TI employee Urmil Shah and his son, Tirth, attended a TI-sponsored conversation about education with Salman Khan, founder and executive director of the Khan Academy.

TI recently hosted a conversation about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education with Salman Khan, founder and executive director of the Khan Academy.

Khan, who shared his perspective on the future of education, was joined by representatives of the Dallas Regional Chamber, EducateTexas and Austin College.

Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization with the goal of changing education for the better by "providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere."

The educational resources provided on the academy's website are available to anyone for free. The site hosts more than 4,000 kindergarten-through-12th-grade education videos covering topics from biology, chemistry and physics to the humanities and art.

The technology allows students of all ages – at all income levels – to learn a concept at their own pace and measure their mastery of each topic.

"Sal is a thought leader in innovation and education who is on the leading edge of using technology to reduce inequities in the education system so that all students can be successful regardless of income, ethnicity or other circumstances beyond their control," said Trisha Cunningham, TI's chief citizenship officer. "We're really fortunate to have the opportunity to work with committed partners who 'get it' and want to work together to move education forward."

As Khan's organization expands its reach around the globe, he is working to make his site available in multiple languages. He said 50 million people visited the academy's site in 2012.

"What has been surprising in a very good way…the classes have motivated students in a bigger way than we thought," Khan said during the conversation. "We've seen the biggest gains in the remedial math classes."

Click here to hear a recording of the event.

Real-life results
Urmil Shah, a TI software engineer, attended the program with his 8-year-old son, Tirth, who uses the academy's learning resources regularly.

"Sal has done some amazing work, and I have personally seen the impact with my son," Shah said. "Unfortunately, not many people know about this resource and how it is used, and I encourage everyone to check it out for themselves."

Tirth is a third-grade honors student who loves math and science and wants to be a scientist when he grows up. Shah said he tried different online resources and math practice books to support his son's learning, ultimately settling on Khan Academy because the content is well-explained and the analytics are powerful.

While Shah's motivation for attending the program was from an educational perspective, Tirth's motivation for attending was a bit different. After using the academy's learning resources for more than a year, he wanted to see Khan in person.

"I was curious to see how he looks in person. He is like a rock star to me!" Tirth said. "I would definitely recommend the videos to all my friends to give it a try."

Khan is the author of "The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined" and is the 2013 recipient of the Austin College Posey Leadership Award.

Before quitting his job as manager of a hedge fund to run the Khan Academy full time, Kahn also found time to get three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master's in business administration from Harvard University.

More information about Khan Academy is available here.