The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been one of the largest private foundations in the world and has influenced the world globally for the last 15 years. The foundation is dedicated to supporting countries that have suffered from extreme poverty and innovated new ways to provide quality healthcare for those in need around the world. However, in the United States, the Gates Foundation is focused on something entirely different. The foundation has realized the increasing education fallback in young students and their inability to compete with the rest of the world in almost all subjects. Even more importantly, the foundation wants to support struggling students and find relevant ways to allow them to receive quality higher education. The foundation, in addition, knows that times have changed for young students, and older education systems are just not working anymore.
Similar to the beliefs of iQ technology, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation states, “We live in a globally connected, information saturated world. To thrive, our students need to learn in and out of school, in person and online, together and independently.” From this belief, the Gates Foundation has created two new programs that are built for to support and inspire young students. The first, is the College-Ready Education program is based on finding education tools to help ensure that high school students not only graduate, but are prepared for college. In addition, the foundation has created the Postsecondary Education program in which they look outwards to find unique, innovative ways to help students in secondary education. This Postsecondary Education program, further, is dedicated to inspiring young adults to get obtain a college degree. With this goal, the foundation has seen where students fall short of obtaining that essential degree. They know that students are unable to afford a quality higher education, gain access to college campuses, and struggle with traditional learning styles. The solution, they believe, is to utilize the tools our generation has been using all this time. The Gates foundation has stated their vision, “Ninety-five percent of 12-to-17 year olds already online on a regular basis. They use social networks, and create and contribute to website. Our work is focused on taking full advantage of the kinds of tools and technologies that have transformed every other aspect of life to power up and accelerate students’ learning. We need to do things differently, not just better.”
At iQ technologies, we know why students cannot receive a degree, no matter how much they want that degree. Online learning solutions have the ability to solve these problems, providing flexibility and availability to people all around the world. Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) have been adopted by many universities, but they haven’t always worked. What students are missing is the ability to collaborate with other students, and have the opportunity to have one-on-one learning with teachers. Through online discussions, group video chats, multimedia sharing, and classroom group pages, students can once again reconnect with their school. These tools are just what the Gates foundation has envisioned for our new generation of students.
Read more about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ideas for education innovative success here