Slashdot Mirror
Bill Gates Has Spent $1+ Million To Get Mark Zuckerberg's Software In Schools
theodp writes: "Today is a milestone for personalized learning," boasted Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post Tuesday. "For the first time, more than 100 new schools will adopt personalized learning tools this school year. [...] A couple of years ago, our engineering team partnered with Summit [a Zuckerberg, Facebook, and Gates Foundation supported charter school network] to build out their personalized learning software platform so more schools could use it. [...] Congratulations to the Summit team, the new Basecamp schools and the entire personalized learning community on an exciting milestone!" Perhaps Zuckerberg should have also given a shout-out to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which awarded a $1.1 million grant last year "to support the Summit BaseCamp Program that will bring Next Generation learning at no cost to all partner schools that are accepted into the program." The New York Times characterized the Facebook-Summit partnership as "more of a ground-up effort to create a national demand for student-driven learning in schools." Before you scoff at that idea, consider that an earlier Gates-Zuckerberg collaboration helped give rise to a national K-12 Computer Science crisis!
we have no programmers here
We don't. At least not programmers like we need them.
Somewhere in between the sliding scale of "no education what so ever" and a "BS in CS" there is a spot for software programmers as a skilled trade. However somewhere along the way 'trade/vocational schools' became a dirty word in education because they were for the 'alternative kids' (trouble makers).
Most parts of IT should follow an apprenticeship style educational setup rather than the university setup. Thankfully trade schools are starting to make a comeback now that people are realizing college isn't for everyone.
To be more effective at my job I don't need a bunch of college CS graduates. I need one CS graduate in charge of a bunch of associates degree / trade school programmers. Just like to be more effective at other parts I don't need a welding engineer I need a skilled trade welder.
These are the positions that the H1-Bs are backfilling and will continue to do so until the US decides that college isn't for everyone and that hands on training is far more effective for certain careers.
Everyone knows that it is cheaper in Manila. The point is that you don't have to worry about people in Manila taking your jerb. Manila has been always been cheaper than Denver, yet the world still turns every day. You guys are a bunch of drama queens.