At SXSW Education Conference, Bill Gates Stresses Technology as the Future

Technological innovations are making fast inroads into American classrooms — a trend that holds enormous promise for United States education, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said in his keynote speech at the SXSW Education Conference in Austin this month.

While tougher standards and more testing have done little to help make America’s educational system more competitive with other countries, he said, the increasing presence of technology is a promising sign.

“What’s really changed in the classroom isn’t much at all,” Gates said in his speech, posted on the SXSW site. “We’ve gone from a blackboard to a whiteboard.” Still, he went on, the real way for the educational system to improve is for more classrooms to take advantage of next-generation technology.

Gates made his comments as part of the SXSW conference, which brought together educators and experts to discuss creativity and innovation in education. Gates was representing the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has worked extensively to improve U.S. K–12 classrooms.

“In just the past few years, technology has finally become part of our schools in a big way, and it’s only getting bigger,” Gates continued. “The power of the digital platform is just going to keep getting better and better — whether it’s for the education software or for anything else,” he said to the SXSW Education attendees. “So, that’s a great wind behind our back — that power.”

Instead of having students refer to outdated textbooks for their information, they can instead get real-time information online. Better use of technology could be the difference between failure and success for public school students.

These changes affect students, but others have pointed out that a more technology-driven classroom will require new training for teachers as well. Caleb Clark, director of the educational technology program at Marlboro College Graduate School, warned that teachers often aren’t well-trained to use this cutting-edge technology in the classroom. In a September 2012 report from U.S. News and World Report, Clark says that teachers don’t get the necessary help in learning how to integrate this technology effectively, and to the detriment of American education system.

But colleges and universities are responding to these changes by offering training opportunities. As of this year, for example, Ashland University is offering a 12-hour, online “Technology for the 21st Century Classroom” certificate to help educators better grasp how to use new technologies in elementary and high schools. “Teach Tec,” a collaboration between the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, also aims to help get teachers up to speed through a 12-hour certification course.

Gates’s speech also asked parents, educators and technologists to work together to bring the power of technology more effectively into the classroom. “Digital technology has several features that can make it much easier for teachers to pay special attention to all their students,” he said.

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