Salman Khan has made a name for himself for producing bite-sized videos that explain everything from fair value accounting to how the Hawaiian Islands were formed on the free online Khan Academy.

Here, Khan uses his trademark “chalkboard” sketching approach to explain how the idea of blended learning — combining technology like online videos and software with classroom instruction — works.

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Salman Khan's library of free instructional videos has reached millions of people, and now his videos are reaching into classrooms.

If you’re curious at all about the future of education, you should know about Salman Khan. He’s the charismatic brainiac who’s created more than 2,000 instructional videos about everything from photosynthesis to the Bay of Pigs invasion. As former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein recently noted, “Sal Khan has 50 million people on a site that doesn’t sell sex.”

Self-effacing (“Any joker in his closet can reach millions of people”), fast-talking, and pragmatic, Khan spins his big-picture views about education in the same way he describes subjects like valence electrons or mortgage-backed securities: as a bemused observer pointing out the obvious. “If Isaac Newton had made YouTube videos about gravity, I wouldn’t have to!” Khan said at a recent TED Talk.

But rather than quarterbacking from the sidelines, Khan is intentionally getting in the game. Some, including Bill Gates (who’s donated millions of dollars into Khan’s vision), believe his free YouTube videos, the full collection of which are called The Khan Academy, will profoundly change what we know as classroom instruction.

Here’s how it works: Students watch the videos in class (all of them produced by him), take “gamified” assessments that determine whether they understand the concept, and move on to the next level when they’re ready. The teacher can monitor each student’s progress with a dashboard: the green bar shows they’re proficient, blue indicates they’re working on it, and red alerts teachers that students are stuck on a problem.

This approach seems to work for one simple reason: The fact that students can go back and replay the videos as many times as they need to understand a concept eliminates what Khan calls the “Swiss cheese” gaps in knowledge. Unlike with traditional classes, a student can’t move to the next level until he’s understood the one before it.

Though he’s the buzz of education circles – at two conferences in Silicon Valley where I saw him speak in the past six months, long lines of fans waited to thank him for his work– Khan has his share of critics, too. Some educators think Khan is arrogant in believing that videos can replace the human touch in a classroom, and in the process squeeze teachers out of the equation. Others believe his focus on basic skill drills misses more important learning ideals, like critical thinking and collaboration. As an institution, education does not so easily adapt to newfangled ways. “Entrenched systems don’t go away because Sal Khan is charming,” Klein said.

I spoke to Khan about these questions, and more.

Q. How do you answer teachers who say your videos will replace them in the classroom?

A. Depending on the teacher’s mentality, I think this can actually make it a lot more fun. If I was a teacher, this is exactly the type of class I’d want to teach, because for the core skills, I don’t have to prepare in a traditional sense. But I do have to prepare for projects and all that, so I have to prepare for creative things. As a teacher, when I’m in a room, I’m relying on my innate skills and teaching abilities, I haven’t scripted it ahead of time. I’m doing like a doctor would. I wouldn’t have a script about what I’m going to say to the next patient. They look at the patient’s data, they ask questions, and they try to diagnose the patient and somehow cure the patient. It’s the same exact model here.

But it’s going to be hard for teachers who have trouble letting go of the idea that they’re the sage on stage, that they have all the information, “Do not question me, be quiet,” and it’s all about classroom management. It throws all that stuff out the door. But the people who are attracted to this model is exactly the type of people we want and who this will work for.

Q. Are you adding any input from teachers?

A. Yes, we’ve had input on both the videos and creating the software, from teachers and students. In Los Altos, it’s a very tight design. We have our engineers in the classrooms on a regular basis. They’re talking to students and teachers. In fact, they figured out that some kids were gaming the multiple choice, and we realized we had to fix that.

Sometimes we see what teachers are doing in class, and we realize that it should be a feature in the videos or the software. For example, we’ve created a profile of the students for the teachers to look at. But teachers have started to use it in a different way. They’re asking students to look at their profiles and come up with their own goals. And right now the kids are looking at it and writing their goals on notecards. So we thought we should automate that process and build it in.

And using that profile, Khan Academy can make suggestions too. So students can say: “These are my 20 goals for the month.” “These are my three definite goals and these are my three stretch goals” and you can look at it at the end of the week compared to where you were.

So we’re learning a ton from the teachers themselves. And we’re actually going to hire some of them. There are teachers who were laid off, some of the best teachers the district has. It was a travesty at first, then we thought, Gee, we could hire them. These teachers have been masterful with the technology and what to do with it. They weren’t afraid of the ambiguity.

Q. How is the teacher’s dashboard and assessment piece working out?

A. It’s been working well. A teachers has an iPad now, so she’s walking around with the students’ dashboard, which highlights who’s doing what, who needs help. Before she helps a student, she can flip to their profile, see what they’ve been working on, look at their goals, then she can talk to the student, and she intervenes. It feels like a doctor with a patient’s medical history, but way more advanced because they know the history of the student going into the intervention. Also it’s cool because it looks like the future.

Q. Did you create an app for the teacher’s dashboard?

A.  Right now, it’s a Web interface, so anyone can use it without an iPad, but we’re building a dedicated mobile version. And that’s where most of our resources are going, hiring engineers and designers. Any teacher in the world can do this right now, and they are. If you’re a teacher, you could get all your kids an account, and you give them your I.D. and they sign you up as a coach, and they designate you as their teacher.

Right now, it looks like 500 to 1,000 people are using this in classrooms, based on the numbers we see. They’re working in groups of about 30 and it looks like they’re using it as a classroom would. We don’t know for sure, but it looks like that’s what’s happening. You can do this homeschooling with two or three kids. The idea is we perfect the use in Los Altos, but anyone can use it.

Q. What are your plans for the Khan Academy in the near future?

A. We’re definitely ramping up team to do school implementation. We’re going to new schools and classrooms and school districts.

Q. Do you think this kind of learning is appropriate for every student?

A. We’re not saying it’s not for every student, but we’re not sure. Our goal right now is, on videos and exercises, let’s as quickly as possible do a really solid first pass, use as much data as possible to iterate on it, and improve it. Then we’ll learn from the data. We know from the data that it’s much much more appropriate for a lot more people than what they’re getting now.

Q. Where do you think the Khan Academy fits in with the debate about high-stakes testing, core curriculum, and the need to teach students intangibles like critical thinking and collaboration?

A. Our thinking is that if you take a test or a series of tests, you should be able to get your credential and you’re done. And what I love about that is it kills the monopoly on the credential, it levels the playing field on the learning side, and I think Khan Academy will be a strong contender on the learning side.

When it comes to we shouldn’t be teaching this, we should be teaching that; we should be teaching it this way or that way. I don’t disagree with some of it. For example, I think we should be teaching computer science. But I think it’s an impractical approach, or naïve approach to sit on the sidelines and complain about it.

You’re still not addressing the issue of students still being assessed by the world, you know, on the SATs. And if they really do want to go to med school, regardless of your personal opinion of what’s important – and you might have a valid personal opinion – but that’s still not going to help kids go where they want to go if you refuse to teach something based on ideological grounds.

So our point of view is, go where the need is, address the need, and once the need is addressed, we’re now in a position where we can start delivering other things – things that are maybe more relevant, more useful. More projects, more computer programming and things like that.

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At a big gathering of entrepreneurs, innovators, and educators today at the NewSchools Venture Fund summit in the heart of Silicon Valley, the morning kicked off with two big names in education circles.

Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, which offers more than 2,000 free YouTube videos covering almost every subject under the sun, and Joel Klein, former chancellor of New York City public schools who spearheaded New York’s iZone and who’s currently with NewsCorp, brought up intriguing points.

These are some of the ideas that stood out from the public discussion (paraphrased).

ON THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE IN EDUCATION INNOVATION:

Joel Klein: Where we are today is a lot better place in terms of discussion, but not in terms of results compared to 10 years ago. What we’re doing now is building a system empowered by technology with a huge infusion of private capital aimed at bringing a total delivery system. Eventually, we’ll have far fewer teachers who are paid much more. Education would be data-driven, customized, will engage kids, differentiate instruction, and value human capital in a different way. What we’re doing now is trying to reform a broken delivery system rather than create an effective delivery system.

Salman Khan: It’s a pretty exciting time in education. There’s grassroots hunger for something better. Even 20 years ago, for someone who wanted to produce lessons online for the public to access, it would cost tens of millions of dollars. Now all need you is the technology and any joker in his closet can reach 50 million people. Things take a long time to start happening, but when it does happen, it goes fast. In five to 10 years, a lot of classrooms will look a lot different than they have in the past 100 years.

ON IMPEDIMENTS AND OBSTACLES:

Joel Klein: Entrenched interests want to protect their interests. Let private markets come in and do the innovative challenging things. Khan’s site gets 50 million people on the Internet that doesn’t sell sex. It’s doing great. But on a large scale that fits into institutionalized districts, there will be a lot of pushback. Entrenched systems don’t go away because Sal Khan is charming.

Sal Khan: I don’t see any barriers. We have the opportunity to go straight to students and those aligned with student, instead of all the things that Joel has had to deal with. Our strategy is to build the best possible thing, and if a student has nothing else, he can learn with videos and self paced software. But we don’t force it. We find school systems that are ready for it. And there are many who are ready for it. When people start seeing it succeed in one district, then five districts, all the soccer moms will freak out and want a piece of it.

ON THE TEACHERS’ ROLE:

Joel Klein: In any digital classroom setting, the point is to maximize the role of the teacher. The teacher has to be the genius piece. They won’t have to be concerned with the routine stuff going on in the class. With the School of One and the Innovation Zone, teachers say they like it, they feel empowered by it because they can focus on the one-on-one context.

Sal Khan: Our point of view is that a lot of teachers are spending time using the same lecture over and over again. They spend their time grading papers. Let’s liberate teachers’ time for the students’ benefit. There’s a knee-jerk reaction from teachers that videos make the class more robotic, they minimize the role of teachers. But what was making it robotic was the existing classroom model, the same script every year, no variance from it, the assembly line model, getting branded with a grade, instead of everyone learning at their own pace. It’s actually a way of freeing up tons of time without sacrificing core skills. In the Los Altos class [where a math class is piloting the Khan Academy videos], it’s much more interactive experience. The teacher has to be very comfortable with the fact that one kid is doing trigonometry, and one kid is doing fifth-grade math. They need to know fifth-grade math and know the big picture, and how it’s going to lead into higher math. It requires a different skill set and a humility that students respect.

ON CURRICULUM :

Sal Khan: Our goal is to get what students need, what the system as a whole is assessing them on right now. But we’re still in our first few innings. It’s crazy that we don’t have statiscts, law, accounting and finance [and computer science] as part of the core curriculum, which are useful in any setting — school or workplace. To me, calculus is beautiful and interesting, but it’s not useful. You don’t need calculus in most jobs. We could debate what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate to teach. But the reality is that’s what’s required right now, and I’d want my son or daughter to prove themselves in this context. It’s our Trojan horse mode. You go in, serve what people need, but then bring in other things like statistics, or finance, or law that are useful.

Joel Klein: The Common Core will drive us to a more meaningful high school credential. Most universities know right now that a high school diploma is not sufficient to ensure kids will be successful in college.

Sal Khan: Now you have kids who are home-schooled, and take the SATs without an official high school degree and they’re going on to Harvard and Stanford. What I’d like to see is for kids not to drop out, but give them a chance, say if you’re ready, you take the exam, you rock the exam and you’re done. We don’t force people to sit in class like you’re in prison. At 14 or 15, you can go to college, or get a job.

It goes something like this:

• Every student working at his or her own pace.
• Students working in groups and helping each other.
• Teachers working one-on-one with students.
• And a school day full of creative, hands-on projects that give kids practical knowledge and experience.

Here’s Sal Khan describing it in his own words.

For those who missed the original article describing the program, here it is in full.

For the first time in history, the children of one of the most well-heeled people on earth are getting the same education as those with far less means in places like Calcutta, Kabul, and East Palo Alto.

Salman Khan made this point in reference to the well-known fact that Bill Gates’ kids watch and learn from the free Khan Academy, instructional YouTube videos on math, science, and the humanities. It’s the perfect example of technology helping to close the achievement gap.

What started out as an easy way for Khan to tutor his cousins in math and science has turned into what Fortune Magazine calls the “epicenter of the educational earthquake.” More than a million users a month watch the 1,800-plus lessons taught by Khan himself. That kind of absurd teacher-student ratio can only exist and succeed online.

The content is rich and packed full of information — three degrees from M.I.T. and an MBA from Harvard have certainly fed the depth of Khan’s knowledge — but it’s his easy-going, casual teaching style that keep bringing learners back.

“My cousins said they preferred seeing me on YouTube than in person when they first saw me tutoring them online,” Khan said at the Big Ideas Fest earlier this week. “The sessions were tangibly stressful for the kids. One of them said she was feeling judged even though I wasn’t trying to judge her.”

With videos, learners can watch on their own time, and pause and repeat information until they absorb the subject matter.

And though Khan has had offers to create glossier, highly polished versions of his videos, his public wants him to stay the same.

“They say, ‘I love the fact that it feels like a guy is just talking to me, as opposed to some publishing company,’” Khan said. “People love the humanity. Most videos I have not prepared for. I put the problem up there and I do it in real time. And I hear from people how refreshing that is.”

It’s true — public comments on his site are full of praise, like this one: “Because of you I can do maths rather quickly in my head. It feels weird. Make it stop.” And this one: “You taught me way more than my teachers ever did at school about the French Revolution. And I am French!”

Watching videos allows learners to see the art of problem-solving, and that it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s all a part of the equation.

Khan Academy video

Khan’s hope for the future for the Academy? The possibility of offering value-added services to schools, such as teacher dashboards that allow teachers to follow student progress in real time, so they can tend to those who are stuck with certain problems. At the moment, the Academy is giving those dashboards away for free, and hopes to be able to continue to do that.

As a non-profit, it’s currently supported by grants — some big ones from large philanthropies. But with all those users (on track to be at 10 million in two years, he says) even if those grants went away, and only one percent of users donated $1 per month, it could sustain itself.

His challenge to the audience at the conference, a group of innovators and changemakers like himself: “How come no one else is doing this?”

Read more in the School Day of the Future series.