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Bill Gates Says Tablets Aren't Much Help In Education
An anonymous reader writes "In a detailed interview on the future of education, Bill Gates was surprisingly down on tablets in education — considering that Microsoft just released Surface. He said low-cost PCs are the thing for students, and he dismissed the idea that simply giving gadgets to students will bring change. Quoting: 'Just giving people devices has a really horrible track record. You really have to change the curriculum and the teacher. And it's never going to work on a device where you don't have a keyboard-type input. Students aren't there just to read things. They're actually supposed to be able to write and communicate. And so it's going to be more in the PC realm—it's going to be a low-cost PC that lets them be highly interactive.'"
Oh, really? Last I heard, nobody had actually been able to use one for even 15 seconds. Why, even MS executives on stage were not able to demo one for 15 seconds without it locking up.
Seriously though dumbass, learn the difference between "pre-announce" and "release".
Perhaps because his philanthropic work is focused in part on education, and understanding which kinds of philanthropic investment produces positive results.
It has, you just have to be willing to see it: http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-creative-2010-10?slop=1 http://technologizer.com/2011/12/05/how-the-ipad-2-became-my-favorite-computer/
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
I really find very little Gates says or does that I actually argue with.
All of you must be a bit new here, or a bit on the whipper-snapper end of the age scale.
Gates destroyed a lot of companies through anti-competitive business practices which had very real potential to offer choice and alternative in the market. No, most people don't care about that because "look at the Gates Foundation!!". Netscape had a great product before Microsoft ruined that company and The whole SCO, Novell and Microsoft Linux thing a Gates effort to ruin Free software.
When you watch some really great companies, and products, get decimated by corporate strong-arming over 20+ years you tend to become a bit bitter towards anything Microsoft or Gates. Even the philanthropy. I wouldn't be surprised to find he's making shady money on it.
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Pencil. Paper. Calculator. The keyboard gets in the way of doing anything useful, especially if you're trying to do things involving symbols (like math).
This is why a tablet would be better in most STEM classes than a low cost PC. I tried using my laptop in a CS course for taking notes. But because it wasn't a simple coding class, but more of a mathematical/theoretical course, there was no way I could. Even now, it's hella hard to try typing up papers with any sort of mathematical representations(unless you type everything in LaTeX or try using a GUI equation editor).
Have you ever actually tried to take mathematical notes on an iPad? I have
It sucks. Utterly sucks. The touchscreen is nowhere near responsive and accurate enough even with a stylus.
The best thing I've ever found for mathematical/science notes is a Livescribe pen. Paper, pen, nothing else to learn- except that everything is stored and synced to audio.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Uh, you might want to look into what charities he donates. A few recently have been good;many in the past have been ethically questionable.
Donating to provide free microsoft products to africa and microsoft training? I wouldn't act like such a "charitable act" is as much as it was a business decision.