Bill Gates endorses Khanacademy.com's free educational resources

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, once the richest man in the world, knows a good deal when he sees one. Since 2010, Gates, whose foundation supports education, has heaped praise on khanacademy.com, a Web site banking more than 2,500 free mini-lectures on subjects from history to math.

Featured by most major news outlets from CNN to National Public Radio, the one-man show behind the Web site is its prolific founder Salman Khan, a MIT and Harvard-educated former hedge fund manager. Since 2006, the New Orleans native of East Indian and Bangladeshi descent has generated videos of his step-by-step instructions he places on YouTube from a walk-in closet turned home office in his Silicon Valley ranch-style house.
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As with many good ideas, Khanacademy.com started close to home when Khan’s cousin, who then was in the seventh grade, approached him for tutoring in math. He agreed to do it remotely, and an avocation was born.

In 10 to 15 minutes, visitors can catch up on just about anything. The math-challenged can get up to speed on quadratic equations, conic sections or calculus derivatives. Though Khan still is working on his lectures on the history of the world, he appears to favor the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era and the Haitian Revolution.

Khan has the background to support his gift to humanity. At MIT, he earned bachelor’s degrees in math, electrical engineering and computer science. He earned an MBA at Harvard.

If Gates thinks this site is good enough to use for his three kids, it might well be worthwhile for anyone to check it out.