Let's get Salman Khan (khanacademy.org) on the TED stage
His contribution is impressive, but it has a long way to go.<p>Good online instruction presents very different challenges not found with traditional classroom teaching or "professor-as-focus" videos. It's an instructional medium unique to itself, and still finding its legs.<p>I completely disagree with course content that's been created using poor-quality audio and "visuals" (not video). "Good enough" is not only disrespectful to the student but completely unnecessary given the quality and cost of great content production tools available the past four years.<p>Higher-quality means more post production work, however, but it's worth it because "when it's done right, it will always be done right."<p>Four rules have emerged so far in this new medium: 1) The material must take center stage, not the presenter, 2) students prefer granularity of subject matter in short vignettes, 3) done well is always done well, promoting repeatable instructional excellence, 4) high-quality audio/visual production tools are a must.<p>A lot of us, not just Sal, employ these principals in our work. But overall, it needs to bake a little more before being presented at TED or before the MacArthur Foundation.<p>The educational paradigm is shifting, and indeed being disrupted, but not in the way most people think.