Self-made billionaire Bill Gates: Better technology must be developed to help educate people
Through his largest donation in 17 years, Bill Gates recently reaffirmed his commitment to education last week when Bloomberg reported he was pledging $4.6 billion to his personal foundation.

Gates has prioritized education reform and, more specifically, educational technology through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — which last month received a $3.17 billion pledge from Warren Buffett — for years. Notably, he's been outspoken in the past that software companies must do more to help children learn more effectively with technology's aid.

"It's amazing how little the typical classroom has changed over the years," Gates writes on his blog last year. In fact, he addressed the education-technology gap five years ago before an audience of top professors and researchers at the 2013 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit.

"Software has only achieved a very small portion of what we want it to do and even what we need it to do," Gates says in a discussion on how computing can improve society.

In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" last year, he added: "A lot of the issue is helping kids stay engaged. If they don't feel the material is relevant or they don't have a sense of their own ability they can check out too easily. The technology has not done enough to help with this yet."