"Luke, you switched off your targeting computer."

I am sad to say that apparently Bill Gates missed one of the central points of Star Wars. 
In his keynote presentation on education at the South by Southwest Conference, Gates was touting the use of computers to personalize learning and, incidentally, to cut down on the need for teachers. He chose to use the following example:

Displaying a picture of Star Wars'Luke Skywalker crouched next to Yoda, Gates spoke about the importance of personalized learning. Yoda was a great teacher, Gates argued, because the Jedi master understood when Skywalker is losing interest.

 ...as you would expect a great teacher to do.
One of the central points of Star Wars, however, is that over-reliance on technology is a failed methodology. Luke Skywalker doesn't blow up the Death Start with his targeting computer; he uses the Force.
I don't want to torment this analogy too far, but Yoda didn't plunk Luke down in front of a computer to teach him; he did it himself.
Technology has its place, but teaching people takes people.

On philanthropy (or not)

Excellent article in The Awl regarding the billionaire philanthropists, their perspective:

that business is good at measuring and achieving set results and goals, while government mysteriously lacks such abilities; that business is pragmatic, efficient and uninterested in ideological point-scoring; that every institution would benefit from being "run like a business"

..and their influence on everything including (part VI) education:

 ...the funders of education reform seek nothing less than the wholesale retooling of public schools, at a time when the nation’s school budgets are stretched to the breaking point. And the writing on the chalkboard grows clearer by the minute: Their market-based educational reforms don’t work.

"for wide [is] the gate, and broad* the way...

that leads to destruction..." (Matthew 7:13, KJV)

It looks like both Los Angeles and Chicago are joining the Broad superintendents' club:

• John Deasy, Broad class of 2006, will be leading the Los Angeles Public Schools coming there from--wait for it--the Gates Foundation (he was brought into LAUSD two years ago with the expectation that he would take over, 'though it appears that not all are happy with that).
• Jean-Claude Brizard, Broad class of 2007, will be leading the Chicago Public Schools, leaving Rochester, NY, where the teachers overwhelmingly voted "no confidence" (by ballot) this past February. As this due largely, it seems, to an autocratic, non-consultative manner, one holds little hope that parents in Chicago will feel any more listened to than they currently do.

*I should point out that Eli Broad, and thus the Foundation, pronounces this to rhyme with "road," but it seems singularly appropriate, nonetheless.

Gates Foundation Timeline

KEI has a Microsoft/Gates Foundation timeline posted. Everyone will, I'm sure, find their own points of interest. What leapt out at me is how far we are from the Bill Gates who wrote (in 1998):

I am in agreement with my friend, Warren Buffett, when he says that people who are successful in one field should be careful about suggesting they know all the answers in other areas.

You thought I was kidding...

...when I said that Bill Gates was pushing technology in schools to sell Microsoft products.
I wish. Open Office, anyone?