By Mark Hachman
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said Wednesday said that it had invested $20 million into online learning, with about a third of it going toward educational video games and game tools. The foundation said it will split its investments over a number of different initiatives. The Pearson Foundation will receive $3 million for its digital curriculum, the largest individual grant the Gates Foundation disclosed of its Wednesday investments. However, three educational game-related companies will each receive between $2.5 million and $2.6 million.
The Gates grants follow up on a similar $20 million investment the foundation made last fall. Then, the focus was on improving college graduation rates via technology; Gates said then that its attention would shift to K-12 students in the spring.
Gates, the world's richest man announced his intent to donate $3 billion to improve education over five years in 2008, after leaving Microsoft that same year. He formed the foundation with his wife, Melinda, in 2006.
Since then, the Gates Foundation has worked to attack the fundamental problems plaguing society, including medicine, agriculture, and hygiene. In 2009, Gates pointed to technology as the way out of the recession plaguing the U.S. economy.
"Education is the biggest priority for our foundation here in the United States," Gates said last year. "We think it's the most important thing for the future of the country."
The grants
With the foundation's grants, Gates backed the Common Core State Standards, a set of standards developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). About 42 states have adopted the standards, according to the CCSS Web site.
The Pearson Foundation said it would adapt its entire digital curriculum to support the CCSS, or 24 courses in all. Four - two in math, and two in language arts - will be provided at no cost to schools. These courses will be delivered through a combination of technologies, including video, interactive software, games, social media, and print, the Foundation said.
An additional $2 million grant will go toward the Florida Virtual School, the state's first statewide Internet-based public school, for four course, two to speed literacy and two for math. An additional $742,996 will go to Reasoning Mind, to provide for a program to spread a single math teacher across multiple classrooms.
The gaming-related investments also support the CCSS. They are:
• $2.6 million for iRemix, which is being developed by Digital Youth Network. It will be a set of 20 literacy-based trajectories that allow students to earn badges and move from novice to expert in areas like creative writing.
• $2.5 million to Institute of Play will build a set of game-based pedagogical tools and game design curricula that can be used within both formal and informal learning contexts.
• $2.6 million to Quest Atlantis is creating video games that build proficiency in math, literacy and science.
The complete system of courses is expected to be completed in December 2013 and ready for the 2014-2015 school year, said Judy Conning, who will head up course development efforts for the initiative, according to The Journal, which examines technology based education.
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