The Western Star: Tech companies are working to try to eliminate the digital divide at school
Tech companies are working to try to eliminate the digital divide
The Western Star
3/29/08
On a recent visit to a school library with his sons, the co-founder of U.S. tech giant Sun Microsystems noticed that not one book was off the shelf. Instead, students were working on their laptops, instant messaging with their cellphones or listening to their IPods while doing their homework. "I looked around and not one person was looking at the books," said Scott McNealy. "They go to the library because it's quiet. It's insulated with all of these books." McNealy, now chairman of California-based Sun Microsystems, and Mike Zafirovski, the CEO of Canada's Nortel Networks Corp. (TSX:NT), are looking to the Internet to bridge what they call the digital and educational divides. Nortel's educational website LearniT and curriculum-based Curriki, originally founded by Sun Microsystems and now an independent non-profit organization, announced Wednesday they are partnering to promote online learning. They are co-ordinating their websites into what they say will be one of the world's largest, free online sources of educational materials for teachers and students. Nortel is a Toronto-based global telecommunications equipment maker and Sun Microsystems is a server and software maker. Zafirovski said students and teachers can learn from each other. "Lots of youth are becoming very savvy using technology," Zafirovski said. "And our perspective has been if we can get teachers to be much more comfortable using technology, then that will be the perfect marriage of bringing technology, teachers and students together," he said. McNealy said the alliance with Nortel will help Curriki meet its goal of providing students, teachers and parents with free digital textbooks and lesson plans from kindergarten to Grade 12 to be used anywhere in the world. The Nortel site encourages learning through the use of digital technologies such as video or the creation of web pages. The idea is to get the students inspired.
3/29/08
On a recent visit to a school library with his sons, the co-founder of U.S. tech giant Sun Microsystems noticed that not one book was off the shelf. Instead, students were working on their laptops, instant messaging with their cellphones or listening to their IPods while doing their homework. "I looked around and not one person was looking at the books," said Scott McNealy. "They go to the library because it's quiet. It's insulated with all of these books." McNealy, now chairman of California-based Sun Microsystems, and Mike Zafirovski, the CEO of Canada's Nortel Networks Corp. (TSX:NT), are looking to the Internet to bridge what they call the digital and educational divides. Nortel's educational website LearniT and curriculum-based Curriki, originally founded by Sun Microsystems and now an independent non-profit organization, announced Wednesday they are partnering to promote online learning. They are co-ordinating their websites into what they say will be one of the world's largest, free online sources of educational materials for teachers and students. Nortel is a Toronto-based global telecommunications equipment maker and Sun Microsystems is a server and software maker. Zafirovski said students and teachers can learn from each other. "Lots of youth are becoming very savvy using technology," Zafirovski said. "And our perspective has been if we can get teachers to be much more comfortable using technology, then that will be the perfect marriage of bringing technology, teachers and students together," he said. McNealy said the alliance with Nortel will help Curriki meet its goal of providing students, teachers and parents with free digital textbooks and lesson plans from kindergarten to Grade 12 to be used anywhere in the world. The Nortel site encourages learning through the use of digital technologies such as video or the creation of web pages. The idea is to get the students inspired.
