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Tech Giants Donate $750 Million In Goods and Services To Underprivileged Schools
mrspoonsi sends news that a group of major tech companies has combined to donate $750 million worth of gadgets and services to students in 114 schools across the U.S. Apple is sending out $100 million worth of iPads, MacBooks, and other products. O'Reilly Media is making $100 million worth of educational content available for free. Microsoft and Autodesk are discounting software, while Sprint and AT&T are offering free wireless service. This is part of the ConnectED Initiative, a project announced by the Obama Administration last year to bring modern technology to K-12 classrooms. The FCC has also earmarked $2 billion to improve internet connectivity in schools and libraries over the next two years. Obama also plans to seek funding for training teachers to utilize this infusion of technology.
This will just make them attractive targets for theft.
Not to mention the replacement/repair costs as they get damaged over the school year.
So, Apple's donating stuff which costs them money to make (hardware). O'Reilly is giving stuff which doesn't cost them much, if anything (incremental cost). Kudos for that freebie, but Microsoft and Autodesk are likely making a profit with a "discount" on things with virtually no incremental cost. They probably consider it like advertising - they expect to make even more from future sales. Sprint and ATT are somewhere in between.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Yeah...**does quick math**
That comes out to $ 6.58 Million worth of tech **per school**
which makes zero sense...why 114 schools?
this whole game is bogus...donating "millions" while Republicans are closing schools left and right based on fictional "budget crisis"
we could outfit every public school with everything they need and be within budget...this not a question of lack of resources
Thank you Dave Raggett
I remember back in the 80s with Apple IIes everywhere. I liked my c64 at home, but Apple IIe were maybe the first computer some kids could put their hands on. Since I was just a kid, I didn't appreciate that at the time. So instead of being a mentor to lift other people up in their computer skills, I just wanted to play what little games there were and program little programs. I think a lot of us might have so much computer skills in relation to others that we don't give a first thought to just hosting a class in the local library. I'm sure a lot of us could help people not get scammed as easily on the Internet at least. Or maybe someone could make aps for education.
I waxed philosophical on maybe we should teach more over just using ourselves, but Apple has a long history of donating tons of computers. Whether or not you think it was a smart move to invest in their own future, it definitely put computers in kids hands who maybe never touched one before.
God spoke to me
Apple is giving away HARDWARE and Microsoft is offering a discount on software.
I'd be ashamed to work for Microsoft right now.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
That's just over 6.5 million per school. Think how small the class sizes would be with that type of money.
I don't get it. Why not tax corporations properly and legislate against their exploitation of tax havens? With more government revenue you can properly fund the education system without having to rely on the condescension of corporate largess. The G-20 is meeting soon. Sounds like an ideal time to reform international tax law.
This isn't about Apple or Microsoft, it's about making the announcement a week before the midterm elections. Notice that a certain politician is mentioned not once, but twice in the summary as the one who claims credit for this.
They could have, you know, just given these schools money instead of shoveling out their their outdated garbage they wanted a tax writeoff for.
As of now, the Apple student discount is about 10%. It might be a bad thing and a cut of quarterly profits this quarter, but selling Macs to schools for a major cut-rate price will be sewing the seeds of a large audience once the kids (who are used to Macs) start graduating and making purchase decisions.
As for student discounts, I remember Apple offering far greater savings a while back to students, and this might be something they should consider doing again.
It also wouldn't hurt if Apple made a Mac model just for educational institutions similar to an iMac, but would be a bit more rugged, with the ability to not just be locked down with a Kensington cable... but also some type of mechanism to keep the innards from being cracked open and emptied. If monitor and keyboard are not issues, then something slightly beefier than a Mac Mini and made with an aluminum case so it can't be easily smashed open. It wouldn't be as sleek as a consumer device, but if Apple did make something that could be upgraded/repaired, schools would buy those devices by the pallet load.
It also helps long term, Apple may have the mindshare right now... but there was a time when Sony had that (there were Walkman players, then everyone else), and it only took a few years for them to be dethroned as the king of personal device makers. Samsung is doing quite well, and if Apple slips up, they can match Apple blow for blow in every single market Apple sells in around the world. So, if Apple charges off some of its cash holdings to keep the educational market theirs, it only helps down the road when people graduate and buy what they are used to.
How about we just have Apple (and many other mega-companies) pay taxes at a reasonable rate then we won't need to fund education from "charity" (plus don't forget that the $100M is tax deductable, so it part of another tax loophole. Details here: http://www.americansfortaxfair...
And teachers.
If you really have to deploy technology then make it something like a Raspberry Pi. Low theft risk. Easy replacement. And $750 million will buy a lot of them AND books, paper, pencils, teachers, etc.
Wasn't there a recent story about how some schools could not afford the text books with the answers that went with the standardized tests?
The problem with this sort of thing is that gadgets are gadgets: Fickle, brittle, one trick ponies. Then add that the recipients don't have money to replace broken kit, and you get third world problems. There, foreign aid ships in, for example, lorries or water pumps or whatever, and for a while it's smiles everywhere, most notably in glossies. After a while the machinery breaks down, and nobody can fix it. There's no workers with the skills or knowledge, no spare parts, no tools, no infrastructure. In fact, there's not even the will to learn. They'll just wait for another foreign aid package.
So this is nice PR, but isn't actually long term solid help.Just like throwing money at it won't help either, that just gives rise to shiny new admin buildings (hello Ohio). There's a trick to improving education, and though it requires (some) resources, resources are not the drivers.
These gifts and grants are nice, but without long-term funding of support staff this is what happens:
http://www.njspotlight.com/sto...
You can't simply push tons of technology into schools and forget about it. The "light the fuse and run" approach never works. You need a staff of technology people who will train staff, maintain and repair the tech, and integrate the technology into the curriculum.
Without adequate support, these systems will simply collect dust and end up in a storage locker.
Give me a break.
They are spending millions to push charter schools, which are essentially a way to siphon tax payer money to a private company, that instead should go to public schools. These tech giants can't fill the gap, and their money will dry up. Profit only schools will be the plague of humanity and the dawn of a new Dark Age.
The FCC's $2 billion ERate increase is specifically earmarked for Wifi deployments. See: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-11/fcc-approves-2-billion-boost-for-wireless-internet-in-schools.html
My experience contracting for public schools has shown me how incredibly wasteful schools can be when ERate pays for up to 90% of their costs. Suddenly, tiny charter schools are replacing 50Mb/s coax internet connections with dedicated 1Gb/s fiber. Schools buy expensive APs from Cisco, Aerohive, etc. because they only incur a fraction of the cost, while much cheaper solutions from companies like Ubiquiti would work just fine. Ironically, the deployments are usually terrible because ERate funds cannot be used to pay for staff, so these systems are run by idiots.
So the tech giants are donating ALMOST as much as the clownface Ballmer receives in tax breaks from purchasing a sports team? Great job guys! Let us gather and praise the fractions of tax deductible gifts which pale in comparison to the profits earned by manufacturing in poverty stricken countries and shirking domestic tax responsibilities, because it is the only salvation to clean you're otherwise amoral-yet-wretched corporate souls.
wrong...
there are plenty of professional teachers...teachers are not the problem
the lack of funding due to imaginary budget crisis is the problem
Thank you Dave Raggett
I object to my downmod of "flamebait"
*some* Slashdot mods will mod anything that mentions a Political Party as "flamebait" automatically
my comment is NOT flamebait, and my claims about GOP funding of schools is absolutely falsifiable and verifyable by checking public policy votes
Thank you Dave Raggett
Wasn't there a recent story about how some schools could not afford the text books with the answers that went with the standardized tests?
If the teacher cannot teach the students without an answer key textbook what does that say about the quality of the teacher?
Cutting our spending down to those levels might work. All of the countries that get better results than us do spend less.
http://data.worldbank.org/indi...
I noticed one difference between US public schools vs schools that work. When my step-daughters were in elementary school, there were three weeks out of five that were "special". The first week was Mexican culture week and they spent their time singing Mexican songs, making Mexican food, and learning Mexican dances. That was enriching, perhaps. A couple of weeks later was black history, and then "world diversity " or something. That's all fine and well, I understand the value of such things. I strongly suspect, though that Japanese students spent those weeks learning reading , writing and arithmetic. My stepdaughter can make enchiladas, but can't read so well. A good trade?
We could fund them similarly to the way they are funded in countries that get good results. Details here:
http://data.worldbank.org/indi...
Funding them at the same level as countries that get good results might work.
http://data.worldbank.org/indi...
I'm not sure that cutting funding would be politically popular, though. We spend a lot more than the countries that do well. I don't know if those other countries spend their school time on Mexican culture week, black history month, and global diversity week. They may spend their time learning reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Somebody lied to you.
http://data.worldbank.org/indi...
You'll notice that the US spends more than practically any country, and gets among the worst results. If you look at our own spending over time vs results, again you'll see that as budgets have increased, results have gotten worse. Spending more to do more of the wrong thing doesn't help.
Controlling for access methods (US all-access versus Asian compulsory streaming for example) would show something a bit less favorable to Asia. Never mind that the test score in Asia leaves no room for improvement - it simply forces you on one track.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
What makes the "underprivileged schools" underprivileged is not only the facilities sux, the students sux, it's also because the teachers there (not all of them, but most) sux
While money cannot buy guaranteed success, at the very least, if the $750M is used to hire much better teachers, it would go much __much__ further to help the students than those "fancy gifts"
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Any conclusions so far about tests can safely be considered as flawed since they do not take admission type into account. That is, an educational system that takes everybody is penalized while more selective systems (Asia, Europe) do not.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Do you suspect that Americans, as a whole, are not actually ignorant? Remembering that the majority of Americans didn't recognize the name of the vice president.. .
Oh, so Apple is sending a dozen computers?
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
There's rich schools, which can buy all the expensive stuff themselves.
There are average schools, which can buy only cheap stuff.
And then there are underprivileged schools which get it all the expensive stuff for free.
I know supporting underprivileged schools makes for a better marketing story, but it isn't very effective.
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Great comment.
So I guess it's donating when a crack dealer gives you a freebie the first time around too?
Seriously, this is NOT out of the goodness of their hearts. They want to get kids using their computers and services as kids, because they know most of them will use the same services as adults. Stop framing this as an act of benevolence.
What does that mean, exactly?
It couldn't possibly be a less intelligent student body, could it!
and warranties and gaining in roads for future sales.
Their process to get a locked ipad unlocked is egregious and takes *WEEKS*. I'm glad my particular school doesn't have any for kids (it does for a few administrators) as it's hell to support them.
Nothing wrong with Europe's system. The US public school system is an abomination. Europe and Asia schools teach the three "R"s, while here in the US, the kids are taught the three "C"s (conform, comply, consume.) The K-12 system is designed to get kids on the edge into jail until age 18 (23 in California) so that private prison companies can make some cash from holding them. This is why in college engineering departments, STEM majors are usually non-Americans, just because the educational gap between a US high school graduate versus the average Chinese, or German is so great.
You (The US) already spends the most on education per student then any other nation and yet have some of the worst test results.
I don't think "throwing money at it" will make it better. Sure, teachers will take home more money but the test results clearly show this doesnt improve the quality of education.
It isn't the teachers. You can put the best teachers at these schools and they will only marginally improve them. The problem is the backgrounds of the kids attending. They come from dysfunctional families.
So the administration is 'planning' to to get funding to teach teachers how to use all the technology they are dumping into the classroom AFTER committing to putting the tech in the classroom?
Ken
This is the same thing as when your local drug dealer tells you that first shot is free, but then it will cost ya!
114 schools, if average enrollment is 600 (which is big for my area) is 68,400 students, would make for a per-student grant of nearly $11,000. fuck.
Title of my upcoming book "Why Johnny can't use a Surface tablet" in bookstores everywhere.
You'll notice that the US spends more than practically any country, and gets among the worst results.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Autodesk offers all of their software free to students, for 3 years. This article is mistaken that Autodesk is offering discounted software... EDU use is free.
http://www.autodesk.com/educat...
IOException - Can't Speak
Indeed. And that is a really fascinating thing. It can only be explained by hiring the wrong people and teaching the wrong things in wrong ways. More money is not going to solve this problem.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
And why do you think European systems do not take everybody? For example in Germany, you have 9 years of mandatory schooling that you cannot get around. Sounds to me like you have no clue what you are talking about.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Well, the problem is that "education" is ninety-eight percent learning on the part of the student and two percent teaching on the part of the instructor.
You can't make a silk purse our of a sow's ear is an old saying that our, so called, American Education System proves over and over again.
Not impressed, not in the slightest. This is just self serving product placement. A weak attempt to capture a future market.
How about pay their corporate taxes? That would be an impressive boost to the educational system.
That may be true, but it's not going to teachers!. (Link describes North Carolina, but I think the same is true elsewhere.)
This study disagrees.
I think both parent and GP are somewhat correct. As a country, we do spend more than most other countries and get overall poor results. However:
We spend the money poorly. Most of that money should go to educational materials (books, pencils and paper, and even so to computers), teachers, and infrastructure (buildings, heat, electricity). However, most districts have become pretty administration heavy; I've seen towns with one elementary/middle school and one high school that have both a superintendent and an assistant superintendent, both making 6 figure salaries. I've also lived in the south, where a district "couldn't" afford textbooks, but could afford $2M for a new football facility plus pay for 5+ full time coaches.
At the same time, we don't pay teachers particularly well. Sure, a 20+ year veteran teacher is probably making $60-70k in a reasonably well off district, but probably starts around $30k, less in some areas. So what we get is far from the "best and brightest" going into teaching as a career.
The money that is there doesn't get distributed at all uniformly. Overall, I'd say that the poorer (and incidentally more rural) communities tend to have worse outcomes. There actually are plenty of good public school systems in the US, but they tend to cluster in areas where parents tend to be better educated themselves or at least care about education for their children and that tend to be better off financially - no surprise that the two tend to go somewhat hand in hand. And on top of that, crap like "no child left behind" all but guarantees that the districts most in need of increased funding get less.
That may be true, but it's not going to teachers!. (Link describes North Carolina, but I think the same is true elsewhere.)
This study disagrees.
Also, the core claim that the US spends the most per student - if we are talking about primary and secondary students - not college - is not true although it is on the high end. Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg spend more, and Austria and Denmark are almost same.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Nothing wrong with Europe's system
So you're fine with having someone's life be divined on the scoring of a few track-determining tests? The US system doesn't have that flaw.
One can improve your academic performance at any time, get a recommendation, and then move up to Honors/AP. Try that in compulsory streaming and you end up going through an entire lower track before your performance is recognized.
Europe and Asia schools teach the three "R"s, while here in the US, the kids are taught the three "C"s (conform, comply, consume.) The K-12 system is designed to get kids on the edge into jail until age 18 (23 in California) so that private prison companies can make some cash from holding them
I guess you went to a van der Snoot Academy, since you have a high disdain for public schools. Good public schools (yes, the ones run by governments) do exist and they do send people to very good places (even Ivies!).
This is why in college engineering departments, STEM majors are usually non-Americans, since H1-b/L-1/etc. guest worker programs make it non-profitable to pursue them.
FTFY.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Presuming conventional admissions cases to secondary level institutions, yes.
At the secondary level(or what goes on after the 9th/8th year), people are streamed into rigid tracks that discourage and delay upward movement.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
If these companies cared they'd be contributing to operations to recycle computers and open academic environments. Not proprietary software for which kids can't gain a thing. Trapping kids into some proprietary application is now the answer. While non-profits like freegeek aren't giving kids new systems they are at least opening up the path to learning and academics.
That said if you have a little extra change to spare consider making a donation to Reglue. They're running an indiegogo campaign right now and are farther behind on it than they aught to be at this point. Reglue is a non-profit organization that refurbishes computers with Linux and other free software on them and gives these computers to under privileged children and their families in central Texas.
They badly need the money just to keep things going. They were hoping to raise enough money for a vehicle, but it doesn't look like thats happening, due to the poor response to the campaign. Right now they are using a volunteers personal vehicle with over 300,000 miles on it.
They'll be getting some nice perks to give out next week if you donate as my company is sending a hundred or so Tux penguins for the cause. Hopefully that inspire more people to contribute to the campaign.
Here is Reglue's web site:
http://www.reglue.org/
Here is the the Indiegogo fund raiser campaign link:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/deleting-the-digital-divide-one-computer-at-a-time
nothing in your link implicates teachers
Thank you Dave Raggett
my argument is checkable by policy vote
the GOP defunds schools as part of their "privatize everything" plan...defund the schools, the schools don't score well on standardized tests, funding is tied to test scores, school loses funding...
repeat cycle until all schools are privately owned
Thank you Dave Raggett
Certainly not. It demonstrates conclusively that spending more doesn't work. We've been spending more, and getting worse results.
Teachers are like any other profession - there are good teachers and bad teachers. There are teachers who work 48 weeks per year, there are teachers that work 34 weeks per year. There are teachers who make $85,000 and there are teachers who make $30,000. Like most professions, there's a correspondence between working and making good money and a correspondence between taking several months of vacation every year and making less money.
Also, the core claim that the US spends the most per student - if we are talking about primary and secondary students - not college - is not true although it is on the high end. Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg spend more, and Austria and Denmark are almost same.
But they get far more for their money, and (if I had to guess) in those countries that *probably* includes university tuition, not just grades 1-12.
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