Can you imagine a classroom with more than 10 million students?

If you are a teacher, surely you had chills. But if you are a student you’d probably thought you were in a  Rolling Stones’ concert.

Actually, this is what the famous Khan Academy is today: a global classroom with over 10 million subscribers from all over the world, speaking 36 different languages. Online education is a wonderful and unstoppable global phenomenon.

What makes an initiative like Khan Academy so special? Two reasons. The first, it takes education everywhere through e-learning, using digital tools. The second, their services are totally free.

Supporting free education for all

Not only Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, has understood that education is a tool of huge power to change what is wrong in the world. Only through education could there be opportunities for improvement in the quality of life for all. Young Nobel Peace Prize (2014), Malala Yousafzai, always repeats that.

Thus, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, through its foundation, has promoted the creation of a free access educational portal. Aprende.org is a unique private initiative in Latin America, which gives access to a wide public to a variety of courses for personal and professional improvement.

Aprende.org has served more than 7 million students in three years. But also many have gained access to training tools at no cost to connect, browse and enjoy through their mobile devices.

Some other ways to support

On the other hand, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has years supporting educational initiatives of various kinds. Its goal has been to expand educational opportunities and access to information through technology.

In 2011, this foundation created The Teaching Channel platform, with plenty of resourceful and creative ideas for teachers. Through this platform, teachers receive clear opportunities to grow where and when they need them and free.

Additionally, Microsoft is the main sponsor of many free educational initiatives. Social learning platform Edmodo is a clear example of this. Founded in 2008 by Nic Borg and Jeff O’Hara, by the end of last year, Edmodo had more than 50 million users worldwide. And it’s free!

The giant Google does not stay behind. Google for education is quite a source of tools, and other resources for teachers, students, and managers of the educational area. And although not everything is free, some of it is and is a great contribution.

Free quality education

Free access to online education has been much discussed. It is said that the more you try spreading it further, quality is diminished. This is a myth about the size of a cathedral.

E-learning and IT, in general, have had to deal with the commonplace of a low-quality education outside the classroom. But it forgets that a low-quality of education can also be on the tip of a chalk and a blackboard’s surface.

The possibilities of mass education that provides e-learning have hurt susceptibilities and broken piles of knowledge monopolies. There is the heart of the matter.

That which is massive and also free is usually labeled as low in quality. Nevertheless, experiences like Khan Academy, Aprende, The Teaching Channel or Edmodo have shown that the quality of education depends on users (teachers & students) and not the means.

Each time more experts in various areas understand the potential of reaching many with little effort. Over time, digital technology tools have been placed at the grasp of those who have solid knowledge, of those who could share the possibility of a structured and with high standard education.

Educate and transform

Education transforms the life of every human being. At Teachlr, we firmly believe in it. Therefore we offer the possibility that anyone who has something to teach could do it for free. To bring knowledge to people anywhere on the planet allows their quality of life to improve. That is why we are here.

And you can become part of this process! The empowerment produced through knowledge is huge and might change the way we eat, work or study the universe. In any case, to educate and transform are two processes that go together.

Using online education much more people than 30 years ago are learning something new every day. But also a great amount of them are teaching something new every single day and they love it. Online education has strengthened itself.

So take the next step, feel that you have the leading role at that Rolling Stones’ concert, and start teaching online. At Teachlr, we have developed the tools in order to make it easy for you.

If you have any thoughts about why you started teaching online or why you would like to start, go ahead! And share them in the comments section.