Gadgetory

we give more money to education than any other cause in the United States because it's the best lover we've seen for giving every child in America a chance to make the most of their lives some of the work we found is focused solely on United States students and teachers but a core piece of it online courses will be a global asset available to anyone with a smartphone or tablet availability of the world's best teacher who can connect up and see where you're stuck and give you some advice we're not there yet 15 years ago we were just sticking cameras in front of people and putting online and saying okay isn't that the solution now people like Khan Academy and hundreds of others have said ok the lecture piece is part of it but interactive problem sets and having your coach see what it is and understanding the nature of what you might be confused and so the view is that over the next 15 years that type of material will be wildly better than even the best is today and it will be available through phones and tablets in a free form through anyone who's got that internet connection there is one major caveat here not everyone will be able to reap the benefit of this progress until we close the gender gap in Africa women are 24% less likely than men to own a cell phone in Asia it's 37 percent education is a great leveler but if the factors that hold girls back are not addressed and have access to education isn't equal then it can become a cause of inequity rather than a cure for it this is particularly important because when a woman gets an education it has a powerful ripple effect as an adult she earns more money she has children they'll be more likely to live past the age of five her daughters will be twice as likely to go to school themselves there's no way to get around the fact that more girls need to be in good schools for longer the online education will open up new opportunities for girls with the means and motivation to take advantage of it primary school enrolment secondary school enrolment 15 years ago versus today countries are making a lot of progress on this the idea that parents should not keep the girl in the house should let her go out to primary school that's broadly accepted now we need to get there for secondary school in the United States now Business School medical school you know male-female ratios are actually some cases favoring the women it's still the sciences particularly the very hard sciences and particularly you should get up to the PhD level where we still have this huge gender imbalance it's a very cultural thing each country may have slightly different tactics of how they get the parents mindset about the investment in both boys and girls or you know equally valuable equally important as technology drives down the cost of quality education more and more people have access to the tools they need to take control of their future anywhere in the world