I came across Khan Academy a coupe of months ago. It's an amazing phenomenon of one man starting a lone mission to spread education using a microphone and MS Paint, and how his efforts have by now helped thousands of students understand basic concepts in several subjects. Attached is a screenshot from a brilliant lesson that teaches complex multiplication simply.
I've recently found that they've released all their videos free for all. Not only that, they've also opened them up to netizens for dubbing in any language. It's an amazing educational resource that should be spread everywhere - even more so where there is limited or no internet connection. They can even be used as training materials for teachers in under resourced schools.
So I've started downloading the whole lot for spreading to schools in Pune where I live, using a Torrent they've published (strictly no money involved! I'll just use my portable HDD!). But it's huge - 28.9GBs - and I have a very slow connection.
But it's all neatly divided into subjects and chapters so while I'm downloading the initial Maths ones, you can take History, one more can do a chapter in Physics, and so on! Then once we're done we can all meet up and combine them all. This can be done in less than a week if enough of us work as a team - anyways we are so prolific at downloading movies and all - so let's do something for all the students in our city for a change! (and legal too! :P)
How we'll collaborate : Browse to this wiki site:
http://education.wikia.com/wiki/Khan_Academy_torrent_download
You can scroll to the table, press the Edit button, put in your name & contact (phone, email, twitter handle, anything) next to a chapter of your choice to indicate that you're downloading it. Put "in progress" in the last column. Once done, go there again and enter the date of completion. It's that simple - no coding or tech expertise needed!
So here's an open Call for a Mass Collaborative Educational Download effort! This will probably be the first campaign of its kind happening in Pune, so here's a chance for you to be a part of history and make a positive impact on the society!
If you're not familiar with torrents and downloading, you must know someone who is! (Who gives you all the movies??) Do share the web page on facebook / twitter, forward this email and spread the word!
Note to friends in other cities : you can copy the table over and start a similar thing for your city on that wiki page as well!
Cheers,
Nikhil Sheth
+91-966-583-1250
Pune, India
Teach For India Fellow, 2011-13
www.nikhilsheth.tk
Find me on: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Google | RangDe
Join me on: Pune Documentary Club | Let's Do it Pune | Toastmasters in Pune | Wikipedia For Schools project
Disclaimer :Only download if you're sure you have an unlimited GBs broadband internet connection or you'll end up with a big bill ~!~
No comments:
Post a Comment