Facebook offers free education software in US

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34151045

Facebook has taken its first steps into the education market with software that it claims allows children to learn at their own pace.
It is working with non-profit Summit Public Schools which has pioneered a teaching method that allows students to learn online and be mentored in class.

Facebook said that he project was completely separate from its social network.

There has been some skepticism about the technology firm's move.

In a blog post, Facebook's chief product officer Chris Cox said that the firm wanted to create a classroom "centered around students' ambitions".
The system allows content and tests to be delivered online and classroom time is reserved for "teacher-led real-world projects and collaborations", it said.

"The technology itself has the power to bring to life the daily work by putting it in context," said Mr Cox.

"It frees up classroom time for teachers to do what they do best - mentor students directly - and for students to spend time collaborating with, and in some cases, teaching each other."

But not everyone was convinced of the move.

"Facebook does not have the greatest reputation when it comes to privacy," Leonie Haimson, executive director of non-profit Class Size Matters told the New York Times.

The small team of engineers working on the project were subject to "strict privacy controls to help protect student data", Facebook said.

The Personalised Learning Plan it has developed has so far been used by 2,000 students and 100 teachers in schools in California.

Summit Public Schools, Facebook's partner in the project, is a non-profit organisation that runs schools in the states of California and Washington.

There are several elements to Summit's curriculum - students spend some time working on projects and other time on the personalised learning of traditional subjects like maths and English - mostly via online content.

Facebook and Summit plan to offer the software to any school in the US that wants it.

The social network is not the only technology giant involved in education. Google offers a range of educational products and Chromebooks are commonplace in classrooms.

I think that's a great idea. It would help children to excel, especially with their strong subjects.

My 8 y/o completes his math homework in less than 10 minutes. He then brings it to me and complains it is too easy. This will lead to boredom for him. An online structure allowing him to work at his own pace would fix this problem.

It would also be a useful and more accurate data tool to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the student population as a whole.