Speak to Move, Not to Inform

In this TED video, Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, discusses his revolutionary approach to education:



Khan advocates flipping the traditional classroom model. How? Lectures happen at home, and homework happens at school.

At the Khan Academy, students first watch educational videos in order to learn the material at home at their own pace. The "homework" part happens the next day - in the classroom with the teacher there to help.

Khan points out that what is so remarkable about this approach is that technology is actually being used to humanize the experience of learning.

Khan's talk reminded me of the problem with speaking to a group in order to simply give them information. It is far more effective instead to speak to an audience in order to move them.

After all, people remember much more how they felt when they hear a speech, rather than the information they learned. Perhaps this is because people learn as distinct individuals, but they feel things as human beings.

From the Green Room: Speak to move, not to inform. Remember that the power of a live presentation can be fully actualized only when there is an emotional connection between the speaker and the audience.