By Sumi Das

Thanks to widespread and high-speed broadband and robust video sharing sites， distance learning is being reinvented once more.

Voice in Video： They make peace with the French in October of 1797， the Italian campaign…

This is Khan Academy. OK， so the tuition lacks visual 1）flare， but theyre proving wildly， almost unimaginably popular， with more than 600 lessons watched each and every minute. Its the brainchild of Salmon Khan， a former banker， who turned his back on financial gain to profit the world of childrens education instead. What began with sending out online tutorials to family members， soon mushroomed.

多虧了無處不在且高速的寬帶，還有功能強大的視頻分享網(wǎng)站，如今遠距離學習再一次脫胎換骨。

視頻里的聲音：他們在1797年與法國達成和平協(xié)議，意大利戰(zhàn)役……

這就是可汗學院的視頻。是的，它的教學授課并不花哨，但這些課程卻非常受歡迎，其程度讓人難以置信。在每一分鐘里，都會有超過六百個可汗學院的視頻教程被在線收看。可汗學院由薩蒙·可汗一手打造。他以前是一名銀行家，他放棄了金錢收益，轉向造福于世界兒童的教育事業(yè)。一開始，他只不過是為家人發(fā)送在線的課外輔導課程，但很快，它就迅速地傳開了。

Khan： This， you know， is reaching 100，000 students a month right now. It could be reaching a hundred million students a month， and it could do that forever，cause this stuff doesnt really get old. And so I thought this is an infinite social return on investment.

Today Khan Academy offers over 3，200 videos for primary school pupils， 2nd-year university students and every level in between. Initially seen as an afterschool study tool， its now being implemented in traditional classrooms. The library of videos emphasize maths and science， but Khan says in a couple years theyll cover a broad curriculum. And almost every video is taught by Khan himself in his unscripted but exhaustively researched “guy-next-door” style.

Khan（in video）： Pick five balls out of this bin of 56 without replacing them and not caring about order.

Alongside the videos， a software platform generates quizzes and uses 2）gamification to engage students， making math problems more like games by using incentives and reward badges. Its a clever combo. The exercises confirm users fully grasp a concept before moving on， and the videos are far less 3）daunting than a live teacher.

可汗：你知道嗎，現(xiàn)在一個月就會有十萬學生使用這些課程，它一個月可以影響到一億學生，而且可以永遠地做下去，因為課程的內容基本上不會過時。因此，我想這筆投資能帶來無限的社會效益。

如今，可汗學院為從小學到大二的各年級學生提供超過三千兩百個課程視頻。當初，人們只是把這些視為課后的輔導工具，現(xiàn)如今，在傳統(tǒng)的課堂里，它也有了一席之地。課程視頻的數(shù)據(jù)庫中以數(shù)學和科學課程為主，不過可汗說，在幾年內，他們會提供內容更寬泛的課程視頻。幾乎所有的視頻都是由可汗一人教授，他授課不用講稿，但內容都經(jīng)過認真徹底的研究，以一種平易親切的方式呈現(xiàn)。

可汗（在視頻里）：桶里有56個球，拿出5個，不替換它們，也不用管它們的順序。

除了課程視頻外，可汗學院還提供一個軟件平臺生成各種測驗，通過用一些激勵手段和獎勵獎章等方式，用游戲化的手段把數(shù)學習題設計得更像游戲，鼓勵學生參與其中。這是一種非常明智的組合教學方式。習題可以讓使用者在學習新內容之前確保自己已經(jīng)完全掌握了舊知識，而且視頻又不像真人老師那么讓人生畏。

Oakland Unity High School is one of 25 California schools participating in Khan Academys pilot program， which brings the platform into the classroom.

You remember what its like to be in a typical classroom， right？ A teacher standing at the front of the room lecturing， you sitting at your desk listening attentively， or at least pretending to be. Then after school you went home and did your homework. But online learning tools have flipped the classroom. Students watch the lectures online at home and class time is mostly spent working through problems with the help of teachers and classmates.

Kallie Berg （Unity High School Teacher）： Its very different than a traditional classroom. Its not me driving the class， telling everybody where to go next. Im more of a support-person for the students， guiding them， helping them figure out what direction they should be going in， but theyre definitely in the drivers seat， and theyre definitely deciding what to do next.

奧克蘭聯(lián)合高中是美國加利福尼亞州25所參加了可汗學院試點項目的學校之一，這個項目把視頻教學這個平臺引入了課堂。

你還記得典型的課堂是什么樣子的，對吧？老師站在課室前面授課，你坐在位子上專心聽講，起碼你會裝出一副專心的樣子。放學后，你就回家做作業(yè)。但在線學習工具讓課室模式完全倒轉過來?，F(xiàn)在是學生在家里看在線的授課課程，而在課堂的大部分時間則是在老師和同學的幫助下做習題。

卡莉·伯格（聯(lián)合高中老師）：這與傳統(tǒng)的課堂很不一樣。如今再也不是由我主導課程，告訴學生下一步要學什么。我扮演的更多是學生支持者的角色，指導他們，幫他們弄明白他們的學習方向，但毫無疑問的是，他們有主動權，他們當然可以決定下一步要做什么。

Berg can get an instant read on who is and isnt thriving thanks to another Khan Academy tool—learning data. At a glance， teachers know whos mastered the concept and who needs help. They can then work with struggling students in small groups， or pair them up with a student whos ahead. After all， to teach is to learn， right？

Its too soon to tell if the online program will have a lasting impact， but teachers at Unity High have seen a 42% boost in maths test scores from Khan Academy.

The site is also having an impact elsewhere around the world. A third of the sites eight million monthly users live outside North America， mainly in the developing world， where skilled teachers and classrooms are thin on the ground. Khan， himself， admits a lot of work remains， but with funding from heavyweights like Google and the Gates Foundation， hes pretty motivated.

Khan： You have this set of knowledge that people viewed as best for the ivory tower—you have to get in， then you get access to it and you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in for it， you know. That…that knowledge is now going to be commonplace.

由于可汗學院提供了顯示學生學習數(shù)據(jù)的工具，伯格可以馬上知道哪個學生學得好，哪個不行。老師只要稍微看一下，就知道哪個學生已經(jīng)熟練掌握了概念，哪個還需要幫助。然后可以通過學習小組的形式幫助有困難的學生，或者把他們與學習得好的學生配對。說到底，教授知識就是學習知識，對吧？

要現(xiàn)在判斷這些在線課程是否會對教學有一個長久的影響還為時過早，但聯(lián)合高中的老師們已經(jīng)通過使用可汗學院的課程，使學生的數(shù)學成績有了42%的提高。

可汗學院對世界各地的其他地方也產(chǎn)生了影響，其每月八百萬用戶的三分之一來自北美以外地區(qū)，主要集中在熟練的師資力量和課室稀缺的發(fā)展中國家。而可汗本人也承認，要做的工作還很多，但由于找到了像谷歌和蓋茨基金會這些重量級的贊助方，他信心倍增。

可汗：有些知識被視為適合在象牙塔里傳授，不過你得想辦法被錄取，然后你才有機會學到這些知識，而且你也知道，你還得花好多錢。但現(xiàn)在這些知識已經(jīng)變成大家唾手可得的平常東西了。