Salman Khan, of Khan Academy fame, explained how he started producing hundreds of videos reaching out to a million students monthly (that was in 2011)!
He just wanted to tutor his cousins (who were in New Orleans) remotely from where he was in Boston. So he made a video and posted it on Youtube.
The reaction from his cousins was very favorable. And thus was born Khan Academy, and along with it the whole industry of Massively Open Online Courses.
I don’t think Salman Khan is a traditional educator before he started making those videos. He was working at a hedge fund!
In fact, I do not think he imagined that those remote tutoring sessions were actually sowing the seeds of the future Khan Academy!
Khan’s approach to teaching confronts the traditional education process with some serious questions. And the technology of Youtube had a major part to play.
Watch his TED talk and let me know what you think!