for,

01:00:36.503 --> 01:00:38.567
the other companies, the
next tier of companies

01:00:38.567 --> 01:00:41.294
are going to say, "Wait, if
Google or LinkedIn's getting

01:00:41.294 --> 01:00:44.462
"all of its talent there, we
better get our talent there, too.

01:00:44.462 --> 01:00:47.209
"We don't want to look like
we're getting the scraps."

01:00:47.209 --> 01:00:51.127
I think it's very important to
build the whole ecosystem there.

01:00:51.127 --> 01:00:52.294
Actually, the big difference would be

01:00:52.294 --> 01:00:56.251
that the projects would be
stuff that actually matters.

01:00:56.251 --> 01:00:59.823
In the past, if I would have
recommended this 50 years ago,

01:00:59.823 --> 01:01:01.257
people would have said, "Oh my God,

01:01:01.257 --> 01:01:03.292
"but you're making people
do vocational things.

01:01:03.292 --> 01:01:06.128
"That's horrible, it's
commercial," but the reality is

01:01:06.128 --> 01:01:07.628
the stuff that's going
on at LinkedIn right now,

01:01:07.628 --> 01:01:09.628
the analytics, the software
engineering, the marketing,

01:01:09.628 --> 01:01:12.795
the stuff that's going on at
Google, it's more intellectual

01:01:12.795 --> 01:01:15.106
than the software engineering
projects that we worked on

01:01:15.106 --> 01:01:16.294
when we were undergrads.

01:01:16.294 --> 01:01:18.515
It's more intellectual
than almost anything,

01:01:18.515 --> 01:01:24.126
the made up projects that a
university gives you right now.

01:01:24.126 --> 01:01:25.301
I think if you build the whole eco -

01:01:25.301 --> 01:01:27.418
I think Silicon Valley is
the perfect place to do it.

01:01:27.418 --> 01:01:28.960
The one thing that I've
discovered through Khan Academy

01:01:28.960 --> 01:01:32.735
is there's a lot of people who
made it, who are super smart,

01:01:32.735 --> 01:01:36.494
who are orbiting the valley just
looking for someone to mentor,

01:01:36.494 --> 01:01:39.164
looking to disrupt things a little bit.

01:01:39.164 --> 01:01:41.329
You can imagine, instead
of this school showing off

01:01:41.329 --> 01:01:43.712
about how many Nobel Laureates
they have on their faculty,

01:01:43.712 --> 01:01:50.004
they say, "No, we have the CEOs
of this company and this company.

01:01:51.209 --> 01:01:53.144
"These entrepreneurs and these people

01:01:53.144 --> 01:01:55.633
"who've done amazing things in
the world, this is our faculty.

01:01:55.633 --> 01:01:58.704
"These are the people you have
access to as your mentors."

01:01:58.704 --> 01:01:59.918
I think you do something like that,

01:01:59.918 --> 01:02:02.454
I think it would be pretty
hard to compete with.

01:02:02.454 --> 01:02:03.590
Audience Member: Thanks so much.

01:02:03.590 --> 01:02:04.487
Sal: Yeah, sure.

01:02:04.487 --> 01:02:06.369
Jeff: Okay, these are going to
be the last three questions.

01:02:06.369 --> 01:02:08.286
Sal's already stayed a little bit extra,

01:02:08.286 --> 01:02:10.229
but there have been some great questions.

01:02:10.229 --> 01:02:11.954
Audience Member: Yeah, thank
you very much for coming.

01:02:11.954 --> 01:02:15.200
I have a question going back to scale.

01:02:15.200 --> 01:02:18.454
Ron has given us a two year
deadline to grow very quickly.

01:02:18.454 --> 01:02:20.706
Sal: (laughing) Where
do you live, by the way?

01:02:20.706 --> 01:02:21.956
Ron: Palo Alto.

01:02:21.956 --> 01:02:28.289
Sal: Oh, yeah (laughter) a
very underserved community.

01:02:28.289 --> 01:02:33.781
Yeah, I think we might be
able to meet your goal.

01:02:35.041 --> 01:02:37.785
Audience Member: My
question is have you thought

01:02:37.785 --> 01:02:40.481
about making the Khan Academy
lectures more searchable,

01:02:40.481 --> 01:02:42.596
basically being able to
reach them more easily

01:02:42.596 --> 01:02:44.981
from other sites or
partnering with other sites

01:02:44.981 --> 01:02:47.398
or even your students themselves?

01:02:47.398 --> 01:02:50.699
Have you had any experiences
with them really growing

01:02:50.699 --> 01:02:53.565
your user base because they've shared

01:02:53.565 --> 01:02:55.379
their experience with someone else?

01:02:55.379 --> 01:02:57.850
Do you think that that's a
viable way to grow more quickly

01:02:57.850 --> 01:03:01.065
than actually getting an
entire educational institution

01:03:01.065 --> 01:03:03.898
to come on board and buy into this?

01:03:03.898 --> 01:03:06.647
Sal: Oh yeah, just to be clear,

01:03:06.647 --> 01:03:08.233
this is something we tell
our team the whole time.

01:03:08.233 --> 01:03:11.620
This roll out into
schools fell into our lap

01:03:11.620 --> 01:03:12.920
and we're like, "This is an opportunity

01:03:12.920 --> 01:03:15.066
and there's no obvious
resistance, so let's do it,"

01:03:15.066 --> 01:03:16.897
but our number one goal is actually that.

01:03:16.897 --> 01:03:20.149
It's actually the organic, word of
mouth, kids telling kids about it,

01:03:20.149 --> 01:03:24.622
teachers direct a student, a one
off kid or parent trying to learn,

01:03:24.622 --> 01:03:27.065
even homeschoolers, that still is.

01:03:27.065 --> 01:03:29.672
We want Khan Academy to,
if you have nothing else,

01:03:29.672 --> 01:03:33.006
you're still able to get an education.

01:03:33.006 --> 01:03:35.209
To ask the questions
about the searchability,

01:03:35.209 --> 01:03:38.147
that's something we're working on.

01:03:39.835 --> 01:03:42.097
2,200 videos, it's this
huge curation problem.

01:03:42.097 --> 01:03:45.754
We're figuring out ways
to categorize it better,

01:03:45.754 --> 01:03:47.422
ways to make it more searchable.

01:03:47.422 --> 01:03:50.058
We're getting transcripts on them
so they can be text searchable.

01:03:50.058 --> 01:03:52.089
The Google people have told
us that that's actually,

01:03:52.089 --> 01:03:54.159
it's unfortunate that
if you do a text search

01:03:54.159 --> 01:03:55.775
for alegbra right now, Khan Academy videos

01:03:55.775 --> 01:03:58.359
they don't even come up on the first page.

01:03:58.359 --> 01:04:00.275
All sorts of random stuff
because there's no text

01:04:00.275 --> 01:04:02.469
that says "parabola" and
all of this type of stuff.

01:04:02.469 --> 01:04:04.803
We're going to work on that so it becomes

01:04:04.803 --> 01:04:08.507
a lot more meaningfully searchable.

01:04:08.507 --> 01:04:10.417
Audience Member: Thanks.

01:04:10.743 --> 01:04:11.584
Audience Member: In terms of making

01:04:11.584 --> 01:04:15.646
the Academy's content more
palatable to the beast,

01:04:15.646 --> 01:04:17.988
is there any academic research going on,

01:04:17.988 --> 01:04:20.151
in terms of the efficacy of the program?

01:04:20.151 --> 01:04:25.622
Sal: Yeah, we're eager to do
more hardcore, rigorous studies.

01:04:25.622 --> 01:04:29.591
Even in Los Altos, I've
been broadly impressed

01:04:29.591 --> 01:04:32.331
with the whole Los Altos school system,

01:04:32.331 --> 01:04:34.871
from the teachers, the parents, all
the way up to the superintendent.

01:04:34.871 --> 01:04:37.502
They're not people who
get enamored with an idea

01:04:37.502 --> 01:04:40.362
and say, "Let's just go district
wide with it for the hell of it."

01:04:43.911 --> 01:04:46.753
The two seventh grade classes
who have been using it,

01:04:46.753 --> 01:04:49.863
they call it algebra readiness classes.

01:04:49.863 --> 01:04:51.532
These classes are actually,
I guess you'd call them,

01:04:51.532 --> 01:04:56.635
they're the students
not in the medium track.

01:04:56.635 --> 01:04:59.615
These students they did a before and after

01:04:59.615 --> 01:05:01.927
and these kids went from ...

01:05:01.927 --> 01:05:03.696
I forgot the exact numbers,
but it was on the order,

01:05:03.696 --> 01:05:06.334
I'm not exaggerating, like 20% proficiency

01:05:06.334 --> 01:05:11.036
of algebra and pre-algebra concepts
to, I think, it's like 80% on average.

01:05:11.036 --> 01:05:13.383
It's a dramatic change.

01:05:13.383 --> 01:05:14.740
They actually never had
these classes before,

01:05:14.740 --> 01:05:16.876
so they don't know what
happened in previous years,

01:05:16.876 --> 01:05:18.912
but that was pretty powerful for them.

01:05:18.912 --> 01:05:20.412
Audience Member: Even
instead of doing both fifth

01:05:20.412 --> 01:05:23.240
and both seventh grade
class, if you were to do

01:05:23.240 --> 01:05:26.074
one fifth, sixth, and seventh
grade class and not the other

01:05:26.074 --> 01:05:27.079
and do cohort -

01:05:27.079 --> 01:05:28.441
Sal: Exactly, the fifth
grade we're doing that.

01:05:28.441 --> 01:05:32.423
They had a fifth grade assessment
that they do every year.

01:05:34.569 --> 01:05:36.872
The results came out and
our fifth grade classes,

01:05:36.872 --> 01:05:38.455
despite the fact that we weren't -

01:05:38.455 --> 01:05:40.039
I was stressed about it,
because the other classes

01:05:40.039 --> 01:05:41.788
were literally teaching to the test.

01:05:41.788 --> 01:05:43.455
In our classes, they were
doing this crazy stuff

01:05:43.455 --> 01:05:45.291
that had nothing to do with the exam.

01:05:45.291 --> 01:05:49.239
Ours did at least or better than those.

01:05:50.015 --> 01:05:52.553
The good thing is we're
definitely not damaging anything,

01:05:52.553 --> 01:05:55.412
(laughter) which is important.

01:05:55.412 --> 01:05:58.550
It's amazing how many times
that question is not asked.

01:05:58.550 --> 01:06:00.478
We're definitely not doing damage
and everyone's more engaged,

01:06:00.478 --> 01:06:03.968
so even on that metric alone
it makes sense to move forward,

01:06:03.968 --> 01:06:06.490
but the more powerful thing is,
and everyone recognizes this,

01:06:06.490 --> 01:06:08.383
is that these kids are doing
trigonometry and algebra,

01:06:08.383 --> 01:06:12.095
that's not being measured on
the fifth grade assessment.

01:06:12.095 --> 01:06:13.863
I'm actually going to administer an SAT

01:06:13.863 --> 01:06:18.202
to a control fifth grade class
and to this fifth grade class

01:06:18.202 --> 01:06:19.505
and I'm hoping to see one thing.

01:06:19.505 --> 01:06:21.574
Obviously the fifth graders
who have been doing algebra

01:06:21.574 --> 01:06:24.469
will do much better on the
SAT, but I have a suspicion

01:06:24.469 --> 01:06:28.928
they'll do much better than the
average high school senior, too.

01:06:29.477 --> 01:06:32.251
I think if we do stuff like that and
then we can do more rigorous stuff.

01:06:32.251 --> 01:06:33.693
These aren't rigorous studies.

01:06:33.693 --> 01:06:35.895
This is me administering an SAT,

01:06:35.895 --> 01:06:38.758
but these will be the
data points that tell us.

01:06:38.758 --> 01:06:40.563
Then we can do a really rigorous study.

01:06:40.563 --> 01:06:42.237
Audience Member: One of
the obstacles you can hit

01:06:42.237 --> 01:06:43.969
is that those people that
went and got a master's degree

01:06:43.969 --> 01:06:45.606
so they could teach middle school math

01:06:45.606 --> 01:06:49.236
are going to be reluctant
to (unintelligible).

01:06:49.236 --> 01:06:51.523
Last comment before I turn it
over, if you make the effort

01:06:51.523 --> 01:06:54.641
to map your particular modules
to the Common Core standards,

01:06:54.641 --> 01:06:56.022
that would make it a lot -

01:06:56.022 --> 01:06:57.309
Sal: We are doing that as we speak.

01:06:57.309 --> 01:06:59.021
They're like 80% done.

01:06:59.021 --> 01:07:00.211
We're 80% done mapping.

01:07:00.211 --> 01:07:01.445
We have to actually
add a lot more modules.

01:07:01.445 --> 01:07:02.748
The videos are pretty comprehensive,

01:07:02.748 --> 01:07:05.417
but the modules we have to add a lot more.

01:07:05.417 --> 01:07:07.606
We're doing that, but it's
just a spreadsheet right now.

01:07:07.606 --> 01:07:10.089
We're going to surface that
so that you can navigate

01:07:10.089 --> 01:07:12.440
with the Common Core.

01:07:12.440 --> 01:07:14.825
To answer the teacher question,
this is the other thing,

01:07:14.825 --> 01:07:16.228
teachers can use this to stay -

01:07:16.228 --> 01:07:19.331
That's the other side effect,
teachers actually using this to learn.

01:07:19.331 --> 01:07:21.439
There have been studies
that show the best teachers

01:07:21.439 --> 01:07:23.169
are actually the ones who have -

01:07:23.169 --> 01:07:26.023
The best second grade math teachers
are the ones who know calculus,

01:07:26.023 --> 01:07:29.440
just because the kids know
that there's more there.

01:07:29.440 --> 01:07:30.690
They know what's going on.

01:07:30.690 --> 01:07:37.123
The teachers can use this to ramp
up and stay ahead of the curve.

01:07:38.346 --> 01:07:39.822
Audience Member: Well, speaking
of second grade teachers,

01:07:39.822 --> 01:07:41.740
I am one, so thank you.

01:07:41.740 --> 01:07:44.406
I want to say thank you to
LinkedIn for inviting me, as well.

01:07:44.406 --> 01:07:45.573
I'm from northern California.

01:07:45.573 --> 01:07:48.032
I teach at a charter
school and I actually have

01:07:48.032 --> 01:07:50.298
an employee here's son in my class.

01:07:50.298 --> 01:07:52.366
I had a question more about taking it back

01:07:52.366 --> 01:07:55.489
to the actual implementation.

01:07:55.489 --> 01:07:57.605
The Los Altos schools,
are they using a 1:1 ratio

01:07:57.605 --> 01:07:58.945
of computers in the classroom?

01:07:58.945 --> 01:07:59.777
Sal: Yes.

01:07:59.777 --> 01:08:01.068
Audience Member: Are
there kids at the computer

01:08:01.068 --> 01:08:02.445
doing that math lecture the whole time?

01:08:02.445 --> 01:08:05.401
Sal: They have 1:1, although what we found

01:08:05.401 --> 01:08:06.749
is you actually don't need 1:1,

01:08:06.749 --> 01:08:08.683
because so much of the time
is spent doing other things

01:08:08.683 --> 01:08:10.453
that you could probably
time share the computers.

01:08:10.453 --> 01:08:12.568
You could probably do a 3:1 ratio

01:08:12.568 --> 01:08:15.456
and it would probably
work out just as well,

01:08:15.456 --> 01:08:17.259
just because there's some time
where you're actually all working

01:08:17.259 --> 01:08:20.308
with your peers and you're
not even using the computer.

01:08:20.483 --> 01:08:22.507
That is a gaining factor.

01:08:22.507 --> 01:08:25.257
At some point, you do have to
have internet connectivity.

01:08:25.257 --> 01:08:28.572
We're thinking about offline use
cases for the developing world,

01:08:28.572 --> 01:08:32.505
but what we'd like to think
is, even when I went to school

01:08:32.505 --> 01:08:35.710
in the 80s and 90s in a
fairly middle of the road

01:08:35.710 --> 01:08:37.425
public school system in Louisiana,

01:08:37.425 --> 01:08:41.148
there were computers that
just went completely unused.

01:08:41.148 --> 01:08:43.174
I think the skepticism
for deploying more money

01:08:43.174 --> 01:08:45.387
behind computers is justified.

01:08:45.387 --> 01:08:48.491
It's like, "What are they doing
right now with the computers?

01:08:48.491 --> 01:08:50.425
"How is it actually helping anyone?"

01:08:50.425 --> 01:08:52.561
I think if you actually give
a use case for the computers

01:08:52.561 --> 01:08:54.697
and it's actually, now
that these people are -

01:08:54.697 --> 01:08:57.009
The teachers, the principals,
the administrators, the parents

01:08:57.009 --> 01:08:59.924
are getting this real-time data,
then I think the question becomes,

01:08:59.924 --> 01:09:01.902
"How can we operate
without these computers?"

01:09:01.902 --> 01:09:05.092
Then, there's a narrative here,
too, where at least I think

01:09:05.092 --> 01:09:07.768
you don't need textbooks anymore.

01:09:07.768 --> 01:09:09.137
That's a cost savings.

01:09:09.137 --> 01:09:13.953
Audience Member: Then implementing
it then multiple grade levels.

01:09:13.953 --> 01:09:15.354
With the modules you were talking about,

01:09:15.354 --> 01:09:16.743
I've started working through them myself,

01:09:16.743 --> 01:09:19.023
because I"m refreshing, trying
to get to the calculus level

01:09:19.023 --> 01:09:21.100
as a second grade teacher, I guess.

01:09:22.493 --> 01:09:25.598
Implementing it within fourth,
fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth,

01:09:25.598 --> 01:09:29.494
at what point are those kids,
because there's only so many modules,

01:09:29.494 --> 01:09:31.362
and if you're in school 186 days a year,

01:09:31.362 --> 01:09:35.700
how are they going to keep going
through all those modules (crosstalk)

01:09:35.700 --> 01:09:37.433
Sal: Some of these fifth
graders are almost done

01:09:37.433 --> 01:09:38.822
with all of our modules that we have,

01:09:38.822 --> 01:09:43.575
so we're ramping up, hiring faster
so we can stay ahead of them.

01:09:43.575 --> 01:09:47.117
The funny answer is, it's
funny that this is a problem.

01:09:47.883 --> 01:09:51.004
If I had a 12 year old or
13 year old that did that,

01:09:51.004 --> 01:09:52.612
I would say, "You know
what, just take the SAT,

01:09:52.612 --> 01:09:56.404
"take the GED, and go work
or something." (laughter)

01:09:56.404 --> 01:09:58.236
"Go explore things for a couple years

01:09:58.236 --> 01:09:59.817
and if you want to go to college, go to -

01:09:59.817 --> 01:10:01.287
That's a good problem.

01:10:01.287 --> 01:10:04.651
It's funny, it sounds like a crazy
idea, but someone recommended

01:10:04.651 --> 01:10:08.263
that we should start
schools where it isn't

01:10:08.263 --> 01:10:11.098
this is the tuition per month or
this is tuition for a semester,

01:10:11.098 --> 01:10:15.569
it's just like if your kid gets
over 700 on the SAT, you pay us -

01:10:15.569 --> 01:10:18.270
Right now, if you go to a
private school, $30,000 a year

01:10:18.270 --> 01:10:21.487
for 12 years is $360,000, right?

01:10:21.487 --> 01:10:24.485
Most of them are still not
getting 700s on the SAT, right?

01:10:24.485 --> 01:10:27.235
So you say, however long it
takes, if it takes them a week,

01:10:27.235 --> 01:10:29.984
if it takes them 20 years,
if your kid gets a 700 -

01:10:29.984 --> 01:10:32.986
We'll educate them, if your kid
gets a 700, pay us 100 grand.

01:10:32.986 --> 01:10:37.652
It was a joke, but that
actually would be good,

01:10:37.652 --> 01:10:40.235
because if the kid finishes
faster, it's good for everyone.

01:10:40.235 --> 01:10:42.319
It's good for the kid, it's
good for the school system,

01:10:42.319 --> 01:10:45.210
it's good for resource allocation.

01:10:45.210 --> 01:10:47.644
I know this is being taped, so
don't take my idea seriously

01:10:47.644 --> 01:10:49.375
about this performance, but actually -

01:10:49.375 --> 01:10:54.179
Anyway, (laughter) the simple
answer is it's not a problem.

01:10:54.179 --> 01:10:55.380
It's an awesome problem.

01:10:55.380 --> 01:10:57.317
Actually, the best thing
to do with that kid is,

01:10:57.317 --> 01:11:00.927
the kid who's already maxed
out everything, make him a TA.

01:11:00.927 --> 01:11:03.648
Audience Member: Yeah, I'm
just seeing the balance between

01:11:03.648 --> 01:11:06.178
language development,
writing, reading (crosstalk)

01:11:06.178 --> 01:11:08.510
all that other stuff, so you have
a sixth, seventh, eighth grader

01:11:08.510 --> 01:11:10.762
who has maxed out your
modules in calculus,

01:11:10.762 --> 01:11:13.096
but they're not prepared
yet, in my opinion

01:11:13.096 --> 01:11:18.042
to go out to the work field, in terms
of their writing ability (crosstalk)

01:11:18.042 --> 01:11:19.435
Sal: There's two things here.

01:11:19.435 --> 01:11:20.736
One is because these
are fifth grade classes,

01:11:20.736 --> 01:11:22.768
the same teacher does
teach all the subjects.

01:11:22.768 --> 01:11:25.624
One, these teachers are frustrated
with the other subjects now,

01:11:25.624 --> 01:11:27.342
because they feel like
it's like stone ages now,

01:11:27.342 --> 01:11:29.411
because they don't have this data
analytic, self-paced teaching.

01:11:29.411 --> 01:11:33.081
Hopefully we can expand and build
some tools into the other subjects.

01:11:33.081 --> 01:11:35.649
The other thing is we've
even thought maybe we should

01:11:35.649 --> 01:11:36.874
start one school ourselves.

01:11:36.874 --> 01:11:39.542
We actually even thought about
doing it someplace around here,

01:11:39.542 --> 01:11:42.542
so maybe you would have
an option other than ...

01:11:42.542 --> 01:11:47.875
It's not by grade level,
it's just one room classroom.

01:11:47.875 --> 01:11:49.209
In the same room you have Kindergartners,

01:11:49.209 --> 01:11:51.709
in the same room you have 18 year olds

01:11:51.709 --> 01:11:54.670
and the stuff that you already
have maxed out, you are a TA

01:11:54.670 --> 01:11:56.791
and the other stuff you are being TA-ed.

01:11:56.791 --> 01:11:59.339
I think if you do a model
like that, I think it's -

01:11:59.339 --> 01:12:00.792
There's all sorts of interesting models

01:12:00.792 --> 01:12:02.624
about teaching each other and maturity

01:12:02.624 --> 01:12:04.708
that you can only get in
that type of a framework.

01:12:04.708 --> 01:12:07.982
Right now, you're stuck with
just your other ten year olds.

01:12:07.982 --> 01:12:08.919
We've all seen it.

01:12:08.919 --> 01:12:11.042
If you have older kids
around, you act more mature

01:12:11.042 --> 01:12:13.154
and if you have younger kids
around, you act more mature,

01:12:13.154 --> 01:12:15.426
because you have responsibility now.

01:12:15.426 --> 01:12:17.191
I think if we explore
that a little bit more,

01:12:17.191 --> 01:12:20.043
we'll have a way that we can really -

01:12:20.043 --> 01:12:22.264
Once a kid is giving more into the system

01:12:22.264 --> 01:12:24.287
than they're taking out, pay them.

01:12:24.287 --> 01:12:26.402
They should be TAs.

01:12:26.402 --> 01:12:27.619
Audience Member: As a
teacher, thank you, Sal.

01:12:27.619 --> 01:12:29.817
Sal: Oh yeah, thanks, yeah.

01:12:30.574 --> 01:12:34.317
Jeff: Speaking of thanks, it's
interesting juxtaposition.

01:12:34.317 --> 01:12:37.521
At our last In day, we
do this once a month,

01:12:37.521 --> 01:12:39.358
where employees have an opportunity

01:12:39.358 --> 01:12:41.359
to invest time and energy in the things

01:12:41.359 --> 01:12:43.649
they're most inspired by and excited by.

01:12:43.649 --> 01:12:46.983
Education's a recurring theme
for us, reinventing education.

01:12:46.983 --> 01:12:51.734
At the last In day, we
screened Waiting for Superman.

01:12:51.734 --> 01:12:53.400
I think a lot of people
in the room today saw it

01:12:53.400 --> 01:12:56.234
and it's hard not to
walk away from the film

01:12:56.234 --> 01:12:59.042
feeling a bit of despair.

01:12:59.042 --> 01:13:02.816
I think there is an understanding
of things need to improve,

01:13:02.816 --> 01:13:05.984
but I also think, perhaps
naively, prior to seeing the film,

01:13:05.984 --> 01:13:09.131
a lot folks believe that
if you live in this country

01:13:09.131 --> 01:13:13.523
and you wanted to be
educated, you wanted to learn

01:13:13.523 --> 01:13:16.528
and do your best and be prepared
for opportunity when it came,

01:13:16.528 --> 01:13:20.263
that you could and what
that movie certainly shed

01:13:20.263 --> 01:13:27.037
a very, very dark light on was
the fact that that's not the case,

01:13:27.037 --> 01:13:29.508
that it's come down to a lottery

01:13:29.508 --> 01:13:32.341
and I think most folks
here learned the economics

01:13:32.341 --> 01:13:34.818
of lotteries at a very young age.

01:13:34.818 --> 01:13:37.681
If we all believe that
the future of our country,

01:13:37.681 --> 01:13:40.067
to a large extent, depends
on the next generation

01:13:40.067 --> 01:13:41.720
and their ability to be educated,

01:13:41.720 --> 01:13:44.219
we don't want to be
placing a bet on a lottery,

01:13:44.219 --> 01:13:47.123
we want to be placing a
bet on people like you.

01:13:47.123 --> 01:13:51.485
As depressing as some
of those themes were,

01:13:51.485 --> 01:13:54.989
I think you represent the exact opposite.

01:13:55.436 --> 01:13:58.726
You represent the fact
that what could appear

01:13:58.726 --> 01:14:02.537
as completely intractable,
unsolveable problems

01:14:02.537 --> 01:14:06.469
are absolutely solvable
and you and I think

01:14:06.469 --> 01:14:09.041
you mentioned eight or nine folks,

01:14:09.041 --> 01:14:11.939
one of the key things we
like to talk about here

01:14:11.939 --> 01:14:15.705
is how to scale and how
to transform things.

01:14:15.705 --> 01:14:18.371
You are living proof of
what's possible when someone

01:14:18.371 --> 01:14:21.316
with incredible vision,
intelligence, and energy

01:14:21.316 --> 01:14:23.871
channels that into something -

01:14:23.871 --> 01:14:26.488
Sal: Looks (laughter)

01:14:26.488 --> 01:14:29.729
Jeff: Sure. (crosstalk)

01:14:29.729 --> 01:14:35.122
Channels that into something so
extraordinarily important and valuable.

01:14:35.122 --> 01:14:39.233
On behalf of all of us, Sal,
thank you for everything

01:14:39.233 --> 01:14:44.314
you and your team are doing
to reinvent education.

01:14:44.907 --> 01:14:46.882
I know I speak for all of us
when I say we're going to do

01:14:46.882 --> 01:14:48.716
everything within our power to help you.

01:14:48.716 --> 01:14:52.716
Sal: Awesome, yeah, that's
exciting. (applause)