"Entertainment, socialising and information have become screen-shaped. And a cluster of global online learning projects are bringing education into the frame too. Among those attracting attention is the Khan Academy, the US-based free online tuition service, which helps youngsters to catch up on lessons and bright children to stretch themselves further. […] The most recent figures show that the number of people using the website each month has risen threefold in a year to 3.5 million.
Shantanu Sinha, Khan Academy president and chief operating officer, says the project is part of a "major transformation" in education. "It's being transformed by accessibility," he says. Anyone with an internet connection can plug into the resources now available online, regardless of where they live. "Cheap tablet computers are going to become ubiquitous. Access to information will be like access to clean running water. A great education will be seen as a basic human necessity."
Will online learning reach the places other teaching has missed? Or will it replicate all the inequalities, but in a hi-tech form? The central issue for Shantanu Sinha is giving more people the chance to have access to the core teaching materials they need, in the most useful form, regardless of income or geography. It's an online egalitarianism."
Source : BBC News, 23/11/11