Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerburg announced that he and his wife donated $20 million to the nonprofit company, EducationSuperHighway, which works to bring high-speed Internet to public school systems.
While many U.S. schools are connected to the Internet, less than half of them have access to high-speed broadband. Aside from lacking a quality connection, the Internet access in public schools isn’t always available for student learning. According to the National Center for Education, 93 percent of public school teachers have at least one computer in their classroom with Internet access. However, only 70 percent of teachers reported that they or their students use computers during instructional time.
“In schools, Internet is critical for enabling something we know leads to better results: personalized learning,” Zuckerberg wrote.
He stressed that personalized learning software is essential to student success, and emphasized that customized learning gives students the material they are interested in, tailored at a style and pace they’re comfortable with.
“One day we'll connect the world and provide personalized learning for all students, and we'll keep focusing on this until that happens,” Zuckerberg wrote.
This isn’t his first attempt at improving the education system either. He and his wife support several efforts to change and challenge public education, including Summit Public Schools and AltSchool. The two are introducing their own endeavor called The Primary School, a private non-profit K-12 initiative that works to bring together education and quality, comprehensive youth, and family health care for participants. Their efforts are set to begin August 2016.
Prior to this donation, Zuckerberg and his wife also contributed $3 million to EducationSuperHighway in 2013.
Source: Mashable
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