Sal Khan Delivers the Edtech State of the Union Address

A giant of edtech meets an even larger giant—schooling itself.

Sal Khan gave an interview to England’s Times Education Supplement (TES) last week on his past and current work. Khan is, of course, a central figure in the edtech industry—a lightning rod for funding, press, and criticism. He was one of the first edtech industry leaders to build with ChatGPT. As such, I consider his thoughts about generative AI reflective of industry trends.

If his remarks are any indication, the edtech industry is starting to realize that the possibility of revolutionary impact with generative AI is small and the possibility of any impact will require them to operate as partners with institutions that many of them have disregarded.

Edtech needs to reset expectations.

To its credit, the British press did what the US press largely hasn’t, which is to notice that Khan has predicted an education revolution several times already, and to ask him, “Hey how did those go by the way?”

But in reality Khan Academy has not transformed teaching like Khan hoped it might. In the US, as in the UK, students still typically sit at desks while a teacher delivers a lecture-style presentation, and then they complete tasks based on what they have learned.

“If you walk into a random classroom, for the most part it seems pretty similar to what we used to see,” he says. “If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have hoped… I mean, I’ve given TED Talks saying you shouldn’t need to give lectures any more, and everyone should be able to go at their own pace.”

Khan seems stymied here. He has given TED talks—TED talks!—which failed to transform our system of schooling. Why, TES asks, should we believe his current promises of transformation using generative AI? In response, Khan starts moving his goalposts.

Instead of his previous promise to give “every teacher on the planet an amazing, artificially intelligent teaching assistant,” he promises in this interview that “some of a teacher’s job becomes a little bit easier.” 

Instead of his previous promise to give “every student on the planet an artificially intelligent but amazing personal tutor,” resulting in learning gains two standard deviations above the average, here he calls that model “unnatural.”

Now, however, a class of 30 students could “break out” into five groups, each around an “Alexa-type device” formatted with AI that facilitates discussion. “It wouldn’t even have to be every kid on a computer, because that’s very unnatural,” he explains.

Edtech needs to work inside, rather than outside, the system.

Later, Khan seems to experience a moment of clarity that more education revolutionaries would ideally experience as well.

So, why hasn’t Khan Academy ushered in a new era of education?

Well, the platform is designed to help students who are “trying to get through the [public school] system”, Khan says. “Either we support them in moments where they have a gap or we are used more systematically by their teacher, by their school, to improve the learning that goes on.”

And the public school system is far bigger than Khan Academy, he says.

The academy “needs to be pretty well integrated with the formal systems for it to have the maximum impact. That’s the journey that will keep us busy for decades to come”, its founder says.

You could talk me into feeling a little sorry for Khan here. One day, you think you’ve found the cheat code for schooling—YouTube videos! A bunch of people who love software and hate teachers all give you money. They applaud you for figuring out how to do a job all on your own that previously required three million teachers and hundreds of thousands of administrative staff all working closely within a bureaucracy. Imagine! Smash cut to 13 years later and you’re neck deep in that bureaucracy, signing privacy agreements, negotiating with procurement officers, talking to school boards, and scheduling professional development sessions, realizing you’ll be doing that for “decades to come.”

Ed Begle said, “Mathematics education is much more complicated than you expected even though you expected it to be more complicated than you expected.” You can multiply that surprise 100x for all the edtech revolutionaries who didn’t believe that education was all that complicated in the first place.

Khan is realizing, fourteen years after he started in edtech but perhaps not too late, that making a difference in a student’s learning means engaging the people and institutions that society has created to protect and nurture them.

If you work in edtech, Khan’s state of the union address should remind you that your product won’t reach a student’s mind if it doesn’t reach the student. It won’t reach the student if it doesn’t reach their teacher. It won’t reach their teacher if it doesn’t reach their administrator. It won’t reach their administrator if it doesn’t reach their superintendent, and then their school board, and then their constituents, and on and on.

Some of those people are responsive to TED talks but they are all much more responsive to people who see them as partners rather than impediments, who appeal to their highest aspirations and deepest goals, who meet them in collaboration rather than competition. It is a life’s work to understand and meet those aspirations and goals—a work without shortcuts or cheat codes.

Featured Comments

Charles Fadel on Andrej Karpathy’s edtech ambitions:

He is focused at first on an AI course, which is much more of a natural for at least 3 reasons:

1. The demographic is self-motivated CS types

2. They prefer to learn on line

3. Using a computer is necessary for the learning

BTW these are the courses and people who make it on Coursera etc.

The real test would be extending to any other discipline- good luck with that! :)

Cara Lokken-Frandsen:

The simple truth is that most children crave a meaningful relationship with their teachers. This is a normal part of growing up. The digital tools are just that. Tools. We are looking for ways to learn more about learning and how to make learning a bit more accessible and memorable.