Welcome to the daily home room.

For those of y'all who don't know what this is,

you're just showing up off from Facebook or YouTube.

This is something that we started

once we started seeing mass school closures

and it's really a way for all of us to stay connected.

Obviously Khan Academy as a not-for-profit

with a mission of providing

free world-class education for anyone anywhere.

Over the last many years we've been building resources,

that we've saw students use both outside of school

and inside of school with teachers.

And we could've never foreseen this crisis,

but when it started happening

we realized given our mission,

it's our duty to step up in any way possible

to support you the student, the teacher and the parent.

And so we've been putting out webinars

to help parents and teachers get set up.

We've been issuing daily schedules,

we just issued some learning plans last week

and we also thought it'd be fun to have something like this,

just a way to stay connected

and times with social distancing

and talk about interesting subjects.

It might be related to Khan Academy.

It might be education generally,

it might be just how do we make...

How do we navigate this crisis that we're going through.

I will give my the plug that I give every day,

remind everyone that we are supported

through philanthropic donations

from folks like yourself.

So if you're in a position to please think about donating,

I want to give a special shout out

to several corporations who've stepped up

in the last few weeks.

Bank of America stepped up that first weekend

when it was clear that

we were gonna have the school closings,

Google.org, AT&T, Novartis,

if any of you represent corporations

please reach out to us.

We were running a deficit even before this crisis

and our costs have gone up since then

and there's all sorts of things

we wanna do and accelerate forward

but we're only going to be able to do it

if we're able to get more support.

And thank you for the many thousands of people

who've donated over the last few weeks.

It all makes a difference

and allows us to accelerate our work.

So the focus of today,

I have a very fun guest

who's a close friend of mine

and also does very important work in the world.

We have Jim Steyer from Common Sense Media, hi Jim.

- Hi Sal and great to be here

and by the way, you should give money to Khan Academy

it is a fabulous organization

and its tires are donors.

We're a not-for-profit

but there's nobody better than Sal Khan Academy.

He's right about that.

- I did not tell Jim to say that,

but that's why we are close friends he knows.

So first one on this conversation,

I'm gonna ask you a few questions

about Common Sense Media generally

and maybe some of the things that we're doing together

and how we're navigating the crisis.

But if anyone has questions,

feel free to go on YouTube and Facebook

and our team members will surface questions

if you have questions for Jim

about his work at Common Sense Media

or any questions for me as well.

But Jim, maybe a good place to start.

Tell folks what Common Sense Media is

and why you started it.

Okay, so we are a nonprofit organization

and really the leading kids media

and advocacy organization in the U S.

I started it cause I'm a former school teacher.

And at Stanford prof

who cares a ton about really educating families

and kids in general

but also about the impact of media

and technology on their lives.

I started at 15 years ago.

We do three things.

We rate, educate and advocate.

So for folks out there in the audience who know us,

we've made every movie TV, video game, website,

book, music, you name it

Common Sense rates it and gives you information

so parents can make better choices for their kids.

The educate part of our work is

we created the field of

digital citizenship, digital literacy.

So we have a curriculum

in most of the schools in the United States

about the safe, ethical, responsible use of media

and technology at home and in the classroom.

And then finally, we're a leading child advocacy group

that advocates for everything like

everybody having Wi-Fi and broadband.

Every student in America having access to Khan Academy,

these kinds of resources

and also on issues like education and healthcare

and all these issues that matter to kids and families

who are in the U S

so a big nonprofit just like Khan Academy

and a huge fan of Khan Academy and Sal.

- We're fans of you and all of the work y'all do as well.

And so to make it tangible for a lot of folks,

I use Common Sense Media with my own family

when I'm just trying to find good stuff for them.

We're doing movie nights once a week now

with all the social distancing

and we turn to Common Sense Media a lot for that.

What are some of the things,

and I know we have some stuff going on together as well,

but where's... what were y'all focused on

before this crisis hit

and how has that evolved to some degree since then?

- Okay, great question Sal.

So basically before the crisis hit

we had this big consumer platform,

but 100 million people on it

trying to figure out what movies to watch

for their kids on movie night

or what video games were appropriate

for a 12 year old et cetera.

And we were in most of the schools in the U S

basically working with teachers and educators saying,

here's how to use the internet.

Here's how to use cell phones and social media

in a really responsible way.

And when this crisis hit,

one of the first things we thought was like wow

we need to work with Khan Academy.

But we also thought wouldn't it be great

to create one central hub

where schools could go and where families could go

get fined at one click of a button.

The best educational resources

could deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

So along with the support of folks like Khan Academy,

we created Wide Open School.org,

which is this new platform

our colleagues at Amplify helped build the platform.

And then honestly, we link to the best content out there,

Khan Academy, national geographic,

Sesame street, et cetera.

And the idea was make it really easy for parents

and students who are at home

and we're doing distance learning

and also for schools around the United States

to have one central place

where they could get the content they wanted

and actually to do homeschooling.

And as you mentioned, Sal,

having a daily schedule and you there

is really important cause everybody's at home right now

and trying to do learning from home

and whether they're on Khan Academy

or Wide Open School, it's just how

we're just trying to help everybody

learn from home and we think this is gonna be

changing the nature of education long-term.

Just like Khan Academy changed the nature of education

when Sal founded Khan Academy.

- Well, what's your sense, a lot of questions.

I'm having a lot of conversations these days

obviously about the whole virus generally,

but how do you think this is going to play out

over the next several weeks or months,

especially in relation to school

and kids maybe generally speaking?

- I actually think that ultimately we're gonna listen

and we're here in California, Sal.

So we've had a governor really step forward

and mayors and stuff.

I think we're gonna be sad to say,

I think we're gonna be learning from home

for the rest of the school year for sure.

And I think that even for the rest of 2020

much of learning is gonna be online much more than normal.

And therefore everybody out there

is gonna need to be able to access the internet

is gonna be able to access resources like Khan Academy.

And so I think this is gonna last longer than normal

and I think it's really important for all of us.

I have four children, Sal I know you're a doubting dad to.

I think we have to explain to our kids that

we're gonna be at home,

it's good family time,

but we're gonna need to figure out how to do school.

Also how to take breaks and get exercise

and not sit in front of a screen all day long.

So I think this is gonna last longer than we think.

I think for example, it's gonna probably affect summers

and a lot of us are gonna probably do some more at home

than we were planning on.

I know my kids who are a little older than your kids Sal,

they are in college and grad school

and they are taking their classes at home and I...

their summer jobs have changed.

So I sad to say, I think we're gonna have to figure out

how to work with this over the four months.

I don't think it's just gonna be weeks.

I think it'll be a few months to be honest.

Cause of the virus.

- Yeah, and we're getting some comments off of YouTube

Tuzeta Roro says, I have been using this with my kids.

I think they're referring to

either Common Sense or Wide Open School.

And I've been using this with my kids this week

and it helps me feel less guilty about screen time.

Actually that's an interesting issue.

How do you think about coping with screen-time guilt?

I'm happy to give my own views on that.

Although I'm conflicted.

What are your thoughts about that as a parent and an expert?

- So I actually, I'd love to hear what you think you Sal

as parent and an expert.

So definitely you're gonna have more screen time right now.

There's just no question

because literally my kids

are going to school online right now,

so they're going to be in front of a screen

more than they are.

And as Common Sense where we're the leading spokespeople

on this issue about balance and moderation

when it comes to screen time.

And by the way, it's a really important message,

but I think that we have to understand

these are unique circumstances.

So I do think that we should let up on

some of the hard and fast rules

we want our kids going to school doing online learning.

We want them using Khan Academy resources.

But I think you also as a parent, for example,

really wanna have balance in your kid's life

and you don't wanna plunk them in front of a screen