How Google.org stole the Christmas Spirit

Re: Just a google bash?

Google deserve a bash, but in fairness here I'd be very suspicious of "DonorsChoose".

Re: sell some and buy the essentials

Agreed. If DonorsChoose can't supply basics, ask for twelve ChromeBooks and sell off two or three, then buy said supplies.

It's a shame that so many "charity" companies seem to be based on taking a fat cut of things under the guise of helping out. I remember not so long ago being told in these very pages about a web site that took donations for earthquake victims in the last tragedy to hit Indonesia. Yeah, they were taking donations all right, and also taking $10 bucks off for "processing fees". Even my bank doesn't take that much for a transaction.

Something stinks in Charity Valley.

Re: Just a google bash?

Nah the real issue is why the USA ranks as "average" in the PISA / OECD 2015 education rankings consistently no matter how much access to tech. Rated beneath for example, Vietnam.

Re: Just a google bash?

Just remember that 95% of all internet shennagians contain traces of Google.

Re: Just a google bash?

The real issue here is DonorsChoose taking such a so much of a cut and Schools needing to beg for essentials like paper, colored pencils, etc.

This is the sad truth. I know of one school in Germany where the kids have to take in their own toilet paper!

All aid programmes reveal contradictions. Indeed foreign aid programmes are one of the biggest gravy trains for industrial contracts out there.

I'm not a fan of Chromebooks but the US non-profit set up invites this kind of self-serving "foundation" because of the favourable tax treatment. However, just because schools are asking for computers and basic materials, does not make the programme evil. It just highlights the general underinvestment in education. The programmes themselves are supposed to be complementary and provide additional resources.

Re: Just a google bash?

This story was not helpful. Google gives thousands of dollars of tech to schools, and the reporter made them the villan. I would argue that, if The Register disclosed their charitable giving, it is mostly "gifts in kind" (just like Google's giving), and at a much, much smaller value than Google's.

Go ahead and get mad at the practices of DonorsChoose, although it sounds like they have followed their published practices, and schools who receive batches of Chromebooks are still coming out far better for having requested them.

I agree with Snowy's points. The author's use of Google.org in the headline makes a more attention-grabbing headline, but I feel like The Register ought to be better than that.

Re: F**k Google

That's just in the beginning, with time your libido calms down...

Re: A possible solution for getting the basic supplies

Possibly illegal.

Definitely time consuming.

I have never understood why any charity would choose to use the high profile commercial “giving” companies. It only takes a few minutes search to find (in the UK) at least one free service, run as part of a major corporation's community effort. The only fee incurred is the one that that the donors card company may make for a “cash withdrawal”.

It is also possible to minimise bank charges (in Europe anyway) by setting up a donations bank account and publishing the details needed to effect a direct funds transfer. If an email address is used as the donor's reference, it is possible to send “Thank You” acknowledgements as batch jobs.

Try BT mydonate, it's free, and collects Gift Aid. Am using it with a couple of charities I help out. A £10 donation by credit card raises £12.37 after the 13p CC processing fee. No percentage cuts or monthly charges.

http://www.btplc.com/mydonate/Help/FAQs/FAQsforcharities/index.aspx

Re: Chromebooks

In an Ideal world I'd agree with you entirely, however, time and again the general population has proved they're not willing (or in some cases able) to pay for more teachers (smaller class sizes) or better trained ones (higher salaries) or even basic school supplies (the joke is that our school district commits to supplying toilet paper and that's it and we live in a rich area.

Re: Chromebooks

All a school really needs is teachers. Unfortunately such a school would not be capable of doing what the authorities say they must do.

Just think on this: Pythagoras taught geometry with a sharp stick in the sand, Euclid's Elements were taught without computers, without even proper pencils and certainly without a ready supply of paper.

That'll have to do can't type fast enough on this touch screen to rant properly.

Re: Chromebooks

The evidence is obvious. We have gone from film strips in the 70s, VHS in the 80s, overhead projectors in the 90s and now online interactive multimedia experience - every year test scores get better.

Next year when all kids have a Google Glass(tm) augmented virtual reality transdimensional learning experience (tm) I predict they will all get at least 10 gradeA A-levels

Re: Chromebooks

If portable personal computing devices are to be used, then Chromebooks can be a good choice provided that they are retro-fitted with a suitable stand-alone operating system (i.e. not dependent on an Internet connection to function). The hardware is relatively lightweight and cheap.

However I feel that the the most useful educational electronic technology is the monochrome e-reader. It can give a cheap, low maintenance access to an enormous library of written texts (downloaded/updated at school), and has sufficient interactivity to be used with self-testing material. A couple of years ago I repurposed (swapped the internal flash memory) a bunch of Kobo devices that were purchased retail for less than £30 each.

Re: Chromebooks

You are right in saying that it is the teacher and the teaching environment that is the most important thing to get right but part of that mix has to, IMHO, be the prudent use of technology. Blended and flipped learning can be great tools.

Having taught in MS based schools and Google Suite for Education schools the GSuite ones are far easier to use and to control what the students have access to etc. Of course there is always the need for a few more powerful PC's for Media work etc but for your everyday classroom work a Chromebook/box and GSuite every time.

Re: Chromebooks - my last reply never posted

In an ideal world, every school district could afford the teachers to reduce class sizes, most however can't as time and again people refuse to approve taxes to pay for them.

More teachers (to reduce class sizes) and actually funding the basic school resources are better solutions but clearly that's not happening.

Re: Chromebooks

Could be a LOT worse.

MS could have given them Surface laptops... then charge for making them actually work... for a few weeks until they are taken over again... or broken by a patch.

Chromebooks actually work with little to no maintenance.

Re: Chromebooks

I agree with all these points, and think that this solution is also a terrible idea for some other reasons.

Giving small latops rather than pens and paper is the worst idea. Much of my work is related to architecture and design of IT systems. I'm very IT literate and can type quickly, like most people who frequent this site. So the question here is : when designing something that needs diagramming and jotting down quck notes and doing quck revisions as the process evolves what would you prefer to use : pen and paper or a chrome book? When doing this sort of woerk as a group would you rather use a whiteboard, projector and chromebook or a whiteboard and marker pen? I'm pretty sure everyone reding this would go for the non-chromebook choice because it's obviously more efficient, flexible, and much less of a ain in the backside..

Therefore doesn't the same apply to education? I know I'd still prefer the old blackboard and paper to a digital eduucation, I suspect this has got traction bcause not too smart people have been dazzled by the new and shiny tech and think that using it in all circumstances like this will prepare kids for the digital future. But they have not learnt the lesson that we have : that a technical solution is not the answer to every single problem. But how do we educate them about this, when the giant tech companies are obviously raking it in from pushing this ignorant idea?

Re: The usual

Exactly! Remember in the 90's Microsoft would go into large school districts that were using Apple products for education and they would donate "free" hardware and software (Of course running all Microsoft products). This served two purposes, a HUGE tax write-off and switch the schools from Apple to Microsoft. It was very successful for them as in the early 90's most schools were using Apple, by the end of the decade that switched to Microsoft.

Re: But this is the 21st century .... isn't it ??

Indeed, if those experts had only thought to Google "what is the mass of the Higgs boson" they could have saved a fortune on the LHC.

Of course they wouldn't have known it was called the Higgs boson because Higg's paper would have been written in DecWriter format and they wouldn't be able to read it.

Re: Jesus Christ. These people are teachers?

"Each day I have to remind my students to put up their phones due to school policy then knowing that I could find more interesting web-sites to stimulate my teaching about different cultures and internet learning tools I have to break the rules..."

Yes, and it seems that they've learned the lesson of applying for grants of any kind: You have to put your situation in the worst possible light in order to get the grant. If you simply say it how it is, you don't stand a rat's chance of getting anything.

Until you've actually been in the position of having to apply for grants or charity money, or been responsible for giving them out, you won't believe it, but the fact is that the grant allocation boards get tons of applications and every applicant is hyping up their problems to make sure they get to the top of the pile. Application letters like this are the natural end result from that race to the bottom, and if you don't follow the crowd and write like this, your application will probably fail.

> didn't want to play nice with the MS network infrastructure

Ha! Does anything? That fault is with MS's proprietary lock-in technology, not elsewhere.

Re: Nothing new...

"most of those donations end up in a foundation run by none other than Bill Gates and his wife themselves."

Makes sense that they'd want to direct their funds in some way. Note that "run by" doesn't mean "profits from".

"But their expenses don't always match up to the large sums of money which are going in."

Of course not. If their expenses were greater than the sum of money going in, the charity would eventually end up bankrupt and would cease to exist. Cash flow is just as (if not more) important in a non-profit as in a for-profit corporation.

The real items to look at: review the charity's tax returns (IRS form 990 in the US). Find out how much of their income is spent on actual programs and what percentage is on overhead. Compare to similar charities for reference.

Also consider the size of the charity when looking at staffing costs. For an IT angle: if the charity is a small animal shelter, you might expect their web design to be done pro bono by a local shop. If it's a multinational organization with thousands of employees you may expect that they have full-time bit wranglers.

Re: deductable "charity" and the very wealthy

Make that deduction refundable and we can replace most of the dole and no longer need minimum wage. It'll never happen thanks to the thousands of bureaucrats who would suddenly be out of work though.

Re: Admin fees

That most charities carry this much overhead is hardly a compelling argument. Unless your point is that most charities are parasites.

Re: Charity begins at home

Precisely, why are schools of all places having to resort to charity for pens, pencils and paper.