15 September 2010

The world's biggest free school?

Just discovered Khan Academy, what is in all probability the world's biggest free school..this is an open source project and has the potential to bring learning to children across the world as more videos are added on.

What is really interesting is his motivation for leaving a hedge-fund job to do this work full time as he talks of getting the highest possible social return per dollar invested:
Are you interested in turning this into a business? Maybe with some VC funding?
I've been approached several times, but it just didn't feel right. When I'm 80, I want to feel that I helped give access to a world-class education to billions of students around the world. Sounds a lot better than starting a business that educates some subset of the developed world that can pay $19.95/month and eventually selling it to some text book company or something. I already have a beautiful wife, a hilarious son, two hondas and a decent house. What else does a man need? With that said, if you are a social venture capitalist and are looking to deploy capital with the highest possible social return per dollar invested, we should talk. I think you'll find that there is no more measurable, scalable and high impact way to educate the world.

Hear from Salman Khan in person here

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