Ken Hayes

One word: Kids. I haven’t validated the stats yet, but here’s anecdotal evidence from a flock of 13-year-old seventh graders. I first learned of Instagram from my daughter, an avid iPhone user, about seven months ago. I couldn’t figure out the attraction. She filled me in:

1. Many of her friends don’t use Facebook. More accurately, many of her friends are NOT ALLOWED to use Facebook; forbidden by their parents. Parents ban Facebook because they fear predators or time-sucks. Those same parents don’t realize their kids will simply find an alternative. Especially when they give their kids smartphones with data plans.
2. All of her friends have iPhones, almost universally.
3. Instagram was easy to use, much simpler and more immediate than Facebook’s iPhone app. Teenagers crave immediate feedback and validation.

I’ll add a fourth factor:

• Kids crave an alternate social playground that their uncool parents don’t occupy. And all us uncool parents are by now on Facebook, as are all the grandparents. And when we’re allowed to link to our kids, we’re tagging our kids in photos, posting on their wall messages with cute smiley’s, etc. Can you imagine anything worse for a 13-year-old than public posts from their parents – which their friends can see?
  (Here’s my post from 2006 on this effect on MySpace: MySpace is Dead – Parents Stop Worrying )

Facebook figured out that they risked losing a large and growing user base – the tweens who constantly look for the “next big thing”, and so bought Instagram to pull that user base into the fold.  I predict this will be a constant initiative for Facebook — as it matures, every year or so it will need to acquire younger businesses who bring in new or younger user bases, eventually folding them into the Facebook master site.  This is probably their best bet to avoid the fate of Friendster, MySpace, AOL, Yahoo, etc.

Khan Academy is coming close to home. One of my kid’s schools has been selected for a pilot test of middle- and high-school math classes based on the Khan system. It’s a one-year test run by the Math Department Head himself, working directly with Khan. The pilot came about based on an initiative taken by a junior student at school! And this is not a struggling school (at least not based on the extraordinary tuition we have to pay), rather they are embracing change to see if they can make an already successful school even more so – and for every child.

My title above is misleading because in fact, Salman Khan has inadvertently launched a revolution in EDUCATION, and e-learning just happens to be a part of his system. An authentic grass-roots e-learning initiative, started by an individual, Khan, has blossomed into a full-scale movement to improve education, which is getting noticed by mainstream media, attracting donations from hi-tech foundations and splitting educators. Like President Bush’s famous quote, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” traditional educators are polarized between embracing the new technology and dismissing it as a naive amateur attempt.

Here’s the real deal: Khan’s videos and methodology work (so far) because they are simple, hokey, deliberately non-corporate and non-polished. Yet they are also Web 2.0 – with a real “cool” factor. There’s no product marketing committee making sure every video has a politically correct, watered down mix of messages. They look like your hip uncle explaining algebra to you over Skype. Which is actually how the videos started out.

While gaining 68,000,000+ views on YouTube of his 2,400+ videos, Khan has formed a non-profit with funding from Gates Foundation, Google and others with the mission to make effective education free for the whole world. Now that’s a “reach goal”, if there ever was one.

Students watch videos (e.g. mini lectures) and complete online assessments at their own pace, and then interact with their teachers and other students while doing “homework” in class. Web 2.0 dashboards and progress tracking enables teachers to track exactly which students need specific help. I’ve done this myself (with 57,000 points earned!):

Sample progress dashboard for a student (me) in the Khan Academy.

My teenage son introduced me to Khan’s videos when he was searching for algebra help on YouTube a couple years ago. That the young generation is spontaneously drawn to Khan’s videos is evidence enough for me that Khan is on to something. When my son searches for help on any topic, he uses YouTube, not Google text search. This is very different form how older generations search on the web.

Traditional educational content publishers (think Pearson or McGraw-Hill) have attempted to create compelling online education for years – and have failed repeatedly. I think because they are trying to satisfy committees, shareholders and traditional educators. Not the students themselves. Instead, Khan started with the students (his nieces and nephews, in fact) and evolved an educational system from that starting point.

We’ll see over the coming years if Khan Academy’s system begins to show repeatable, significant positive results with no long-term negative consequences. Plenty of traditional teachers are skeptical. But it’s worth a try. I’m relieved (and proud) that my kid’s school has the collective self-confidence and leadership to be at the forefront.

To try Khan yourself, see www.KhanAcademy.org or www.Youtube.com/khanacademy

Good mainstream article in Wired Magazine:  www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/
(Wired August 2011 edition, published online July 15, 2011)

Article in Fast Company magazine:  www.FastCompany.com/1728471/change-generation-bill-gates-favorite-teacher-wants-to-disrupt-education
February 16, 2011

[Addendum:  Article in The Economist 17-Sept-2011,  "Flipping the Classroom":  www.economist.com/node/21529062 ]

I’ve criticized Google before about creating great products but ignoring them with poor marketing and promotion so that they die on the vine. Well, Google is finally amping up its marketing mojo with Chrome.

Starting this month, Google rolled out a series of TV commercials promoting its Chrome browser (and soon to be OS). Chrome is positioned as the centerpiece of all the Google features (Gmail, YouTube, etc.) No big deal, except that the commercials ooze sentimentality and inspiration, as well as showing the power of Google products. You cannot help but be mesmerized by them. Not unlike the Apple iPad commercials showing sample apps – but Google is way more powerful because it’s actually a network with depth and breadth far exceeding Apple.

Kudos to Google’s agency BBH – Bartle Bogle Hegarty, LLC in New York and the star power they’ve assembled. Game on, Apple! (sorry Microsoft. . .)

1. Google Chrome: It Gets Better
982,000 views in 24 days – fair growth
Making a serious subject accessible and hip to discuss.

2. Google Chrome: Dear Sophie
1.1 million views in 24 days – very good growth
My wife tears up every time she sees this!

3.  Google Chrome: Lady Gaga
1.1 million views in 5 days – wow – the power of Mother Monster?
Love the music, and I cannot stop looking at Lady Gaga no matter how hard I try. The new generation’s Madonna.

Google Mashes Up Fan Videos for Lady Gaga Spot:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/google-mashes-fan-videos-lady-gaga-spot-131913