Reed Hastings, the founder and chief executive of Netflix, used the Web to make it easier for us to rent movies. Now Mr. Hastings, who is also a former high school math teacher, is using the Web for a less entertaining, more educational cause — teaching math to kids.
On Tuesday, Mr. Hastings will announce that he has financed the acquisition of DreamBox Learning, a start-up that uses online games to teach math, by Charter School Growth Fund, a non-profit investment fund for charter schools.
Mr. Hastings said that he thinks netbooks will be ubiquitous in schools in a few years, creating huge opportunities for online learning software.
“I think we’re on the edge of a real inflection point where the hardware becomes so cheap that Web learning is really throughout the schools,” he said. “But what I noticed is there’s really not that many people working on the software.”
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5 comments:
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I hope it's a good idea and that it works. I'm inherently suspicious of solutions pushed by businessmen with no background in teaching.
For products like this to be effective, their development must be program managed by people with backgrounds in all levels of classroom teaching and at all socioeconomic levels. And they must be good program managers in the bargain. I don't know where you find these people.
P. S. The new releases from Big Sam and Trombone Shorty both get two thumbs up. Big Sam delivers great club-level funk that would get Chuckles Krauthammer on the dance floor. TS is even better -- pretty mindblowing, actually.
Actually Hastings has teaching experience. He was a math teacher before he got rich, starting with teaching math in Swaziland with the Peace Corps. He has also served as the President of the California Board of Education.
Love, C.
The money infused into New Orleans music communities from Treme is being put to good use!
MB, of Piety Street Recording Studios, remarked on the amount of money getting pumped into musicians' pockets by the show and the positive consequences quite early on. Helped save the studio too!
Love, C.
OK. Fixed the link.
My keyboard, or my mouse, is behaving progressively more weirdly all the time. I have to replace them, but I'm also planning to replace the whole shebang pretty soon, and I'm really busy, so I am putting it off.
Love, c.
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