Gates Foundation Turns Attention to Ed. Tech.

Educational technology advocates may call it a bold step forward or an idea long overdue.

But no matter what their interpretation is of a new collaborative grant program that will funnel tens of millions of dollars to K-12 and higher education technology initiatives, most ed-tech experts agree on this much: With the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation unveiling an initiative in the ed-tech arena for the first time in nearly a decade, people will take notice.

“They’ve been around a while, but they’ve really begun to play a bigger role” and garner more attention from educators, said Helen Soule, an education consultant. Her state received grant money in 2002 from the foundation’s last major ed-tech foray when she was Mississippi’s education technology director. “And I think people do watch them, for better...