Microsoft's Lesson For Public Education

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent discussion-list post “Microsoft’s Lesson For Public Education” [Hake (2012)]. The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: EDDRA2’s Mike Martin at http://yhoo.it/Pw1ks5 wrote: (paraphrasing):

"Everyone in education should read 'Microsoft's Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant' at http://vnty.fr/M4dJvA. . . . . . What educators need to know and to trumpet widely is precisely Microsoft's ‘astonishingly foolish management decision’ to focus on ranking employees instead of focusing on consumers - a ranking system that Bill Gates is now trying to impose on public education. . . . . Gates’ ideas will stop teachers from developing education that is effective for children and instead focus on things that look good in the evaluation system.”

As sequels to the above, see the Microsoft/Gates put-downs at, e.g.:

1. Barbara and David Mikkelson’s Urban Legend “Car Balk” at http://bit.ly/RAGFjJ;

2. Louis Menand’s hilarious “The End Matter: The nightmare of citation” at http://nyr.kr/McQrGm;

3. Gene Glass’ insightful “High Button Shoes and Education Reform” at http://bit.ly/KcWqIs.
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To access the complete 11 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/MdbtVq.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Links to Articles: http://bit.ly/a6M5y0
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". . . . it is time to speak some truth to power in this country: MICROSOFT WORD IS A TERRIBLE PROGRAM"
- Louis Menand (2003)


REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 07 July 2012.
Hake, R.R. 2012. "Microsoft's Lesson For Public Education," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/MdbtVq. Post of 7 Jul 2012 13:54:43-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post were transmitted to several discussion lists. a

Menand, L. 2003. "The End Matter: The nightmare of citation." New Yorker, 6 October, online at http://nyr.kr/McQrGm.

Mike Martin, Gene Glass, Louis Menand, Bill Gates, Urban Legend, Microsoft, ranking systems, General Motors