Microsoft's Bill Gates Funds Australian Professor's Revolutionary History Course, Targets Schools Worldwide
Microsoft's Bill Gates is on a mission to change the way history is being taught in high schools around the world. He has teamed up with Professor David Christian, an Australian academic who designed a course named Big History.
The Big History course content centres on 14 billion years of Earth's history, from the Big Bang, the Internet and the world beyond. The Australian professor's history course will give students a wider view of the universe and the presence of humans in the cosmic timeline.
The course is a combination of history, economics and science into a single cohesive story. Bill Gates was inspired by the Australian's work and proposed a partnership. He plans to expand Mr Christian's work and history course to all high schools in the U.S. and Australia. The goal would be to revolutionise history education worldwide.
The course has already been taught to Year 10 students at Redlands High School in Sydney. Redlands' head history teacher Sarah Trotter said Professor Christian's course explains many questions about the world and how life began.
Mr Christian said he had not imagined his history course will be adapted in high schools. He said it's a dream come true to see students and teachers get excited about the course. Students in Redlands called him "The Big DC" and said they enjoyed learning about history through his course.
Mr Christian is an expert in Russian history, but he wanted to do something even greater. He wanted to unify the stories of the universe, using the different points of view of cosmologists, paleontologists, geologists and biologists, among other academics.
Mr Christian said stringing the stories together in an amazing and cohesive story will create an interesting result.
A U.S. company was able to record his lectures and Bill Gates saw it. One of the world's richest men called Mr Christian saw it and asked for a meeting. The two met in California and discussed the potential of the Big History.
Bill Gates said history is his favourite subject of all time. The Microsoft founder offered to fund Mr Christian to create a free online high school syllabus of his history course. He will be supported by online teaching and IT experts.
In Australia, 26 schools have already incorporated the Big History in their syllabus, and more schools are expected to get the course in 2014.