Should Teachers Get $100 For Steering Kids To Google's 'Hour of Code' Lesson?

Tomorrow's "Hour of Code" kick-off event features Melinda Gates, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and "multiple state governors," reports theodp -- who has some concerns. With Microsoft boasting that nearly 70 million of its Minecraft Hour of Code sessions have been launched, and tech companies pushing coding and their products into classrooms, it's probably no surprise that the 2017 Hour of Code -- organized by tech-bankrolled Code.org -- seems to have presented a too-hard-to-resist branding opportunity for Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.

And, in what might evoke memories of Dollars for Doctors, some teachers will even be rewarded for steering their kids to Google's Hour of Code lesson. "Thanks to our friends at Google," explains crowdfunding website DonorsChoose.org, "4th-8th grade public school teachers who engage their students in a 'Create your own Google logo' Hour of Code activity can earn a $100 DonorsChoose.org gift code -- and have the opportunity to receive one of five other grand prizes (including $5,000 in DonorsChoose.org credits for your school!)."

Comments

The bigger issue...

[dirk]

The bigger issue is that teachers don't have the things they need to teach, so they might feel the need to do this strictly for the money. The teachers aren't actually getting $100 to take home and spend how they want, they are getting $100 that will got to school supplies. School supplies they often have to buy out of their own pocket for their classrooms. If this is something that bothers you, the solution is to make sure all schools and classrooms are properly funded and supplied. Then the teachers wouldn't need to try and get $100 to spend on supplies.