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Facebook's Solution To 'One of Education's Biggest Problems' Is a Dashboard
theodp writes: Gushing in July that Facebook engineers had solved one of education's biggest problems, Melinda Gates perhaps set up Segway-like expectations for Facebook's education software. And while The Verge sings the praises of what appears to be progress-tracking dashboards that connect students to mostly free 3rd-party lessons — not unlike Khan Academy or even the 50-year-old PLATO system — it's hard to get jazzed based on the screenshots (1, 2, 3) that Facebook provided in a .zip file accompanying its announcement. The "personalized learning plan" dashboards are a joint effort of Facebook and the Meg Whitman-led and backed Summit charter schools. In a nice circle-of-tech-CEO-education-reform-life twist, the first Summit high school opened in a building in Redwood City after students attending the Bill Gates-touted and backed Silicon Valley High Tech High charter there were evicted to make way, and the Gates Foundation is now spending $8M to bring HP CEO Whitman's Summit charter schools — and presumably Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personalized learning plans — to Seattle children.
Publicity stunt. Rich folks helping children's "education" (This is way more New York Times story than actually helping anybody.)
Meanwhile back in reality, Melinda's and Bill's company Microsoft just went full Global Spyware (Windows 10 w/ back-ported spyware to 7/8/8.1)
Facebook profiles who/what/where/when/why about you.. tracking it ALL via computer algorithms. And comparing vs everybody else.. again.. computer algorithms.
And HP supplies made in China computers to US Government for billions of tax payers dollars.
http://government.hp.com/contracts.aspx?agencyid=137
Yeah. This is just folks helping folks. Yeah. Giving children education. Uh huh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesson_of_the_widow%27s_mite
http://biblehub.com/luke/21.htm
1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.
2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.
3 "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."
http://biblehub.com/mark/12.htm#41
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."
So the folks spying on you GLOBALLY for big bucks (consumer/tax payer money) are interested in educating your children.
FTA: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/technology/facebook-education-initiative-aims-to-help-children-learn-at-their-own-pace.html?_r=0
“It’s really driven by this idea that we want to put learning in the hands of kids and the control back in the hands of kids,” Ms. Tavenner said in a telephone interview.
You want learning and control of learning in the hands of parents.
Expect more of these PR stunts. So many things are going full spyware while economies are.. having obstacles? Some light headwinds? Crashing? Ripped off like a band of wild gypsies? No matter how you put it... somebody will be ready to chime in with an argument about it. To not see it you have to either be very busy or willfully ignorant. (both?)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-14/de-dollarization-mapping-ruin-reserve-currency
http://ftmdaily.com/preparing-for-the-collapse-of-the-petrodollar-system/
http://www.bis.org/statistics/derstats.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy0RHhSWNrw