Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
United States Education Google Technology

Google Pledges $20 Million To Expand Computer Science Education in the US (theverge.com) 48

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Google has announced $20 million in new commitments to expand computer science education among communities that are underrepresented in the field. The company expects its funds to improve educational access for more than 11 million American students. From a report: "If we don't get this right, the gaps that exist today will be exacerbated," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on Wednesday. "Technology will end up playing such a big role in the future. That's the fundamental reason we do it." Google's goal in distributing funds, Pichai says, was to support groups with "deep expertise in education" who work with underrepresented communities -- including students in rural areas, as well as racial and gender minorities.

The slate includes a mix of newer organizations and longtime Google partners. 4-H, receiving $5 million, has been working with the company since 2017. The Oakland-based Hidden Genius Project, also receiving funds, was a winner of Google's 2015 Impact Challenge. Other beneficiaries include UT Austin's Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, CUNY's Computing Integrated Teacher Education project, and the nonprofit CodePath. Urban funding will focus on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. "Living in the Bay Area... it's clear to me how many schools here have already transitioned and incorporated exposure to CS education as part of their curriculum," Pichai says. "It's important that this happens across the country, to rural areas, to places that are historically underrepresented."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Google Pledges $20 Million To Expand Computer Science Education in the US More

Google Pledges $20 Million To Expand Computer Science Education in the US

Comments Filter:

  • Whoa! Look out! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @12:02PM (#62843499)
    Big spender here!

  • It's important that this happens across the country, to rural areas, to places that are historically underrepresented.

    Yes, rural areas like Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles?

  • At this point enough effort has been spent on a variety of programs that target under-represented groups (like minorities and women), that we have to ask the question - what If inherently just not a lot of people are going to want to even learn computer science or programming?

    We at least need to take a step back and try to figure out why decades of programs are having little to no effect. Or do we just want to keep pouring money into soemthing that does not work?

    I feel like maybe the only change we have is

    • Compulsory service in the coding corps, as a requirement for citizenship. Would you like to know more?

    • It's Google's money, let them spend it how they want to, even if other people might think it's ineffectual. I'm assuming it's a lot of online tools, videos, or other material given that they're only spending $20 million, so I'm uncertain how much of an effect it will have on a target population that may be too poor to reliably access those materials, but they have some clever people at Google who've likely given this more thought than you or I.
    • I know this is a radical thought, but hear me out... How about marketing programming jobs to groups that have historically been interested in those positions? Likewise, stop marketing to the groups that have consistently shown no interest. So, instead of bending over backwards to get women interested in these roles, we actually try to bring in more men. If the problem is finding a number of engineers to fill all these open roles, targeting the groups that are interested in these positions seems to make sens

      • If the problem is finding a number of engineers to fill all these open roles

        That is not the problem Google is trying to address.

        Google's workforce is heavily skewed toward male and White/Asian. They are under pressure to fix that problem or at least look like they are trying to fix it.

        Google can point at projects like TFA and say, "See, we are trying." For an expenditure of only $20M ($2 per student), that is a bargain.

        • Why is it a problem?

          Do white males suck at their job?

          If not, where is the problem?

          • The problem is that some people think that if N% of your population meets whatever checkboxes of race, age, nationality, etc and so on, if you employ more than a few people, that the same N% of your employees should be meeting those same checkboxes, or close enough to it. Not just across the entire org, but any division/department/whatever large enough for the stats to work out sensibly.

            Problem with that thought is that the demographics of the field of study/work don't map to the demographics of the popu

            • It was a rhetorical question.

            • There's a paradox in gender equality. Namely, countries which have greater equality among the sexes see a lower percentage in the number of female STEM graduates than countries with less equality. Given a real choice, the average girl would rather work with people rather than tools. They're more free to take that choice in a country with real equality. So, we end up with a smaller percentage of female software engineers in Sweden than China.

              https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com]
      • Why would you focus on targeting ad campaigns etc, to groups of people that are already interested? That is dumb and wasteful. They are already interested, and will do what is needed to pursue those interests.
    • Call me a cynic, but I think the sudden interest by Big Tech in providing CS education is not to create high-paying jobs. It is to create a glut of programmers to bring down wages and make CS workers a cheap commodity.
  • The IT industry has shot itself in the foot by making it clear that anyone who does it will compete against the lowest bidder globally. Pay domestic workers what they are worth and give them good working conditions and there would be a supply of workers. When I took compsci they gave us a rosy picture of the wonderful life we would have and I do well, but it never really manifested as they thought.

    • When I took compsci they gave us a rosy picture of the wonderful life we would have

      CompSci grads have higher starting salaries and higher lifetime earnings than any other four-year degree.

      Life is good. The rosy picture is justified.

      • Maybe if you are 23 years old and willing to move to silicon valley.

        • Maybe if you are 23 years old and willing to move to silicon valley.

          I am much older than 23. I have been employed in five states and four countries, including 20 years in Silicon Valley.

          I am currently living and working in the Philippines.

          A CS degree is useful anywhere. Software development is one of the most portable skills and pays well everywhere.

  • How come no-one ask what less than 2 dollars per person would matter? Or how long it takes for Google to earn 20 million? Or how much money Google spend to not pay taxes, that sums up to - I guess more than 20 million. I am guessing the Verge spent about 20 million at Google a yearâ¦

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Yes, if you phrase it as $2 per student, that seems very little. But there are many ways where a small amount of money can go a long way.

      For instance, a key problem is that computer science is not being taught in high schools because of a lack of trained teachers. You could take these $20million and train 4000 high school teachers. That's $5000 per teacher. With that kind of money, you can bring them to a location for a month and actually do hardcore training, and still have money to spare. If each teacher

  • The way I parse TFA is that this is a grant exclusively for computer science education. Now I'm wondering if computer programming is really the end-all and be-all of modern technology? Computers are important, in themselves and as a component of all modern manufacturing systems. But I don't think CS even covers the whole IT field, which might include stuff like chip design and fabrication. Would the courses these schools offer, say, teach students how to build robots or fab their own microcontrollers, impor
  • More disgusting sexism, you hateful sows.

    https://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/11/24/187255/codeorg-more-money-for-cs-instructors-who-teach-more-girls

  • We're resting our hopes on the increasingly nebulous idea of "innovation" as being our value add. But while that might be true in the most abstract sense, the number of people it takes to be really innovative is quite small. Most people in such companies are not innovators - they are implementors of the innovations of a small subset, and they are interchangeable. Much like how Chinese factories are capable of churning out the "innovations" of other countries, many other countries have workforces that can ch

  • Money... Technology... Training... Google... all in the same sentence? Problem solved! Hope there's a good low paying job at the end of that too. (didn't bother to read tfa, just piling on, more enjoyable than wasting mod points :-)

  • Zero effect. "Disadvantaged" is a synonym for "dumb and poor."

    • Zero effect. "Disadvantaged" is a synonym for "dumb and poor."

      Neither dumb nor poor is something that people typically aspire for. The very small section of people in America that actually had a hand in being either, yes, there is no help for.

      Disadvantaged *IS* a losing battle, however, the concept of 'marginalized' is a much narrower scope that could and should be corrected.

      That said - Why CS?

      Make sure everyone can read, write, and do math at a level necessary for life.
      Teach the modern-day equivalent of civics as no one should be ignorant of how their local, state o

  • ...Sundar Pichai says that he lost $40 million in his sofa. Apparently, it must've fallen out of his pocket. It was six months before he noticed it was missing. "I don't know if I can be bothered to fish it out really. I mean, it's only $40 million." Pichai continued.

  • It seems like there is always a push for coders. However, just "coding" doesn't bring much to the marketplace, because the guys over in Lower Elbonia can always crank out code cheaper.

    What is needed is specializations that are not just chasing after the latest PHP, node.js, or whatever the latest Web x.0 language is:

    * We need people who are able to understand MCUs and write code that works well on an 8-16 bit chip, with 128 kilobytes of RAM, and maybe about that much in storage. In the past, entire opera

  • Why is this even reported? (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @02:40PM (#62844009)

    This is so little, it is irrelevant. And by Google? That is just completely pathetic. They deserve to be called out on what is essentially an insult.

  • Whoa, increasing the education budget by 0.0012 percent by committing 0.00000001232 percent of their revenue!

    Thanks Google.

    As someone who teaches intro CS in college I look forward to the day when most students know some basics on day one.

  • Other countries and Rural Areas. (Score:3)

    by kalieaire ( 586092 ) on Thursday September 01, 2022 @03:07PM (#62844103)

    It's really simple, Google should be putting money back into areas that they take.

    And that's literally everywhere except Russia, North Korea, and China (and potentially any other countries not happy w/ the USA).

    They also have the ability to affect change by modernizing parts of the world where cost of living is exceptionally low. 20m doesn't mean much in San Francisco, LA, NYC, San Antonio, Austin, Miami, or Seattle.

    But it means the world in Detroit or Flint Michigan, Louisiana, almost anywhere in South America, Africa, the Middle East, India, and SEA.

  • The idea of a company like Google being anywhere near your children's education should be cause for horror and disgust.

  • From what I can find, minorities make up anywhere from 8%-15% of the tech workforce. This is in line with their general population. Where is the problem?

  • google it certificate $237 to learn how to google!

  • I admire how Google, in spite of all the antics of minorities and tolerance politicians, continues to develop education in the country by helping the means. It is already clear that the position of large companies is shaken by this, I did a review of this in an essay format following the example of https://samplius.com/free-essay-examples/minority/ [samplius.com] and used the recent high-profile case of Netflix and Disney. And how good that such a thing bypassed Google and news from them are mostly happy with their conten

Slashdot Top Deals

I program, therefore I am.

Close