News Corp. to launch tablet-based education pilot

In collaboration with AT&T, the company will offer a tablet-based platform that bundles curricular content with sophisticated analytic capabilities and 4G connectivity to facilitate personalized instruction.

In a further expansion into the ed-tech market, News Corp.—Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate that owns FOX News and the Wall Street Journal, among other properties—on July 23 unveiled its new K-12 education business, called Amplify, and said it was partnering with AT&T to fund a pilot project that aims to put tablet computers in students’ hands in the coming school year.

AT&T will provide tablet computers that work on its 4G and Wi-Fi networks. None of the schools selected to participate will have to pay for the program. The company did not say which schools would take part or how they’d be selected.

The idea is to put tablet computers into the hands of students for use at school and at home. The system tracks their progress and is meant to tailor lessons to each student’s level.…Read More

News Corp. buys education technology company

News Corp. said that it had agreed to acquire 90 percent of education technology company Wireless Generation for 360 million dollars in cash, reports the AFP.

“Wireless Generation is at the forefront of individualized, technology-based learning that is poised to revolutionize public education for a new generation of students,” News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch said.

Education of children aged five through 18 is a “500-billion-dollar sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching,” he said in a statement……Read More