From this photograph, it turns out Bill and Sal had a meeting, perhaps a presentation before a group of people, as indicated by their stance and body language. Before I saw this photo, I had no idea Bill Gates and Salman Khan of Khan Academy had connected. Bill Gates needs no introduction, but Khan is, if you didn't happen to know, the helmsman of Khan Academy and voice of those multitudinous educational videos on seemingly every topic. Khan is a virtual wizard at breaking down and explaining any educational subject or concept in clear detail. So what would these two men have to do with each other? Instead of simply looking it up, I thought it would be a fun brain exercise to ruminate on the nature of their collaboration. If you have the time, feel free to join in and jot down your thoughts.
What could these two men have in the works? We know the direction of computer advancement has exploded from single, unconnected stations to globally connected devices. Social networking applications on our digital devices have been the natural outgrowth of the the connected infrastructure of the internet. Our personae have been uploaded into the net to be made available on a 24-hour basis to anyone in the world, perhaps our associates in Tokyo who might view our profile as we sleep. We don't need to be talking to them face to face, filling them in on the details of our recent endeavor. They can read it at their leisure or their car can read it to them as they drive or it drives, perhaps someday soon.
Just as our personae have become decentralized in the digital age, Salman Khan of Khan Academy has proven to us that teaching and learning have become decentralized as well. Teacher and student no longer need to be in the same classroom addressing each other. They no longer need to be in the same time zone. They no longer need to be awake at the same time. Of course, some degree of interactivity is lost if both student and teacher are not active at the same moment. But the main point is that we have the power to share our knowledge and ideas with virtually anyone with an internet-connected device in the world today.
Bill Gates, once CEO and Chairman, now Technology Advisor to Microsoft most likely has education at the top of his philanthropic to-do list I would predict that Bill is thinking about ways to bring quality education to anyone, anywhere in the world.
What if you wanted to learn anything in the world, but you did not have the funds to attend a class or school to learn about it? The answer is simple. All you would have to do is fire up your personal digital device and connect to one of the millions of teachers in the world who will some day soon offer their expert knowledge for free. If you wanted to learn anything, there would no longer be any barriers.
But who would be considered an expert teacher? For academic subjects, there might be a network of universally recognized credentialing institutions. For subjects less intensive such as knitting, for example, the online community can decide who is more of an expert. What is even more likely is that there will no longer be just one teacher who teaches everything to know about one subject. A student might have every component of a subject taught by a different teacher, who is most expert and available to teach that topic. Perhaps, the teacher could be another student. All of this would have to have a technology system in place of course and that's where Microsoft comes in.
If we follow this diversified model of teaching, could the needs of an individual student be more difficult to satisfy? Wouldn't it be better for one teacher who is most familiar with the student be the best person to meet that student's needs? Maybe not. Perhaps, the one most familiar with a student's needs will be that student. Technology would assist them in becoming self-aware. Microsoft engineers would undoubtedly have a hand in the development of this technology as well. Once students are fully aware of their needs, they would be equipped to seek out what they need to know and how they would like to learn it.
So that's's my best guess as far as the nature of Bill and Sal's collaboration: they're on a mission to bring education to every person on the planet, turning us all into students and teachers on a global stage.
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Photo attribution: The Future of Education by Steve Jurvetson
Source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5512308575/in/photolist-9p72i2-9nvaeF-dhcDef-9ntzgv-9ntqrz-9nts5H-9nww25-9nwDsh-9ntvA8-9ntxme-9xUvFf-9ooRTE-9okQii-9okQnF
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode
What could these two men have in the works? We know the direction of computer advancement has exploded from single, unconnected stations to globally connected devices. Social networking applications on our digital devices have been the natural outgrowth of the the connected infrastructure of the internet. Our personae have been uploaded into the net to be made available on a 24-hour basis to anyone in the world, perhaps our associates in Tokyo who might view our profile as we sleep. We don't need to be talking to them face to face, filling them in on the details of our recent endeavor. They can read it at their leisure or their car can read it to them as they drive or it drives, perhaps someday soon.
Just as our personae have become decentralized in the digital age, Salman Khan of Khan Academy has proven to us that teaching and learning have become decentralized as well. Teacher and student no longer need to be in the same classroom addressing each other. They no longer need to be in the same time zone. They no longer need to be awake at the same time. Of course, some degree of interactivity is lost if both student and teacher are not active at the same moment. But the main point is that we have the power to share our knowledge and ideas with virtually anyone with an internet-connected device in the world today.
Bill Gates, once CEO and Chairman, now Technology Advisor to Microsoft most likely has education at the top of his philanthropic to-do list I would predict that Bill is thinking about ways to bring quality education to anyone, anywhere in the world.
What if you wanted to learn anything in the world, but you did not have the funds to attend a class or school to learn about it? The answer is simple. All you would have to do is fire up your personal digital device and connect to one of the millions of teachers in the world who will some day soon offer their expert knowledge for free. If you wanted to learn anything, there would no longer be any barriers.
But who would be considered an expert teacher? For academic subjects, there might be a network of universally recognized credentialing institutions. For subjects less intensive such as knitting, for example, the online community can decide who is more of an expert. What is even more likely is that there will no longer be just one teacher who teaches everything to know about one subject. A student might have every component of a subject taught by a different teacher, who is most expert and available to teach that topic. Perhaps, the teacher could be another student. All of this would have to have a technology system in place of course and that's where Microsoft comes in.
If we follow this diversified model of teaching, could the needs of an individual student be more difficult to satisfy? Wouldn't it be better for one teacher who is most familiar with the student be the best person to meet that student's needs? Maybe not. Perhaps, the one most familiar with a student's needs will be that student. Technology would assist them in becoming self-aware. Microsoft engineers would undoubtedly have a hand in the development of this technology as well. Once students are fully aware of their needs, they would be equipped to seek out what they need to know and how they would like to learn it.
So that's's my best guess as far as the nature of Bill and Sal's collaboration: they're on a mission to bring education to every person on the planet, turning us all into students and teachers on a global stage.
---------------------------------------
Photo attribution: The Future of Education by Steve Jurvetson
Source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5512308575/in/photolist-9p72i2-9nvaeF-dhcDef-9ntzgv-9ntqrz-9nts5H-9nww25-9nwDsh-9ntvA8-9ntxme-9xUvFf-9ooRTE-9okQii-9okQnF
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode