Gates Boosting Ed-Tech with $20 Million in Grants
RSSBy Lauren Barack
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wants more students to finish college. But instead of offering scholarships one by one, the Foundation is putting $20 million in the hands of educational technology developers who design tools targeted at young adults, particularly teens from low-income families, to help them stay on track to earn their degrees. Called the Next Generation Learning Challenges, the grants of $250,000 to $750,000 are meant to propel ed-tech solutions such as online learning, open courseware, and even digital gaming that engage students, particularly in introductory courses in science, math, and English—which can have enormous class sizes and poor test results. While the Foundation hopes the grants will directly help students, another underlying goal is to support the development of education technology in the college environment by making the grant funding a competition that will attract new developers to the field. Applicants can begin submitting pre-proposals for the grants Oct 25, 2010 online, with full proposals due January 21, 2011, and awards announced March 31. The funding, which Bill Gates says could eventually swell to $80 million, will be released in waves every six to 12 months, giving applicants future opportunities to apply. Upcoming grants are also expected to target K-12 education, according to Gates in a conference call reported by The Wall Street Journal. Of all the students who enter college in the U.S., only 42 percent actually earn a bachelor's degree by the time they're 26-years-old. Just 26 percent of low-income students reach that same goal, according to a white paper, "Next Generation Learning," distributed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last week. Ed-tech experts believe technology can be an equalizer for all students, no matter their socio-economic background, offering them a chance to succeed in their K-12 years, during college, and in their careers. "We're living in a tremendous age of innovation," says Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a statement. "We should harness new technologies and innovation to help all students get the education they need to succeed." This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe.
