Solid Mobile Phone: Embrace 21st-Century Opportunities and Challenges

Microsoft Corp. today announced landmark expansions to its 10-year, nearly $500-million Partners in Learning program, including a massive increase in the scale of its Innovative Schools program, which enables schools worldwide to harness the power of technology to gear up for the educational challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

Microsoft kicked off the expanded Innovative Schools program in London today with a workshop for senior European education officials, the first in a series of workshops for global education leaders it will hold across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

The Innovative Schools program will apply and refine lessons learned from the two-year, 12-school Innovative Schools Pilot Program launched last year by Microsoft to study efforts to use technology to help drive change across diverse educational settings. The pilot study spans urban, suburban and rural schools — economically challenged and wealthy alike — ranging in size from 70 to 1,500 students across 12 nations. Microsoft announced the release today of a report and two white papers detailing the latest findings from the pilot project and outlining essential action steps schools can take to ensure that students receive the education they need to succeed in the 21st-century knowledge economy.

Today's announcements build on Microsoft's long-standing track record, as part of the Partners in Learning program, of working closely with international educational leaders to advance information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled school change that supports the emerging needs of 21st-century learning.