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Friday, March 24, 2017

Google says it hopes to expand project that puts wi-fi on rural school buses

Thanks to Google, 2,000 students in South Carolina's rural Berkeley County can ride on one of 28 school buses equipped with wi-fi. "The tech giant also has given the school district 1,700 Chromebooks, the stripped-down laptops on which many schoolchildren now do their class and homework," The Associated Press reports.

"Google has at least a decade-long relationship with Berkeley County, where it’s invested more than $1 billion in data center complexes since 2007, bringing more than 100 jobs," AP reports. "Google says it also has awarded nearly $2 billion in grants to local schools and nonprofits."

With more classroom and homework assignments migrating online, Google hopes to expand the use of Wi-Fi on school buses in other rural areas around the country, AP says. Google spokeswoman Lilyn Hester told AP that they will start "in other rural areas where it already has data centers that process search queries and other information," adding that the expansions are also need-based.

Hester told AP officials had mused about the time many students spend on school buses, asking, “Why don’t we make that instructional time?” 

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