Education in the United States and abroad is always a tricky subject. School systems try to stay on top of not only keeping students engaged, but also keeping the right kind of technology in the classroom. This is a constant and never-ending challenge, and changes the way we teach our kids at home and what we expect from schools. Often there are individual contributors that help out schools when needed, and even more often there are students with a strong yearning to learn on their own, which keeps the educational cogs moving in a positive direction. When we give up on the kids, they'll give up on us and we're all screwed.
So when a corporation puts so much time and energy (not to mention money) into educational initiatives, they have to be recognized for such. I've written about one before: the Intel Corporation. Intel, always on the forefront of assisting educational initiatives with their swagger and technology, has kicked off another inspiring educational campaign. Partnering with Katalyst, Intel is asking students and teachers across the nation, "What inspires you to learn?
Of course, they aren't asking this question in the traditional manner. They are asking it through multimedia presentations and, of course, a competition. From the Intel blog:
That's what we look for in the educational system - the kids who are striving to learn more. I'm not saying we should give up on the ones who don't; they need more help than most. We should instead encourage the ones who want to learn more and strive to be better. This whole thing is about inspiration. I think it'll be amazing to hear and see what kids say inspires them to be greater. More often than not we take these things for granted and just assume the kid trying harder is just smart, or hard on himself. That's not always the case, most of the time there is something in their life either directly or indirectly that is inspiring them to learn.
So Intel is asking students between the ages of 14-18 to answer that question via email with their basic information. Of course, they also point out that the winning submissions should stand out from the crowd. In that vein, they encourage the use of multimedia, photos or video and so on. A panel of experts (in what, I don't know, I'm guessing education or something of the sort) will judge the entries. The winner will receive a Toshiba laptop with Intel 2nd Generation Core i5 technology plus a Sony Internet TV for his or her school. If a kid is short on ideas, they can find inspiration at the IdeaJam channel on YouTube. The competition runs June 13 - August 15.
