Yes, The Khan Academy is the Future of Education
I haven't exactly been as amazed by the Khan Academy as everyone else has. After watching a few videos, I decided that we need to focus more on the <i>material</i> that we are teaching - rather than the <i>methods</i> we go about doing it. They will obviously go hand by hand, but in my opinion the material that we are teaching is our biggest weakness and therefore needs the most reform.<p>A video that everyone should take the time to watch is Conrad Wolfram's TED talk on teaching students with computers (<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_m...</a>). While we may use computers now to enhance the learning methods, we haven't taken advantage of the content/knowledge computers have and can supply for us. The majority of what is taught in grades K-12 in science and math could be done by a computer in almost no time with increased accuracy. <i>Why wouldn't we take advantage of that?</i><p>The gist of Wolfram's talk is that we are teaching students <i>mechanics</i> (which computers can do more efficiently) when we should be teaching them the higher orders of thinking and problem solving.<p>Against popular belief, concepts can be understood without learning the nitty-gritty mechanics. One could solve a quadratic word problem without solving the quadratic equation themselves, and still understand the problem just as well. Think about it: do you need to learn how the engine of a car works before you can drive it?<p>While all of this is not entirely relevant to the article, I humbly believe that the future of education should be and will be (if everything goes right) orders of magnitudes higher in efficiency as students will spend more time learning the <i>right</i> material. I'm not sure how much the Khan Academy will play a role in that...