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!

4 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Perpetuate the myth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    What the fuck are you talking about? Sliding scales?

    There are plenty of degreed programmers that can't get jobs, and it's because companies claim they need senior level guys. Then they go and hire Ackmed as their wage slave for next to nothing.

    Is Ackmed an expert? No, but for one Anerican programmer you can get 3-4 Ackmeds, so why not?

  2. Re: Perpetuate the myth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This. +1 informative

    I work for a major IT outsourcing provider... we're talking the scale of the good ole EDS.

    In the US-of-A department... we don't have a shortage of qualified workers. Hell, we are laying off qualified workers left and right. And I'm not talking just programming... we're talking system admins, business analysts, finance people, guys who mop the floor, etc.

    We're brining in H1B visa people because they are 50% (or less) of the cost of a USA worker. And that's only in the rare occasion we can't offshore to India completely (due to contractual requirements or such), where the cost is 20% of a USA worker. Hell even using Mexico labor is frowned upon because India is cheaper, although the resulting quality and work throughput goes to shit.

    This has NOTHING to do with what sort of education you have, your work ethic, the color of your suit, or anything else. It's all about the money and how much it saves the bottom line.

  3. If they want to make an impact by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They need to go to Arkansas and Alabama, not California and NY. The reasons are simple. Most "red states" would welcome this stuff with open arms. If they faced organized opposition to innovation in teaching, the political class of most red states would be more likely to curb stomp that opposition than support it. These are states where support for vouchers, homeschooling and other education reforms are extremely high.

  4. Re: Perpetuate the myth by Bigbutt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yea, the software dev manager here was complaining because he needed a new programmer for a project. I jokingly said I could code and he replied that I wouldn't take $20,000 a year but he could contract someone in the Philippines for $20,000 a year. I make quite a bit more than $20,000 but the cost of living is also a lot higher than in Manila.

    http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-...

    Indices Difference
    Consumer Prices in Denver, CO are 88.95% higher than in Manila
    Consumer Prices Including Rent in Denver, CO are 127.23% higher than in Manila
    Rent Prices in Denver, CO are 243.15% higher than in Manila
    Restaurant Prices in Denver, CO are 198.53% higher than in Manila
    Groceries Prices in Denver, CO are 97.02% higher than in Manila
    Local Purchasing Power in Denver, CO is 175.43% higher than in Manila

    [John]

    --
    Shit better not happen!