Sites such as Khan Academy have undoubtedly revolutionized learning, both in terms of the access to great free resources but also in the broadening of horizons in terms of what is possible.

It’s a concept that Bill Gates is firmly behind.  He was one of the early supporters of Khan Academy, and he talks to The Verge below about the role he believes online education will play in the coming decade and a half.

The themes are similar to those discussed in the recent presentation given to the UK, India Business Council by Devi Shetty, in which he and his fellow panelists revealed how the incredible spread of mobile devices is changing healthcare in developing nations.

With the mobile infrastructure pervasive in even the most remote of places, it has rapidly become the best way to reach enormous numbers of people, and so it has quickly become the easiest and most effective way to deliver healthcare.

Gates clearly hopes that the likes of Khan Academy will offer similar hope in terms of education.  Whilst Khan Academy have gained a lot of publicity for their efforts, they are far from alone in trying to bring better education to the masses.

I spoke yesterday with Steve Dineen, founder of Fusion Universal, and he spoke to me about his social enterprise The Fuse School. 

They have produced a range of videos around the STEM subjects that are available for free via their YouTube channel.  They have attempted to capture the knowledge of the best teachers in each subject and make that knowledge available in easy to follow videos.

As Gates mentions however, this adoption of online, mobile based learning may inadvertently be fueling a gender divide in education.  He reveals how significantly fewer girls own mobile phones than their male peers, which could deprive them of the access required to the opportunities available to boys in their communities.

It underlines that whilst provision of mobile based learning is a fantastic thing, we should not fall into the trap of believing they offer the panacea to our problems.

Nevertheless, I am largely in line with Gates when trumpets the enormous value such platforms as Fuse and Khan Academy bring to society, both in the developed but more importantly the developing worlds.