The Education Revolution

Michael Noer’s Forbes cover story on Khan Acadamy and all of the other education ideas and startups that are revolutionizing how we learn is must-read stuff…

“Once you have device-based learning, you are producing so much data we know everything about what you know and how you learn best,” says Knewton CEO Jose Ferreira. “You learn math best in the morning, between 9:30 and 11 a.m. We know that. That 40 minute burst you do at lunch every day? You aren’t retaining any of that–go hang out with your friends. You learn science best with videoclips or games instead of text or in addition to text? You learn history best in 22-minute bite sizes, and at the 24-minute mark your click-rate always declines? We know everything about how you learn.”

Noer talks about how the “Prussian Model” of schooling we’ve all grown up with (designed in the late 1700’s to build a similarly-skilled, factory time-paced, docile and captive workforce) is ready to be pushed aside by something more individual and cost-effective. He calls it a trillion dollar opportunity.

Make time for this piece today.

Source:

One Man, One Computer, 10 Million Students: How Khan Academy Is Reinventing Education (Forbes)

Hat tip: Abnormal Returns Saturday Reading List