I had a tough time deciding between two individuals to introduce to you all, so I decided to just introduce both.
Scott Cook is an extraordinary business man and a personal idol. Mr. Cook is most famously known for being a cofounder of Intuit software. His Forbes Billionaire profile provides a brief overview of his background. Intuit has changed the accounting industry in ways people could never have imagined. From bookkeeping software to tax software, Intuit has created it all and it is all available online and/or in the cloud. I personally use this software for my clients and I have built my business by promoting myself as a cloud based accounting firm. Mr. Cook’s learning lesson of “looking for the surprise” (Acevedo & Beier, n.d.), has been something that I have incorporated into my business style. When I feel stuck or unsure, I think back to this video or watch this video again and I push forward. Scott Cook’s impact on allowing the everyday person to learn how to do accounting in a simple manner, in my opinion, is one of the largest impacts on the accounting industry. Competitors are coming out of the woodwork every day to try and compete against Quickbooks or other Intuit software systems, and yet it remains the industry leader. His thoughts on innovation in the workplace and how to foster a learning environment and culture are terrific.
Salman Khan is an aspiration. He is an educator who developed Khan Academy which is a free online educational platform in which he has contributed over 6,500 instructional videos. Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that provides educational content to anyone, anywhere in the world. In 2015, Khan did a Ted Talk on Education and why we should teach mastery and focus on ensuring the basics are being understood instead of just rushing students through due to deadlines. His talk was incredibly motivating and had been a real focus for me when setting up the structure for my university courses. Mr. Khan has been cited for creating the future of education. I took this concept into my courses that I am teaching this semester. I have provided the lecture material upfront and requested that the reading be completed before classes, so that I can focus on the actual teaching and instructing of how to do the accounting calculations in class. All of my students have been raving about the setup of my classes and are finding that they are actually learning more by working through problems in class versus receiving a lecture.
I hope you enjoyed meeting Mr. Cook and Mr. Khan.
Thank you Leigh for sharing your exciting findings. I knew about Khan academy previously, but I had no idea who Scott Cook was! But I am so happy I do now! I like people who try to simplify complicated things to make us understand! This demonstrates a high level of skills and experience, and not everyone can do that!
Thanks for sharing again 🙂
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed my introductions 🙂
Thank you for an interesting post. I am going to watch the Ted Talk related to education and why we should teach mastery and focus. Your post has inspired me to reflect on how I deliver information to participants. Teaching is about transmitting the learning and providing opportunities for theory to be applied in many different formats to ensure understanding and knowledge retention.
Thank you! Yes, I highly recommend the Ted Talk. I have really enjoyed the change as an instructor. I have been working through the idea of mastery and it’s tough to incorporate into teaching, but I have enjoyed the challenge and my students seem to be really benefiting. Let me know what you think of the Ted Talk.