Bill Gates is the Edtech Guy
The scores are in. According to my classes, the most important person in educational technology is Bill Gates. A distant second was Steve Jobs followed closely by Tim Berners-Lee.
When I asked if anyone knew where Bill Gates had taught, no one seemed to know. He didn’t actually graduate from college, so he didn’t teach in K-12 or higher education.
He did co-found Microsoft and make a few billion dollars. That has ended with one of the most philanthropic endeavors in history which has financially benefited many educational institutions. That has to count for something.
There were many votes for people you would see as keynote speakers at eTech or NECC. These people were harder find using Google. I also saw a few people that listed teachers that had personally touched their lives. That’s the great thing about educational technology.
September 7th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Hello there.:)
I’ve been looking at the technology blogs since, well, today actually. I find them very interesting in several “good” ways, and negative as well.
I’ll start with wehat should be added. Numerical format:)
1. More opionon
2. More links
3. Resources?
Anyway great blogs, and please post more.:)
~~~8th grader~~~
September 7th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Bill Gates? Really?
That reminds me of what my kids say about the children’s message at church. When in doubt, the answer is “Jesus.”
The Gates Foundation has certainly done a lot of important work, and I can’t deny Bill credit for his recent philanthropic work. But he hasn’t really done much directly for educational technology.
I would turn away from the technology entrepreneurs and inventors and look toward the people who are really making a difference in kids’ lives. All too often, those people are nameless. But every district has that teacher or two that really gets it and will do whatever it takes.
I nominate them. Kind of like Time’s person of the year last year.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Al Gore invented Bill Gates