back to article Microsoft to splurge $75m on computer training for kids

Microsoft announced on Wednesday (September 16) that it would dish out $75m to teach kids computer science. The cash will be funnelled out over the next three years through the company’s YouthSpark programme. The aim is “to increase access to computer science education for all youth, especially for those from under- …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LMFTFY:

    Microsoft to splurge $75m on computer training product brainwashing for kids

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      You been reading my mind again?

    2. ItsNotMe
      FAIL

      "Microsoft to splurge $75m on computer training product brainwashing for kids"

      And Apple does the very same thing.

      "Elementary schools in Richmond and San Jose are among the 114 schools nationwide getting Apple computers.

      The education grants will supply iPads and Macs as part of Apple's push to bring technology to low-income students, according to a story in the Contra Costa Times.

      Stege Elementary in Richmond and Santee Elementary in San Jose are two of the recipients.

      The schools are getting iPads for all students, teachers and administrators as well as Macs for staff employees and an Apple TV for each classroom.

      The grants are part of a $100 million pledge Apple has made to President Barack Obama's ConnectED initiative."

      http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2014/10/apple-supplying-computers-to-richmond-san-jose.html

      Back under your bridge Sparky.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Microsoft to splurge $75m on computer training product brainwashing for kids"

        But this article is about Microsoft's behaviour, not Apple's.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    What's the number of kids divided into $75 million. Just about pays to print a sheet of paper each. Bulk. Real cheap bulk.

    1. Tom 7

      Thats about a million Raspberry Pi's and the rest to me

      I'll spend the rest of my life running a web site with lots of open source lessons on programming and stuff.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Weirdly cheerful blue t-shirt wearing semi-hipster walks into classroom...

    "Hey kids, I've just spoken with spindly Uncle Satnad, and he's got a gift for all of you (but not the girls - that'd be favouritism)! Can you guess what it is?"

    "Is it an iPad?"

    "Er... No"

    "Is it an iPhone?"

    "No..."

    "Is it a Samsung -"

    "NO!"

    "Is it a -"

    "Look just shut the frick up you HORRIBLE BRATS!

    It's a frickin Microsoft Surface running god-damned Windows 10 but only the first 72 million kids (except you girls) will get one, as that's all I've got to give away!

    Get it??"

    ...silence... a few sniffles... then...

    "What's a surface?"

    "Gaaah!"

    ...and so on.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Girls only again ?

    Will this be for girls only, a' la Zuckerberg ?

    Or will small children with penises also be allowed to play ?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Andy Non Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Girls only again ?

      You will be allowed to play with your penis but not in class again, OK.

  5. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Oh but it's not just as important, MS

    The OECD report that just came out says so. Whilst learning a coding language might be good for teaching logic and similar, using computers just for computers' sake doesn't help.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34174796

    More than anything else MS are worried that the next generation aren't being herded onto rent-an-Office and privacyless-Windows.

  6. Hud Dunlap
    Mushroom

    Maybe they need to quit hiring all of those H1-B visa people

    So these kids will have a job when they grow up.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe they need to quit hiring all of those H1-B visa people

      Or skill the kids so they don't have to import the talent.

      See what I did there?

      1. Craigness

        Re: Maybe they need to quit hiring all of those H1-B visa people

        The talent is there, but H1-B is cheaper. Do you realise what you did there?

  7. m0rt

    $75 M? Not so much a donation...

    ...so much as not charging the usual for MS licensing costs.

    (I DID IT. I promised myself not to substitue a $ for an S when referring to Micro$o....bugger)

    1. dogged

      Re: $75 M? Not so much a donation...

      That $ was funny, 20 years ago. These days not so much. I mean, you can't exactly claim that MS are the world's giant moneybags + root_of_all_evil +world_domination + incompetence when you're also spreading the gospel of "post PC" and "everyone uses linux and macs these days"[1] and "obsolete" and all the other crap.

      [1] "Everyone" in this case equating to approximately 7% of the global market, apparently. Commentards on the Reg are a lot like LibDem voters - they don't interact with (or instantly dismiss) anyone who isn't a LibDem voter so they think they're an important majority and are always shocked it turns out that there are actually only nineteen of them.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: $75 M? Not so much a donation...

        In my mind, the problem whenever you get a Great Divide (whether that be left/right, open/proprietary, etc) is that there are not actually as many complete bastards on the opposing side as people believe.

        eg the hard left may think that the right-wingers are intent on enjoying canapés made from boiled babies with copious amounts of champagne while the sit in comfy chairs made from the skeletons of serfs, and the right may fear that the hard left are hell-bent on taking away their share options and giving them a state-made boiler jump suit and a 2 bed worker apartment in a socialist utopian housing block.

        There probably are some, but most aren't like that.

        1. m0rt

          Re: $75 M? Not so much a donation...

          Jeez.

          Touch crowd.

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: $75 M? Not so much a donation...

          "there are not actually as many complete bastards on the opposing side as people believe"

          There don't need to be. The few that are there are more than adequate for the job.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: $75 M? Not so much a donation...

            The phrase is Vocal Minority

      2. hplasm
        Windows

        Re: $75 M? Not so much a donation...

        "...so they think they're an important majority and are always shocked it turns out that there are actually only nineteen of them."

        Sounds like commentards to me- the ones that are M$ apologists...

        (That $ was funny, 20 years ago, when Microsoft were relevant. These days not so much. But still funny enough- it makes foam-flecked spittle marks on Surface screens...)

      3. druck Silver badge

        Re: $75 M? Not so much a donation...

        Micro$oft isn't funny now, wasn't funny then - buts still just as true.

        They are still taking $billions out of the economy for products which haven't improved, or have even gone backwards, since the turn of the millennium. Hence the people still on XP and an old version of office.

  8. Steve Todd

    $75m?

    Globally, over 3 years? Not a lot in that context is it?

    1. GrumpyOldBloke

      Re: $75m?

      The intent may be $75M for lobbying rather than technology. Politicians are cheap so $75M will go a long way, especially if they can be encouraged to start barking like trained seals and pledging public resources in order to attract the major share. Same thing was seen in India, a $2M donation by the Bill and Melinda gates foundation to trigger a $2B polio vaccination campaign.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Click on the W icon

    And start typing. Yeah, OK. Then try to find out how to turn off smart quotes, and all the other shite that gets imposed on you. Then answer the question when doing something (at work on Windows7 unfortunately) - "We didn't find what you was looking for" (et al). Who the fuck/WTF is "we"?

  10. Craigness

    More discrimination

    With Y-combinator introducing a racist policy for "office hours" events, Intel and various other tech giants introducing racist and sexist hiring (and firing?) policies, and Github adopting a racist and sexist community policy, wouldn't Microsoft be doing more good by funding people who have a difficult time getting acceptance within the industry rather than those who the industry already prefers?

    Consider this: 2 people from the same town, fathers absent, mothers work the same job. One is black, the other white. Both have the same access to education and extracurricular activities, one is more likely to be hired by the "progressive" racist tech industry. Someone from Microsoft says to the privileged one "here's some money and training" and to the one facing discrimination "there are enough people who look like you, so you get nothing". How is this even legal? Why do people think it is moral? What sort of a racist can actually face these kids and purposely exclude them on racial grounds and why does Microsoft want that sort of person representing them?

    For moral reasons I do not use Microsoft, Intel or Github products (whenever possible).

  11. Christian Berger

    It's a battle for the minds of the future

    As Microsoft sees their market share erode with no new markets in sight, they as well as many other companies, try their best to capture the minds of the people. The earlier you start, the more likely you are to make someone believe that your particular product is the future.

  12. P.B. Lecavalier
    Flame

    Thanks, but no thanks?

    Kids + even more computer spending + even more computer science (presumably elementary/high school) == questionable.

    Programming is good for many, but not for every one. Many should learn _some_ programming, to the extent that it would be extremely useful in their work, even if not an actual software developer/engineer. But when will this specific context arise? 4-10 years after an initial course on the subject? And that which has been learned as a kiddo might not be relevant anyhow to the needs encountered in the real world. Not an optimal use of scarce time at school. The purpose of elementary/high school is **not** to develop technicians! There is another level of education geared toward just that.

    Anyone saw this?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/15/dont_bother_buying_computers_for_schools_says_oecd_report/

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thanks, but no thanks?

      Programming is problem solving. A way of making sense of inputs and giving the outputs you desire.

      You have to think about data and what it means, functions needed to manage and convert it.

      And children are more receptive at an earlier age. Compare with learning a foreign language. Start 'em young when the syllabus is flexible.

  13. CAPS LOCK

    Dropping their products on the young and impressionable is SOP at Microsoft...

    ... this isn't news. It isn't even a rewritten press release, just a copy and paste with the phrase 'according to the press release' added. 1/10, Could do better.

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