Gates Foundation Plans to Boost Education with $20 Million Fund
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Aiming to improve America's education system, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Monday, Oct. 11 an initiative to help college students succeed with technology.
As reported by the New York Times,
the $20 million fund is being targeted to community colleges in order to boost college graduation rates among low-income and minority students.
“We’re living in a tremendous age of innovation. We should harness new technologies and innovation to help all students get the education they need to succeed,” Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation, said.
The initiative is called the 'Next Generation Learning Challenges' and it will provide financial grants for organizations and entrepreneurs to develop efficient online learning tools.
With a total fund of $20 million, grants will range from $250,000 to $750,000 for those applicants with top-rated proposals. Furthermore, the program will also allow current successful educational programs to expand and affect much larger groups of students.
The 'Next Generation Learning Challenges' program aims to incite the use of interactive applications like virtual simulations, interactive video and social media, thus, reinforcing students’ learning.
This program would also support the availability of OpenCourseWare, free and open digital publications of university-level educational material that can benefit students and professors as well.
Organizations supporting the initiative include: the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, EDUCASE, and other three nonprofit organizations; all with expertise in educational leadership and management.
As current and coming generations of college students experience constant technological changes, I believe initiatives like these are the best approach not only to improve education but also enhance society with more high-skilled individuals.
5 comments:
I actually just learned a lot about virtual simulation in another one of my classes, and I think it's great that that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation offers the use of technology like this to community colleges. These colleges need help to be maintained, and it seems like this initiative will go a long way in helping the education system. It's always nice to hear stories of people working to improve education, because this of course helps the bright minds of the future.
You are absolutely right. It is important to foster innovation in education for "the bright minds of the future."
After all, education is what makes a country prosperous. Education allows countries to have functioning and viable societies, businesses and governments.
Thus, it seems like a good move to invest in the future of America's education system.
I agree with you both to a certain extent.
Although I think innovative ideas should be supported, I do not think the money should be put towards community colleges.
I know that this is supposed to help the graduation rate for low-income and minority students, but the community colleges are already so cheap, why not help out other schools that allows students to obtain bachelor's degree?
I like that it's towards community colleges. Not going to college was never an option for me so it's nice to help out those who are struggling to go to college.
You always hear that America is falling behind in education so it's nice when something is being done to help out our education system.
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