Elon Musk is becoming a sort of mythic character to the people of Oz (us?)…definitely a wizard, and even now he’s over there behind the curtain pulling the levers and pushing the buttons to create a virtual world where dreams come true. Or something like that. This article talks about a very real quest undertaken by “The X Prize” to support innovation for learners who lack schools and teachers.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The-Elon-Musk-Project-Youve-Never-Heard-Of-That-Might-Change-The-World-IFLScience.pdf”]The goal is to find a way to teach illiterate children to read, write, and do math by themselves. Globally, about 260 million children do not have access to primary or secondary education.
“We are looking for an exponential increase in the number of children who can access quality learning,” said Keller. “Donating $15 million to build schools (many of which fail kids for a variety of reasons) will never get us the scale we need now.
“Our belief is that technology is the only thing that can – someday – guarantee that every child on Earth has a world-class education in the palm of her hand.”
If the project is successful, the team is hopeful that the software can be applied elsewhere. It could be translated into Arabic, for example, to help refugees living in Syria. It could also help children in other countries who do have access to education but fall behind at school.