Old dogs - new tricks

Hey, need a brush up on math? Science? History? Art? Economics? Civics? If you missed 60 Minutes on Sunday you missed a truly exciting American story and a link to one of today's most innovative learning experiences.

A young man named Saul Khan - a Harvard grad, 30ish I would say, very successful businessman - had a niece who was struggling with some math problems. She lived out of state. So, Mr. Khan posted a series of ten-minute tutorials on YouTube, using and easy but highly informative style to make his points. Her math improved. She told others. Within a few weeks, hundreds of people were accessing his short lessons. One of them happened to be Microsoft's Bill Gates. Go figure. Two years and $15 million later - thank you Mr. Gates - the not-for-profit KHAN ACADEMY has a small staff of teachers covering a huge variety of subjects. I went through some of the math tutorials - they're absolutely great! They cover everything from the simplest addition and subtraction to the most complicated calculus. Each lesson comes with a little homework project.

If you think you already know everything about everything, this isn't for you. But if there's anything you have left to learn, this is a great place to do it. Hey, it's on the internet, it's available and it's free. You already have an ipad - how many times can you play Angry Birds?