His Cousins Liked Him Better on YouTube Than in Person
They could pause, repeat, and review old lessons without feeling embarrassed or like they were wasting his time.
TED · Let's use video to reinvent education | Salman KhanSalman Khan, who described himself as "an analyst at a hedge fund," was in Boston when his cousins in New Orleans needed tutoring. He helped them remotely, explaining lessons from hundreds of miles away.
As a supplement, he started recording short videos and posting them on YouTube. The idea was modest, just something the cousins could use as a refresher when he was not available.
Then came the surprise. His cousins told him they preferred him on YouTube than in person.
At first, Khan said, that sounds like an insult, preferring the automated version of your cousin to your cousin. But from their point of view, he realized, it made complete sense. The videos changed who controlled the lesson, and how it felt to be confused.
On YouTube, Khan said, they could "pause and repeat their cousin, without feeling like they're wasting my time." If they needed to review something they should have learned weeks or even years earlier, they did not have to admit it and ask. They could just watch again, and if they were bored, they could move ahead. Khan said they could learn "at their own time and pace."
Khan came to think that privacy was the least appreciated part of it. The first time a student is trying to wrap his or her brain around a new concept, he said, the last thing that helps is another person asking, "Do you understand this?" In person, that was what his cousins had faced. On video, Khan said, they could struggle with a new idea "in the intimacy of their own room," without an audience for their confusion.
What had started as a favor for family no longer looked like just a favor. A live tutor could answer questions, but a recording let students ask the same question over and over without embarrassment. For Khan, that awkward compliment from his cousins became the clue that a lesson on demand could do something a live lesson could not.
Questions people ask
Does being able to pause and rewind actually help students learn?
Yes. Pausing, rewinding, and rewatching let students control the pace, review prerequisites they missed, and reduce the pressure of keeping up with a class. Research on multimedia learning finds that learner control and segmenting lessons into short parts can improve understanding, especially for beginners.
Why would asking 'Do you understand this?' make learning harder?
It can shut down thinking rather than check it. Beginners often say yes to be polite or because they do not yet know what they do not understand. Khan's point was that private practice gives students time to test themselves before they have to perform for someone else.
What happened to Salman Khan after the cousin videos?
He went on to make thousands of free videos and start Khan Academy, the nonprofit online school. He left his hedge fund job in 2009 to run it full time, funded at first by savings and donations and later by major philanthropic support.