One-on-One with Bll Gates

The Microsoft Billionaire Says A Revolution Of A Different Kind
Is Needed To give Students A Fighting Chance
 

To Bill Gates, the digital divide is so yesterday, and unfortunately, so is the Civil Rights Movement.

The American icon who made billions revolutionizing the personal computer, says that price drops in technology have meant people of all races and at virtually every point of the socioeconomic spectrum have access to the Internet and the equipment needed to tap into it.

Gates who sat down with EBONY after speaking at the National Urban League (NUL) convention in Boston, says parents need to rise up and demand better teachers and better use of technology to help teachers teach and students learn. He says that the more he works with African-American groups such as the NUL and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), which administer the funds for the foundation's Millennium Scholars program for low-income minority students, the more emotional her gets about the topic.

EBONY: Can technology be used to make schools better?

GATES: Absolutely. The foundation has two big beliefs and hopes. One is that we can find out what the great teachers are doing and spread that around. is having great examples of teaching online that anyone can look at, having a student take a camera, go video himself and his teacher and the things that they are doing in class. The second big thing is the use of technology. Schools can have an extended day if a student is having trouble with math work, there would be a set of videos he or she could watch and exercises to try out that are set up and personalized. And the number of adults who need to be around is quite small because a lot of the instructional piece is being driven by technology. the idea is to get the equivalent of what many charter schools have done by truly lengthening the day and getting some of the teachers to stay for that. We can get some of that through this hybrid this extra time allotted is on the personal computer. So we will be able to use technology in so many ways.

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