Page 67 - Education in a Digital World

54 International Organisations

The Educational Technology Activities of Other Companies
While impressive, Microsoft’s portfolio of educational technology activities is replicated
(to a lesser or greater extent) by many major IT firms and corporations around the
world. For example, having recently usurped Microsoft as the world’s most profit-
able IT firm, Apple Inc. is involved in a similar range of educational activities. For
example, Apple has long supported communities of teachers to work together and
share resources. Over the past twenty years, these efforts have included the running
of the Apple Learning Interchange and latterly the iTunes U programme – described
as an ‘educational content repository’ where over 800 universities (including Stanford,
Yale, MIT and Oxford) distribute their education ‘content’ publicly through the
company’s iTunes Store. Apple also runs extensive education training and research
programmes, and since the 1980s has been involved in the subsidised provision of
computer laboratories and other computing resources to educational institutions
around the world. Similar to Microsoft, Apple has actively been involved in the
promotion of school redesign – funding the establishment of their own ‘School of
the Future’ public high school in 1990 in partnership with the New York City
Department of Education. Somewhat ironically given Bill Gates’ business back-
ground, the New York School of the Future has since gained financial support
from, amongst others, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Aside from the high-profile efforts of Apple and Microsoft, perhaps the most
prominent commercial actors in educational technology are large-scale software and
hardware producers such as Cisco, HP, Dell and Intel. The scope of these activities
is illustrated through Cisco’s programme of educational activities. Although less
prominent than Microsoft or Apple in the minds of most technology users, Cisco
remains one of the world’s largest technology corporations with its interests
concentrated on computer networking and hardware. Like its higher-profile
competitors, Cisco also has developed an extensive involvement in technology-
based educational reform. As the company’s promotional material boasts, “Cisco is
committed … [to] help reform and renew education throughout the world”. As the
company’s ‘Commitment to global education in the twenty-first century’ statement
goes on to contend: “We believe that the same technologies that created the
internet and the information revolution have the power to transform education for
the twenty-first century and lay the foundation for a better future for countless
young people”.
Underpinning this rhetoric is Cisco’s involvement in a range of educational ventures
around the world. Many of these efforts are focused on the redesign of education
systems – a philosophy detailed in the company’s production of an Education 3.0
roadmap. These discussions are supported by the hosting of online forums to sup-
port and stimulate ‘the latest thinking’ in educational leadership, alongside a range
of practical interventions. For example, Cisco’s ‘Twenty-first Century Schools
Initiative’ has used a combination of hands-on expertise from the company’s Education
Fellows and funding for the rebuilding, re-equipping, retraining and redesigning of