My name is KHAN

I’m reminded of Carl Sagan’s quote:

“The simplest thought like the concept of the number one has an elaborate logical underpinning.”

I love the idea of putting learning online. I believe that there’s a big advantage to having access to a teacher’s think-aloud at any time of the day, anywhere in the world. That is an extremely powerful idea, and it wasn’t available or possible a few years ago. So- Salman Khan began making his videos for his cousins, putting them on YouTube, and we all started to take notice.

Salman Khan, once a hedge fund manager, reaches more than six million students across the world monthly by providing free educational videos via the Internet. 

The Mission

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created Khan Academy. He asks teachers to consider changing the traditional classroom by allowing students to watch video lectures at home and complete "homework" in the classroom. The idea of learning with the Internet finally began to take shape with Khan Academy.

Sal brought used his conceptual skills to shape up his vision and thereby reinventing education.    

Salman Khan : Man behind KhanAcademy

The Khan Academy is not teaching concepts and ideas. Khan Academy teaches answers. 1 + 1 = 2 . The concepts and the ideas are really what we want our students to understand, not the rote knowledge. We need a good teacher to facilitate the discussion of what the concept of numbers can be. I like the idea of data tracking on the back-end that allows teachers to see the progress of their students.

The method of instruction emphasizes procedures — how to do math — but ignores the conceptual understanding that’s central to authentic learning: what math means. At its core, this is a function of ineffective instruction, which to a large degree is related to ineffective content.

But one glaring hole has yet to be undertaken: context.  Khan Academy is a symptom of a teaching profession where too many teachers are too shy or too old-school to jump into the publishing world. We need that to happen faster. Context is key.  Ever wonder why so many of those math videos are boring? You’re missing the context by which they occur in.

Not everyone agrees. Critics might argue that Khan’s videos and software encourage uncreative, repetitive drilling—and leave kids staring at screens instead of interacting with real live teachers. Even Khan would acknowledge that he’s not an educational professional; he’s just a nerd who improvised a cool way to teach people things.

Although I believe that a computer program can never and should never replace an actual teacher, I feel that Khan Academy is a great empowering tool to enable students to work independently. I would recommend this program especially to students who need reviewing but are embarrassed to admit that they are confused in class. Such students would be able to watch the same video as many times as they need to without feeling rushed. Others who need more of a challenge would also benefit from it, as they have the freedom to move ahead, and choose topics that spark their interests.
Thus bringing theory X and theory Y into use. 

Lack of financial resources and inaccessibility to cutting edge technology make getting quality math and science education difficult for many students. In some rural locations, finding skilled instructors to teach subjects like basic arithmetic, advanced mathematics and science is nonexistent. Khan Academy's free educational services allow learners to benefit from quality instruction no matter where they are.

For excellent learning to take place takes passion on the part of the student. Screens encourage passivity; it's already been documented in laboratory studies. Small classes with good teachers teaching what they're knowledgeable about - that's the ideal learning environment.

Theory X and Theory Y

Continuing from the previous lecture, where we learnt Excellence through the tower building exercise lecture 2 was about Theory X and Theory Y. It is about differentiating the authoritative management from participative style of management and to study, the implications each have on the output and mind set of the employee.

Let’s assume, X and Y are two types of managers where X thinks his employees are lazy and inefficient whereas manager Y believes his workers are not lazy and hard working.

Hence, there are four situations that arise:

1. My employer is lazy and I think they are lazy. 
2. My employer is not lazy but I still think they are lazy.
3. My employer is lazy but I still believe they are not lazy.
4. My employer is not lazy and I think they are not lazy.

ANALYSIS and MY EXPERIENCES

Let’s analyze each of the above situations and at the end I would be citing few examples from my experience about the same:

1.       This is the situation where both worker and manager dislike their respective work. This would not only lead to decrease in efficiency of the employer but also have negative impact on the output of the organization.

Example:

In my last organization, which was a public sector unit, being lethargic to work was nothing strange. Infact, I could find people both at lower and upper level of management equally inefficient at their work. And this scenario was common in departments where the manager himself was lazy because this gave the people under him an easy way to escape and not do work.

2.       Situation 2 is the real danger situation where the employer is working hard for the company but I, the Manager, think that he is lazy, efficient and does not contribute towards the organization. With no motivation from my side, the employer may lose his confidence, which might lead to decrease in his efficiency or in worst case force him to switch organizations.

Example:

This is a typical junior-senior situation where the manager has no belief on the employee. It happened with me also when I caught a worker taking a short power nap at the assembly line. This not only created a prejudice in my mind that the worker was inefficient  but I started finding faults in his work but later I got to know from a colleague that he’s actually one the best we have on line and maybe he was not well that particular day I misjudged him.

3.       This is the situation; ideally every management should be following. Here, my employer is lazy but I (the manager) believe that he is still contributing towards the organization. This would not only motive him to do efficient but also effective work.

Example:

This is a situation which not only boosts your morale but also helps in building your relationship with your manager.  Once I had to present a short presentation in front of the Director, which didn’t go as planned but my director not only motivated me but also suggested ways of improving it and the next presentation I did, he was really impressed with the work. This was possible because he displayed Manager Y characteristics which motivated me to do better next time and stand upto him expectations.

4.       Last situation is the simplest one, where my employer is not lazy and even I believe that he is working hard for the firm. The situation is simple for me as a manager because I can quantify the magnitude of work my employer has done and base my judgment upon that.

Example:

It is simple situation when your manager can actually measure the output of the worker based on his performance.