Salman, also known as Sal, is most notable to us for the creation of Khan Academy and his link to Khan Lab School.
Khan Academy is an online, open education resource for learners across the globe. The company offers YouTube lectures on hundreds of different subjects and supplements the learning material with practice exercises and relative material. Khan Academy at its core is an encyclopedia of learning topics provided on the internet, and the company website serves as an accountability tracker. The website offers progress scores, additional exercises, and University examination prep. The company was founded in 2006, and began its venture as a non-profit. Since then, they have secured and received multi-millions of dollars from major corporations such as Google and AT&T. In 2014, they generated 33.6 million dollars in revenue with over 3 million subscribers on their YouTube channel alone.
Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, is an American educator who holds degrees in Electrical Engineering , Computer Science (BSc and MSc), and Mathematics (BSc) from MIT. He also holds a MBA from Harvard Business School. Sal began his venture by tutoring his cousin online, through Yahoo, and eventually moved his platform to YouTube for accessibility. As his popularity increased and his presence online was noticed, Sal decided to quit his job as a Financial Analyst and pursue the production of his online learning tool full time. To this day, Sal has been featured in several popular talk shows such as CNN, The Colbert Report and TED by Bill gates. He has received numerous awards and funding through major corporations and public services. The biggest concern voiced against Sal’s entrepreneurship is his lack of pedagogical training in education. As a student, his background is heavily influenced in the sciences and he has received several degrees, none of which are Education. Khan Academy has been cited for a few errors which have since been rectified on their educational videos. Sal began his journey with his close friend, Josh Gefner, and now employs 105 employees for the company. The team that works on Khan Academy have a diverse background and incredible depth of experience. All employee profiles are publicly visible on their website and it displays the variety in team strength (https://www.khanacademy.org/about/the-team). The leadership team is nothing to scoff at also. The board includes members such as James Manyika, who was appointed by President Obama to be the Vice Chair of Global Development and extends all the way to big names with the likes of Bill Gates (https://www.khanacademy.org/about/our-board)
Through the analysis of Khan Academy, it has become apparent to me that careers in education are not limited to being a classroom teacher. There are opportunities all around the world and include shared business ventures with international educational companies. As a new teacher, I have been inspired to look deeper into my opportunities as an educator, and potentially advance my career down a path with a company such as Khan Academy.
