Will the year 2012 prove to be a turning point for education? There’s certainly an ever-increasing spotlight on the quality of education and an interest to help improve it from all corners of society. As I travel around the world, I see many technology companies increasing their focus and investment in education. And I think it’s time for the industry to pull together to think not just about winning and losing, but how we can do what’s right for students and make learning better.

I’m inspired everyday by the work of teachers, school leaders, policymakers, and business leaders who have made improving education worldwide a facet of their lives. As part of Microsoft’s Partners in Learning initiative, we work with more than 9 million teachers in 115 countries, and it’s amazing to me that regardless of local economics or other challenges in their unique learning environments, teachers find a way to make a difference in students’ lives.

With the ever-changing economic climate, the next year is sure to be filled with both challenges and opportunities. Here are some trends and themes I think we’ll continue to hear more about in 2012.

1. A tighter focus and prioritization on workforce readiness and jobs. This is going to be everywhere. Traditional universities are thinking much more about preparing students for the workforce, immersing students with job skills training earlier. Traditional community colleges, technical and vocational schools will continue to see a rise in popularity and student interest. And even in the K-12 space, schools are doing more to introduce skill-based learning outside of the core subject areas of math, science and reading that students are tested on. This is true globally where the unemployment rate is also at record lows. In countries like Spain and Korea, entrepreneurship is rising in importance and kids are looking to discover and create new industries. Through our Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project, we know skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity are vital for students as they prepare to enter the workforce.  So much so, that The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) – a worldwide, three-yearly evaluation in OECD member countries of school pupils’ performance – will be including Collaborative Problem Solving as a mandatory component of the 2015 study.

2. A support for innovative teacher methodologies is critical. There’s a lot of debate whether technology can replace or diminish the role of a teacher in the classroom. At Microsoft, we believe investing in teaching and professional development of teachers is one of the most important investments we can make in education. One teacher can reach thousands over the course of a career, and literally catalyze the future of a community. Between our Innovative Teaching and Learning Research and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, there is a lot of research on teacher effectiveness and its impact on student learning. We know the more education a child obtains, the higher their income earning potential is…and now there is a new study out of Harvard and Columbia  that shows how just even one great teacher can impact a student’s future earnings. The Partners in Learning Network is a free community resource with networking, educator resources, lesson plans, and invaluable learning content from the world’s best teachers.

3. 2012 is when the cloud moves from a curiosity to a necessity. While more than 22 million students, faculty and staff are using Microsoft’s cloud services today in education, there is going to be huge growth. Schools will recognize the cloud is a key component to their digital content platform strategy to storage options as it relates to security, identity, back-up, etc., It’s also a way to cost-effectively deliver more technology to more people quickly and so that they can focus their IT resources on projects that really drive improvements to learning.

4. Real data-driven learning. Another big trend I think you will start to see is more examples of data-driven learning and education taken to the next level. Historically, data-driven education has been a chart taking activity where we get data and display information, but then reaction to the data has been inconsistent. The data collection of students’ progress hasn’t been driving a real opportunity for proactive support. This is where business intelligence (BI) can enable a much richer dialogue with regards helping teachers personalize learning and being able to create individualized lessons for students at different places in their learning.

5. Gaming and the emergence of Kinect as a PC factor. Yes, I am a gamer…and I blog a lot about how gaming and the mechanics of gaming can and should be brought into education to help drive expectations of students higher. At CES, I had an opportunity to see Kinect applied in very interesting ways. There were vendors showing how Kinect can work with digital whiteboards and classroom navigation, lecture capture, and how voice control can be integrated in very simple and elegant ways. We are starting to see a grassroots effort and more teachers include Kinect as a component of classroom design and a way to motivate students. It’s also a way for schools to save money yet still acquire innovative technology to create rich, interactive experiences. The marketplace for more education solutions will continue to grow after the Kinect for Windows SDK and Kinect for Windows Sensor is released publicly on February 1st.

6. Change the conversation from the device to learning. I think we’ll see a movement where schools will move beyond 1:1 computing and really focus on digital learning. It will transform from a device conversation to a learning conversation. There will be trends like “bring your own device” (BYOD) that support it, and the proliferation of multiple device types (laptops, slates, tablets, phones) that support the technology environment schools want and need. But then the conversation needs to turn to connecting the devices to curriculum and pedagogy and the assessment models. And all the content needs to be accessible on multiple devices and be available anytime and anywhere.

7. The rise of digital curriculum and reading. The rise of digital reading is certainly a reality in the consumer space, but textbook providers are just starting to build out next-generation content experiences. I think we’ll finally start to see the transition and some schools like this one in Turkey as early adopters. While many schools will use the opportunity to save money on traditional textbooks to fund devices, schools have to think about this holistically and not just buy a device to replace a textbook. Digitizing textbooks in and of itself is not transformative, but by focusing on the entire learning continuum and how digital curriculum and content created by students and teachers can be connected to back-end systems that can link the student outcomes to assessments, personalized learning and increased student achievement…now that’s transformative change.

Microsoft is working with more than 150 publishers worldwide, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Cornelsen, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Santillana to publish and distribute digital textbooks in the cloud. These textbooks and new content will be able to be consumed by students on a variety of devices, from Windows 7 notebooks to tablets and slates, Windows Phone, Xbox, Kinect and Office 365, reflecting the diversity and personalization required as part of the learning experience.  

I think it will be a very exciting year.

I’m back in the office after a quick trip to Las Vegas for CES. I love to walk the show floor each year to see all the new gadgets, not just because it’s fun to tinker with new technology, but because I like to get a first look at the new innovations that could be most useful when applied in education. There are a lot of new Microsoft products that are available to schools now or very soon. Surface 2.0 has just shipped, the Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) and a Kinect for Windows sensor are coming on February 1st, and Nokia phones built on Windows Phone are out now.

Our hardware partners are building some cool PCs and Windows 7 runs super-fast and super-long on them. They’re building rich input devices, with mice, keyboards, and pen inputs – some go from a laptop to a tablet in just seconds -- satisfying those students who want the best of both tablets and PCs in one.  There are also a lot of new form factors designed to appeal to students that are lightweight with rich screens, and that are very flexible with support for gaming and use things like voice and touch commands to enable a very immersive experience. Ultrabooks were the star of the show. You can see the latest Windows 7 devices here and in the embedded video below.

I am really excited about all the choices schools have when it comes to determining what device they want to bring into their institution. As we know 1:1 learning is going to become more rampant with the shift to digital content and the need to make sure kids are prepared for college and career. We’ve learned a lot about technology’s effectiveness in schools and in 1:1 programs in particular, and I encourage school leaders to think holistically about the learning environment before they jump to buy technology for technology’s sake. I met with JP Sa Couto and Critical Links at CES. They help schools think about all aspects to create the most effective learning environment. They have done a lot of research and investment in looking at everything from the school furnishings to lighting to looking at ethnographic studies to literally determine how a device best fits into a school.

Schools want devices for different activities….reading digital textbooks, taking notes, creating presentations and papers, the ability to plug in an array of peripherals and 3rd party solutions, and centralized IT management and security. And as data-driven education improves, schools need to be able to analyze what students and teachers are doing with the technology and link the outcomes to assessments and personalized lesson planning through business intelligence and learning management systems.

There are a lot of great new tablet PCs and laptops designed especially for education that can withstand the rigors of heavy use during the school day, including getting thrown in backpacks and dropped on the playground.

At CES, Lenovo was showing off the newly released Lenovo Classmate + . It’s a rugged PC laptop that converts into a tablet, sports a drop resistant exterior, spill proof keyboard,  reinforced steel hinges, 10.1 inch touch display with pen (optional HD), 10 hour battery life, multiple USB ports and VGA or HDMI output to monitor. The Lenovo X130e is also a good choice for K12 schools made rugged with rubber “bumpers” and reinforced hinges to take a long school day. 

Dell’s Inspiron Duo continues to win praise from students and teachers alike because its innovative flip hinge design makes it very easy to go from touch to type in seconds.  The 10.1 HD multi touch screen, student sized keyboard and rugged design make it the perfect device for schools that want a HD tablet and a laptop in one device.

For university students who want a computer that’s light, fast, durable and stylish, ultrabooks are all the rage. The video below showcases the latest hardware from Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Sony.

I’m delighted to officially announce the launch of our revamped Partners in Learning Network here at the BETT Show in London. Originally launched in 2009, the new community site is now open to teachers and school leaders in over 115 countries, and has been enhanced with many new features and resources all designed to encourage collaboration and the spread of ideas for improving education around the world.

If you’re not familiar with the Partners in Learning Network, this is a free community resource designed to provide educators with a place to engage with other like-minded professionals to enhance their personal development and classroom experience for their students. This is not just a networking site; it is a treasure chest of resources, lesson plans, and invaluable learning content from the world’s best teachers. To kick things off, we’ve already populated the site with over 40 different tools such as lesson plans, learning activities and tutorials that are available for immediate download for use in the classroom.

We started beta testing the new site back in November, and we’ve already received some encouraging feedback from teachers.

“There is importance in how the Partners in Learning Network can work to offer teachers an online community filled with product downloads, tutorials, activities and discussions. What I am excited about is the opportunity to share with teachers some ideas and resources that ALL our students could use effectively and easily in and out of the classroom.” 
--Nicole Lakusta, Educational Technology Facilitator, Parkland School Division, Canada
More on Nicole’s blog here.

“As a professional development opportunity, the Partners in Learning Network is unparalleled. The more teachers and schools that we can get involved the more innovation and corresponding results will follow.”
--Louis Zulli Jr., Network Administrator, Center for Advanced Technologies, Florida

Here are some new features our early users are most excited about…

1. Using Microsoft Translator, the site is available today in 36 different languages. That means members can not only communicate with others in their own language, but any user can translate any content into one of these supported languages, or make suggestions and edits to previously translated pages. This is incredibly exciting because it allows us to offer educators a truly global community.

2. New achievement badges help members identify the community’s mentors, teacher trainers and experts, to encourage collaboration and the sharing of ideas and best practices. A new tagging infrastructure ensures that as teachers upload content such as learning activities, tutorials about incorporating technology, sample projects and other ready-to-use educational resources, that the content is quick and easy to find. 

3. We know there are a lot of choices for social networking sites, and that many educators may already have established profiles and followers on other sites. That’s why Partners in Learning Network members are able to promote and link to their other social media properties. We also make accessing all of the resources easy by allowing members to sign-in using Windows Live ID, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, or Yahoo, instead of having to “start over” on a new site or just choose one. They can also use pre-existing log-ins from these accounts to sign-in to the Network.

To sign up now, visit http://www.pil-network.com and start spreading ideas to make education worldwide better!

We’re having a great time engaging with some of the best and brightest in the education community this week in London, and have made a few other exciting announcements. Please see my earlier blog post here to learn more.

(Cross-post from the Microsoft EMEA Press Centre blog.)

This week, Microsoft is taking part in the annual Education World Forum in London. For us, it’s a great opportunity to meet with education ministers from around the globe and hear about the different issues facing their countries. It’s an important part of the work we do in this sector; by listening and understanding both the opportunities and challenges, we ensure our business is available to support them in the quest for inclusive and relevant education for everyone.

Three years ago, Microsoft partnered with Cisco and Intel to launch the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project. Made up of governments, intergovernmental organisations and research and teaching institutions, ATC21S is a collaborative research program created to address a specific problem: that traditional assessment methods do not properly evaluate the skills needed to prepare learners for working in the modern world. Skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation are all vital attributes for students but not currently measured effectively by most countries. These skills can prepare a student for the workforce and provide stronger economic opportunities for the future.

ATC21S has moved from concept and definition stage through to the development of assessments and trials for collaborative problem-solving and ICT literacy -learning using digital networks. Today, we’re excited to announce the road ahead. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) – a worldwide, three-yearly evaluation in OECD member countries of school pupils’ performance – will be including Collaborative Problem Solving as a mandatory component of the 2015 study.

"ATC21S has played an essential pathfinder role to move the assessment agenda forward. It fills a critical gap between existing basic research on assessment design and methodologies, on the one hand, and the implementation of large-scale assessments that provide reliable data at reasonable cost, on the other. Its latest venture, the piloting of tasks to assess collaborative problem-solving skills, provides important insights for OECD's efforts to broaden future PISA assessments to encompass interpersonal skill dimensions." – Andreas Schleicher, Head of Indicators and Analysis Division, Education Directorate, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)

PISA is aimed at improving educational policies and outcomes. It tests literacy in reading, mathematics and science, measuring education’s application to real-life problems and the knowledge needed for the world of work. This close alignment with our own aims means that PISA’s interest helps to focus the ATC21S work in informing the methods, approaches and teaching and learning strategies needed, and we’re really proud to be working together.

To make sure schools are ready to teach and assess 21st century skills, and specifically, collaborative problem solving skills, we’ll shortly be releasing policy and teaching guidance, as well as sample assessments. Through these materials, teachers will be able to identify gaps in development and assess where they may need to invest in curriculum change.

As employers of tomorrow’s talent, it’s important for Microsoft to support education initiatives, using our resources, visibility and global reach to help improve learning and education all over the world. Alongside our common interest, assessing students on 21st century skills is an important step in spreading economic development. Many of the jobs that today’s students will perform may not even yet exist. As I’ve blogged about before here and here, using old models to assess these students fails to prepare them to adapt their skillsets for the ever-changing world of work.

UPDATE: The ATC21S team is blogging from the events and sessions on site in London. You can follow the discussion here.

One of the things I love about the Bing toolbar is the translation service that uses Microsoft Translator technology to provide online automatic translation of text and web pages.  In my worldwide role, I am increasingly traveling to countries I’ve never visited before and communicating with folks who speak many different languages.

Before I travel, I like to read up on where I am going to learn about the education system, economy and culture…so the Bing Translator, which translates more than 35 languages, is tremendously useful and has made my life easier. After you load the Bing toolbar and go to a web site in another language, like Chinese, Japanese, French, etc., the text of the web page is automatically translated to your preferred language. 

This translation technology from Microsoft Research is slowly proliferating across Microsoft products. Besides instant translations in Bing, you can also have multi-lingual conversations in Windows Live Messenger and Microsoft Lync, and translate words in Office 2010 documents. Schools can also add the Microsoft Translator widget to their own web pages. Partners and other companies are also using the Translator API to help break down language barrier. Facebook, Trip Advisor, Harper Collins and eBay are using the API to bring their services and content to new audiences and languages.

If you haven’t already, I suggest checking out the Bing Bar here, download it and give it a try.

I had the pleasure of attending the Worldwide Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), held in Doha, Qatar recently. This is the third year Microsoft has participated in the summit and it continues to be a very valuable K-20 conversation around the state of education around the world, and the need for reform. I participated in an interesting conversation regarding the need for reform in education.  The official session was titled, “Rethinking Innovation in Education.” You can watch the discussion in the embedded video below.

One of the things I tried to do in my comments was disconnect innovation with technology, because too often it's synonymous for schools…as people think about innovation, they jump too quickly to technology as the solution.

There is tremendous enthusiasm for technology in education and it's definitely part of learning's future.  The opportunity to share information, collaborate around the world, to consume truly endless amounts of content and get access to information anywhere, anytime, anyplace, is a game changer that fundamentally will have a huge role in the future of the way learning takes place. But the lessons we've learned in the past remain constant, and frankly even more important now than ever…and that is supporting great teaching, making sure kids are properly motivated to succeed, and that we align a holistic approach to a student's learning environment, from a classroom environment to getting parental involvement to making sure that we've got the right assessment in place, etc. Technology can support, enable all of those things, but technology alone isn't going to overcome a bad teacher or a bad environment.

The other issue we have to think about is as it relates to the technology itself, because in many cases the technology will evolve to create a new opportunity for learning.  Most of what we've done with technology in schools all over the United States and the world has been to automate the passive learning models and modalities.  So, we've taken classrooms and turned them virtual. We've taken tests and turned them online. We've taken books and created electronic books. While all these transitions are valuable and helpful, they don't provide any transformative experience other than moving from a piece of paper to a digital screen or a phone conversation to a text message.  And while the value and efficiencies can support schools and help budgets, the learning process isn't transformed.

What can make a change is how technology is applied to create much more responsive, reactive and personal learning environments. To create the settings to connect students to quality of content and information that previously was unavailable, to refine learning to respond predictively to a learner's need based on learning styles, test scores, etc. And when all these elements come into play, learning retention increases, test scores potentially increase, and we have more engaged and motivated students.

As I’ve said before, the highlight of my year is attending the Partners in Learning Innovative Educator Forums around the world. This year's worldwide finals event in Washington, D.C. was no exception.  It's an amazing opportunity to talk, to witness some amazing heroes from every corner of the globe, and the innovations that these teachers are delivering for students to really change lives.

The Partners in Learning Global Forum is the culmination of a year-long series of progressively competitive national and regional events that recognize the very best in innovative teaching and learning.  The educators that made it to the Global Forum were selected from almost 250,000 teachers and schools that started the process.  During the event, educators attended professional development workshops, collaborated on learning activities, heard from a wide range of amazing keynote speakers, and presented their schools and classroom projects.  At the end of the week, we welcomed our 18 new Mentor Schools and recognized 18 classroom projects as the most innovative in the world in 6 different categories. (see picture below of all of the winners)

This year's event was attended by 800 educators from 75 countries and served as a reminder of the opportunities before us, the inspiration that teachers can provide, and the need we have to celebrate a community of great leaders.

I humbly congratulate the teachers recognized as winners, but all the teachers in attendance are certainly winners. You can see some great examples of the energy and collaboration from event in the video links below, as well as by reading the reflections from some of the participants and judges recounting their experiences here and here. News coverage in New Zealand, India, and Ireland also shows you how these teachers are being celebrated in their local communities.

We are already getting questions about next year’s Partners in Learning 2012 Forum, which will be held in Athens, Greece in November 2012.  National and Regional events will be held throughout the year around the globe. You can stay up to date on local events by connecting with us on the Partners in Learning Facebook page and following us on Twitter (@MicrosoftPIL).

2011 Global Forum Daily Recap videos:
Day 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u2GdFfINO0
Day 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBKBo1GflN4
Day 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md9FGBzx6dg
Day 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyC5G0gHXso
Winners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNO52unYzPU

Back in September, I had the opportunity to attend the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting (see blog post here) where Microsoft made a new commitment to help bring digital access to one million low-income families in the United States. I was able to speak with Stan Emert, the president of Rainmakers.TV about Microsoft’s Shape the Future initiative that is the program driving increased technology access around the world. Check out the conversation below.

Since CGI, Microsoft has announced a new partnership with the FCC where we will support the “Connect to Compete” initiative and provide a portal for free online job skills training, assessments and basic digital literacy. Beginning in 15 states over the next three years, we will also expand our Microsoft IT Academy program and deploy Microsoft Office training through our retail stores, local schools, libraries and community college.

We believe technology can be an enabler to obtaining a great education and I’m excited about what the future holds and can’t wait to see the impact we start making in 2012. 

(Sharing my blog post today from the Official Microsoft Blog)

Today, I’m pleased to announce that more than 22 million people now use Live@edu, representing a 100 percent year-over-year increase. That’s more than 27,000 new people signing up every day, making Live@edu the most widely used cloud productivity service for education. New schools using Live@edu include: U.S. institutions such as Southern State Community College in Ohio, New Mexico State, Florida State, University of Colorado at Boulder; Kings College London and Royal National College for the Blind, located in the United Kingdom; the Bahrain Ministry of Education and the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education in the Middle East.

Just as cloud computing is changing the world of work, it’s having a profound impact in education, and it’s changing the landscape of learning. Academia is often an early adopter of new technologies, and I’m seeing schools around the globe lead the way in the transition to the cloud and digital learning environments.

While the rise of digital content creates huge opportunities for immersive learning environments and access to ubiquitous computing devices anytime, anywhere… the impact and the need for cloud integration is growing, and Live@edu, Microsoft’s free hosted collaboration and communications service, helps schools get there faster.

As the popularity of Live@edu continues to grow, schools such as Georgia State University, Dundee University in Scotland, East Norfolk Sixth Form College in England, the Inzai City Board of Education and Wakayama City Board of Education in Japan are benefiting from Office 365, Microsoft’s next generation cloud productivity service. Office 365 combines the power of Office with the capabilities of enterprise-class cloud services used by the world’s leading companies – and includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online.

Office 365 for education will include everything available in Office 365 for enterprises, helping teachers save time and manage their curricula while giving students access to tools that make learning more inspiring, relevant and collaborative. Schools can benefit from Exchange Online today by signing up for Live@edu. Microsoft is also onboarding qualified education customers to Office 365 in order to take advantage of Exchange Online and Lync Online. We will add SharePoint Online capabilities in 2012 when Office 365 for education is broadly available.

There’s no question the cloud has become an important asset for schools and universities. It enhances the educational experience and fosters 24/7 learning across multiple devices, while enabling skills development to help students prepare for their futures.

I’m excited to be in Washington, D.C. this week among more than 700 of the most talented educators and school leaders from around the world at the 7th annual Partners in Learning Global Forum. This is one of my favorite weeks every year at Microsoft, because it’s actually happening with teachers…real people who are using technology in education to impact children’s lives and advancing students’ interest in learning. The opportunity to get inspired by, to learn from and to hear stories from teachers is amazing.

All these teachers have competed at local and regional events and have earned a spot to compete for 18 Global Innovative Educator Awards. Some of these teachers are leaving their country or village for the first time ever. One gentleman from Latin America had to walk five miles to catch a bus that was another three hour ride just to get to the airport to fly to D.C. These people are heroes back at home and we are so proud to put them on a stage and applaud their accomplishments.

The Partners in Learning Global Forum is not only a celebration of teachers, but it is also a demonstration of the need to cultivate innovative teaching practices. We not only need to help teachers get access to resources and best practices to make them more effective, but we also need to uplift their roles as leaders in their classrooms, their school, their state and country. We hope that in many ways this will help address what will be a huge epidemic of teacher shortages in the near future. The United Nations estimates that another eight million teachers need to be recruited into the profession by 2015. That is a huge gap. What we need to do is support existing teachers to advance and become leaders in their community and really apply the best education models for delivering results and use these teachers as an inspiration for others to enter the profession.

Teachers play a critical role in preparing the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow that will ultimately improve the world economy. A recent McKenzie study estimates by the end of this decade, two-thirds of the jobs that will be created don't even exist today. New skills will be needed if people are to fill these new and even existing jobs. To help people obtain these new skills we have to start with educators…dedicated individuals who, through their own work, prepare and empower the future generations.  If we want great students, we need to start by investing in great teachers.

One of the things we’ve been doing more with Partners in Learning is embracing the connection and working with like-minded partners to drive effective partnerships and scale opportunities to make a difference in education. We believe that when business needs merge with social responsibility, and you bring together organizations that are equally passionate about education…this can be a successful formula for preparing the next generation of leaders.

Today, we announced new partnerships with the U.S. Department of Education, the British Council and the Smithsonian Institution to not only encourage more people to enter the teaching profession, but to improve the quality and access in education and training and resources around the world.

I encourage you to join our global community of education thought leaders to share your best practices and learn from others. We must all work together to make sure every child has access to a quality education, and ultimately change our world for the better.

The Partners in Learning program is a flagship program for Microsoft's work in education, and one of the things that I'm most proud of as a Microsoft employee. It started eight years ago and is the company’s 10-year $500 million commitment to invest, support and celebrate the work of teachers around the world, as well as helps school gain better access to technology and provide teacher professional development.

Through Partners in Learning we've been working with over 115 countries to celebrate teachers, to mine and identify innovation, and to scale the progress of change in education more rapidly all over the world. We've learned a lot, we've had tremendous partnerships from stakeholders in countries that we support, and we continue to be amazed and inspired by the great work and the great lessons we've seen from innovative teachers and innovative schools around the world.

One area I've always wanted to recognize is the need and the value that higher education institutions can have…to spotlight the innovation that's happening on university and college campuses, and to support the exploration of faculty using technology in new ways.

I’m excited to expand our Partners in Learning work to now include higher education institutions.  Not only will this allow our higher education institutions to act as partners to scale their great work, but they can learn from other models, help expand innovative teaching and join a community of faculty members and committed education leaders. Because higher education institutions are producing our next generation of teachers…we believe faculty are critical stakeholders to engage in this conversation, so larger group leverage the innovative teaching work that's happening around the world to influence what we're teaching our next generation of teachers in university campuses.

We will also be working with the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) to provide universities, especially senior leadership, with guidance and opportunities to collaborate with colleagues around the world on critical issues that can help them be better prepared for the future of running their organization and preparing their students for the demands of the 21st century.

The newly expanded Partners in Learning for Higher Education program will focus on Academic Summits, a Teacher Education Initiative and the Higher Education Consortium. Check out our new website to learn more on how you can get involved.

One of the things on the mind of government officials and education leaders around the world is how to raise the quality and impact of teaching and innovative teaching practices. The use of technology to drive change and innovation in classrooms is at the center of the debate, and we see invest in teacher training and support the use of technology more actively. We’ve been working with UNESCO to expand teacher competencies to not only elevate the profession of teaching, but to create a foundation for others to model effective teaching practices.

At UNESCO’s General Conference this week, Microsoft is proud to be part of a consortium of information and communication technology (ICT) companies supporting the launch of the second version of the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, a global initiative helping teachers and schools maximize the use of ICT for learning. An overview can be found here.

In 2008, UNESCO and industry partners including Microsoft, CISCO and Intel launched a framework to help teachers integrate and harness the power of ICT for their students, called the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT). The ICT-CFT fits within a holistic approach to improving the use of ICT in education and the development of 21st Century teaching and learning – starting with identifying the complex skills students need for success today, ensuring teaching is measureable, and supporting teachers as they develop and use the innovative pedagogical practices required for students to develop these skills.

As governments create long-term strategies for coming out of the economic recession, and the focus turns to job creation and skills, ensuring today’s students have the skills needed to compete for the jobs of tomorrow is critical for every country’s competitiveness.

At Microsoft, we see this as a three-step approach with three important questions to answer: What skills are needed and how do we measure them? What are the practices required for teachers to teach and students to learn these skills? And how can leaders expand the adoption of these teaching practices and competencies across districts or a whole system? Microsoft has partnered in the research and development needed to address each of these needs.

The first step identifies which 21st Century skills are important and how they can be measured, helping define the assessment and content required to ensure the next generation’s future employability and competitiveness. The ATC21S consortium, a partnership between Microsoft, Intel and CISCO and the University of Melbourne, has worked with hundreds of researchers around the world to define these complex skills and develop new assessments to measure them. The research will provide governments, inter-governmental agencies and content providers with skill definitions, sample assessments and guidance on how to measure and teach complex skills such as Collaboration, Problem Solving and ICT Literacy-Learning in Digital Networks.

The next step is research and development to identify the teaching practices and learning experiences that will allow students to develop these skills. Microsoft is sponsoring the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research project aimed at figuring out the most effective and innovative teaching practices to ensure students are prepared for life and work in a globally connected interdependent world. ITL Research, which is designed by the non-profit research institute SRI with advisory from UNESCO, the OECD and others, is helping school systems define the teaching practices needed to help students effectively develop 21st century skills. And through Microsoft’s Partners in Learning initiative, the methods developed through ITL have been offered directly and at no cost to schools around the world to measure their own innovative teaching and learning. For more information, see http://www.pilsr.com.

And finally, through the UNESCO, CISCO, Intel and Microsoft partnership, the third element – scaling competencies – is addressed by the UNESCO ICT-CFT. This partnership has established a framework providing education districts and systems with a means to scale the teacher competencies required for new, innovative teaching practices maximizing the use of ICT in the classroom and for administrative use. Importantly, due to UNESCO’s support, the ICT-CFT has global reach – delivering a common framework to measure and develop teacher competencies that support effective use of ICT for learning for school systems around the world.

While each step in this process is important, the UNESCO ICT-CFT initiative is unique in its ability to provide much needed guidance for systems to have a common understanding of the ICT teaching competencies. As with all partners involved in the creation of the second version of the ICT-CFT, Microsoft is excited to launch the next phase of an initiative that is benefiting students globally and preparing the next generations for a bright future.

As a gamer and someone who's excited about the potential for gamification in education and the way in which we can apply incentives and other features of gaming to the learning process, I am a huge fan of Kinect. I'm a fan of the opportunities it's going to open up for new user interfaces, the opportunities it has to engage students in new ways of learning, and the ways in which it can actually drive innovation in creating new experiences in the classroom and beyond.

With the 1-year anniversary of Kinect this week, we are celebrating “The Kinect Effect” – all the unexpected, innovative and exciting ways people are using the controller-free game device that we could have never imagined as the intended use. It is transforming the ways people think about technology in healthcare, education, art and many other industries.

We've already seen tremendous enthusiasm and usage of Kinect among academics and hobbyists tinkering with the Kinect for Windows SDK. And today, Microsoft announced that we will make available a commercial version of the Kinect for Windows SDK early next year. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is one of the many of educational organizations among the 200 applicants in the pilot program building applications using Kinect right now. The Kinect SDK will provide toolsets for inspiration of great ideas and great applications of this new technology, and I'm excited to see the impact.

A lot of work has been done in Microsoft Research (MSR) to extend the ways in which we think about physical reality, gesture control, as well as how it interacts with the real world.  Kinect is a great example of a technology that's pushing the edge and demonstrating not only what's here today but what's possible for the future. This video below extends that type of thinking in a project called Holodesk, which uses a hologram and a transparent display to create a synthesis between the physical world and the digital world in a way in which you can manipulate objects, collaborate, as well as integrate physical objects with virtual objects in space. The potential for this in education…simulating, modeling, and looking at three-dimensional objects is exciting.

What’s next? Check out the video below for some of our ideas, but we’re hoping you’ll join us invent where Kinect goes next. 

As schools and teachers continue to use digital assets for collaboration, homework assignments, and more, learning management systems and tools such as Moodle have grown in popularity in classrooms.

ELEARNINGFORCE manages to take many of the same features and tools requested by customers and built a solution around Microsoft SharePoint as a toolset.  This not only provides greater range of functionality and power but overall cost savings as it relates to administrative costs, management, etc.

Kelvin Hicks and I had an opportunity to talk about his thoughts on some of the broader trends as it relates to technology and education, and the growing role collaboration is having on the education process in classrooms and virtually. Take a listen…

In celebration of World Teachers’ Day, I’m excited to congratulate the 2012 class of Mentor and Pathfinder schools joining the Microsoft Partners in Learning (PIL) Schools Program. These schools and the teachers behind them are a constant source of inspiration for their steadfast dedication and passion to drive positive change in education.

The 82 schools selected from 61 countries provide a glimpse of the best innovations happening in education around the world. Selected through a rigorous application and evaluation process, these schools were chosen based on their global examples of inspirational leadership, proven records of innovation, and successful implementations of change. The Microsoft Partners in Learning Schools Program was built on findings from 12 pioneering innovative schools that have each taken a unique approach to assessing, improving, and evaluating their learning environments to successfully move beyond the limits of the classroom and traditional learning models. There are now more than 7,000 schools in this program. You can see and learn more about the Pathfinder and Mentor schools on this interactive Bing map.

While all of these schools face different challenges and opportunities, their implementations of innovation in the classroom have global relevance that we can all learn from. Based on the notion that teachers cannot be successful innovators unless their school systems support inventive teaching and learning, the PIL Schools program helps school leaders develop a vision to transform their school community into an environment that fosters 21st century learning. Through the mentorship program, schools can share successes as well as search for solutions by tapping the global intelligence of some of the most notably successful schools, and school leaders, in the world. The program aims to discover, share and scale best practice and develop models and assets that any school can use to help students reach their full potential. The video below gives an overview of three of our Mentor Schools from Colombia, Finland, and South Africa.

It takes great leadership to drive great change in any organization, and especially in education there is an increasing need to elevate women into leadership positions. UNESCO established World Teachers’ Day back in 1994 to celebrate the profession and to promote international standards for teaching. This year’s theme is “teachers for gender equality. “ Earlier this year, Microsoft and UNESCO entered a new partnership to address the unequal education opportunities and low literacy rates for women and girls across the world. We hope that today’s spotlight on the importance of teachers for children’s successful futures renews and spurs  more discussions and actions to open up equal opportunities for women and girls to access a quality education. For more on that, please read UNESCO’s blog post on the Microsoft On The Issues blog.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of combining my personal passion with my profession on stage at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting to announce that Microsoft will bring digital access to one million students from low-income families. The video of our announcement can be found here. (Photo courtesy of Clinton Global Initiative)

Microsoft is extending its global Shape the Future program to the United States. Shape the Future has already provided digital access to 10 million students around the world, and is a continuation of Bill Gates’ original vision of a PC for every desktop and home. Now, through Shape the Future, Microsoft is working with public and private partners to ensure access to technology for youth from low-income households through broadband Internet access at a reduced cost and discounted hardware, software and educational training software.

Joining me in making this commitment to Shape the Future at CGI’s Annual Meeting were some of the public and private partners that work with us to make this vision a reality: the FCC as a public-sector supporter and the National Federation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and One Economy as our non-profit commitment supporters.

In speaking with school leaders, there’s one thing I’ve heard time and time again: Students without Internet access at home face an uphill battle in school that affects their academic progress as well as their opportunities to graduate and get good jobs. Below is an infographic that helps illustrate this challenge.

This can end up being a challenge for the community as a whole. As I’ve said before, access to technology should be a right for every student – not a privilege – and correcting this inequity is something I feel strongly about. Never has this been more true, when technology is increasingly becoming a requirement of many jobs (50 percent of today’s jobs require technology skills or digital literacy. This is expected to increase to 77 percent in the next 10 years) and the number of Americans in poverty has hit a record high.

The impact of 9.5 million U.S. students not having digital access at home not only impacts that individual student, but has lasting economic and social consequences. In school, these digitally excluded students experience a graduation rate 6 percent to 8 percent behind their connected peers. A recent report from The Arnold Group calculates that this disparity costs the U.S. economy $1.2 trillion over the working life of these students. Society carries this burden in terms of lost earning potential, lost tax revenues, poorer access to preventative health information and reduced efficiencies of social programs.

Digital inclusion not only empowers our students, but represents a real opportunity for cities and states to create local jobs, improve economic growth and increase their region’s competitiveness. This is at the core of Microsoft’s belief that an excellent education is a socioeconomic and workforce imperative.

Shape the Future is one of the initiatives that I’m most proud to work on, and this announcement represents why. Putting technology in the hands of a student who did not have access is a powerful step on the path leading to employability, economic opportunity and a better future.

To read more about Microsoft’s commitment to Shape the Future, and what we’re doing with our partners to address the issue of digitally excluded students and their families, please see Tuesday’s press release.

As an American and a New Yorker, the impact of the events on 9/11 has certainly had a deep personal impact on me.

I was actually traveling to visit schools in Florida the morning of 9/11. I left from Boston’s Logan International Airport, the same airport where two of the planes unknowingly carrying terrorists also departed. While I was half asleep, the pilot interrupted with the announcement that we were making an emergency landing and the plane quickly descended straight down and my life flashed before my eyes. At the time, no one was certainly thinking about a terrorist attack. We ended up landing in Charlotte, greeted by a flight attendant who said, “Welcome to Charlotte.”

The events of 9/11 have changed how we think of the world and how we appreciate our freedoms and our safety. It’s also changed the way in which we celebrate the heroes in our world…our military, firefighters, doctors, law enforcement officials, rescue workers, etc. And certainly I count teachers in that class as well.

I’ve long believed that the reverence and distinction we apply to heroes…and in many cases the way in which we celebrate military fanfare with symbolic medals of distinction…all need to be appreciated for the work that they do. When I think about 9/11, I think about celebrating and thanking the heroes who work tirelessly who help others, and I celebrate teachers in the same way.

(Photo Courtesy: Mark Lennihan/AP)

I started the conversation a few days ago about the evolution of digital publishing in education. As publishers move to digital text and reading, online storage and digital libraries are becoming increasingly popular as a destination path.  The cloud, in addition to providing tremendous opportunities to scale, can create a great opportunity for publishers to use cloud storage and access to create unlimited anywhere anytime access for students, and create easier and more powerful digital libraries.

Microsoft Azure is increasingly a tool that publishers are looking towards for cloud storage and access. Cambridge University Press is one of the leading publishers looking to the cloud for digital publishing and content. I spoke with Ed Collins there who shared some of his thoughts on how they are thinking about using Microsoft technology to extend the reach of their content. Check out the video below.

One of the things schools are increasingly looking towards is the use of technology and data to create an opportunity for transformation and optimization of student learning opportunities. I’ve blogged previously about how schools are using data better to drive more successful student outcomes, and how partners are building new solutions to help them.

Tribal is one of our partners who is helping schools enable transformation by the use of data and integrated systems to create both business intelligent frameworks for teachers to more effectively assess student performance…but more effectively use technology to drive engaging and personalized learning opportunities for students.

I had a great conversation with Tribal recently about how they have been working with 700 schools in England to uncover pockets of excellence that is happening in some schools…and how their technology solution is helping to scale those best practices to other schools.

As technology in higher education continues to evolve and become more mission critical to operations across systems and learning environments…administrators are seeking new ways to evolve their current platforms. They’re also looking to embrace cloud technologies, mobile devices, as well as creating new opportunities for faculty and students to leverage technology.

One of our education partners, SunGard, is working through new ways to not only think globally around technology solutions but to create a balance of existing and emerging technology systems to create opportunities for higher education to move forward.

Brian Knotts, Senior Vice President, Global Architecture, at SunGard shared his thoughts with me in a great conversation featured here in this video.

One of the most exciting trends happening in education today is the evolution of digital publishing. Publishers around the world are starting to embrace not only new reading modalities but new form factors and devices to create both interactive and enriching experiences for students and educators.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is on the forefront of this and is working towards creating an engaging opportunity for educators and students to leverage content in exciting new ways.

Tony Clancy, Vice President of Technology Strategy and Architecture at HMH, and I had a great conversation about the potential, and the work that HMH is working on to deliver this in the coming years. 

During my visits I often have the great fortune of seeing best practices truly transforming schools and classrooms.  I get to hear and learn from educators who are making magic happen for their students…and while I’m always inspired and energized…I am often challenged by the recognition that these projects largely do not scale and often will not be easily sustained or replicated beyond the project creator. Scaling innovation in education is a global issue and something we all must work to solve and identifying innovative teaching practices and the impact that they can have on student outcomes is a great place to start.

As people all over the world are talking about the need to transform education to align with the realities of life and work in the 21stCentury…we need to remember this is not just about the effective use of technology but about developing kids who are deeply engaged in the learning process and taking the initiative to learn.

How we make this transformation happen in schools and classrooms and how we measure success remains a critical priority.  As part of our commitment to education transformation, we initiated the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research project (www.itlresearch.com) to contribute information and policy insights on where and how effective education transformation is taking place around the world.  ITL Research is a multiyear global research program designed to investigate the factors that promote the transformation of teaching practices and the impact those changes have on students’ learning outcomes across a broad range of country contexts.

We are working with global and local education leaders such as UNESCO and local Ministries of Education to include them in the research process and will be sharing data and results openly with all research partners and with the broader academic education community.  The goal here is to recognize the importance of innovative teaching practices, inspire others to commitment to scaling innovation and creating a foundation for holistic education transformation.

Another exciting component of this project is the opportunity for individual schools and leaders to take part.  Microsoft’s Partners in Learning School Research is a self-assessment survey research system that helps educators and school leaders understand and measure innovative teaching practices that develop the skills students need for life and work in the 21st Century.  It’s an incredibly powerful tool that will give individual leaders an opportunity to measure and identify innovative teaching practices and compare and measure against the global survey results.  The process is also very easy to administer…

1.  A school leader signs up on this website.
2.  A research leader from the school sends out the survey to all educators and school leaders in the school.
3.  Each educator and school leader takes a 15 to 20 minute online survey about innovative teaching practices.
4.  Once the surveys have been completed, a research report based on the responses is sent to the research leader within 24 hours, who can then share it.
5.  The report shows measures of innovative teaching practices in the school and examples of innovative teaching practices.
6.  The surveys can be repeated each year to track and measure progress.

Visit www.pilsr.com to learn more about this project and how your school can take part.  Maria’s video below does a great job of providing an overview of our work here and the opportunity ahead.

Technology is having a transformative impact around the world. I wanted to share another great story, this time from the Abu Dhabi Center for Autism in the United Arab Emirates, where children with autism are benefitting from new technology form factors and user interfaces in assistive learning scenarios.

In the video below, you can see how the Maestro speech communication device built on Windows 7 works. It was developed to give individuals of all ages and abilities living with speech and language disabilities the ability to communicate using a sleek, stylish tool that allows the individual to blend in with their peers.  Messages are composed by selecting vocabulary on the screen. Depending upon the individual’s abilities and needs, he or she may compose messages using symbols, words, phrases or letters – singularly or in combination.

The Maestro’s InterAACt language framework presents vocabulary in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the child, providing context when needed, and ensures that the child has the right words for every situation. InterAACt not only supports face-to-face interactions, but also communication by e-mail, text message and phone. The Maestro’s hardware also individuals to access the device via touch and alternative access methods such as scanning, eye gaze, joystick and Morse code.

The Maestro communication tool does a great job of removing barriers to communication by giving children with communication challenges the ability to effectively and efficiently communicate with others.  And even better…it gives people the ability to independently initiate conversations!

UPDATED July 18th at 8:00 a.m. PT with URL to White House press release.

Recognizing it will take all of us…schools, parents, guardians, foundations, governments and corporate partners to meet the challenges facing our kids today…we are honored to be invited to meet with President Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Senior White House Advisors, and industry leaders,  for a roundtable discussion on education reform on Monday.  We are hopeful that gatherings such as this will continue to elevate the conversation and remind us all that providing every child a quality educational experience must be a right of this country, not a privilege. Continued investment in education is the key ingredient in creating a skilled workforce that will grow and sustain our national economy. (See White House press release here and Wall Street Journal story here.)
 
At Microsoft, we believe we must continue to create more engaging and effective learning environments that result in improved student performance, and reflect the digital nature of students’ lives. However, all too often we have seen schools implement technology for the sake of technology. So today, we are announcing a $15M investment in 3 key areas of innovation – increasing engagement, managing information, and supporting educators.
 
Around the world, every day, students are engaged in playing games. These digital exercises provide us insight into their motivations and passions. And yet, our classrooms and content take little advantage of this information. With this new investment, Microsoft will support research and development in understanding and creating learning environments that integrate the characteristics of gaming that kids are passionate about. Just imagine…every day a child will fail at a game, and yet keep coming back to try again. But in our classrooms, for most, once a child experiences failure, they shut down. We need to bring the same passion they bring to their digital lives into our classrooms. This investment will help our partners and educators do just that.
 
Microsoft also recognizes that with the growth of both informal and formal learning opportunities, we must do a better job capturing and sharing our learning artifacts and achievements. To support this need, Microsoft will invest in the development of a digital learning archive. This will allow kids the ability to capture their learning artifacts, achievements, and various other types of data in a secure repository, allowing them to gather in one place their lifelong learning record, and share this information with those they choose.
 
While we believe technology can be the accelerator to make schools more productive and more effective, it is no silver bullet. We recognize that every day, teachers are challenged to bring the right tools and resources into their classrooms, and so we are not only investing in technology and the platform, but in the innovation of human capital as well. Therefore, over the next 3 years, Microsoft is committing to train more than 150 thousand educators in the U.S. to elevate their skills so they can benefit from these new technologies. We will also provide access to new professional learning communities, best practices and training to every teacher in the United States through a new Partners in Learning Network.
 
For more than 25 years, Microsoft has worked with teachers and schools worldwide to improve education by using technology to engage, explore and create. Today’s $15M investment builds on the company’s recent education commitments to help increase the number of Washington State students earning bachelor’s degrees in high-demand STEM fields, investments to improve access to technology in Los Angeles and San Francisco, our annual investment in U.S. Partners in Learning and many more totaling over $90M.

I’ve spent some time in Los Angeles this week at Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) meeting with partners, talking about business opportunities to build on the Microsoft platform to deliver new solutions to the education market and celebrating their successes. This year, Desire2Learn won the 2011 Microsoft Public Sector Education Partner of the Year Award for delivering innovative solutions that directly address customer challenges.

Desire2Learn is recognized as a global eLearning solution provider and I'm excited about the work they are doing across the Microsoft platform. The Desire2Learn environment is a complete web-based suite of easy-to-use tools and functionality built exclusively on Microsoft Windows and SQL Server. Other Microsoft technologies integrated—or soon to be integrated—in their products include: Live@edu, Windows Phone 7, Lync, Office 365, and SharePoint Server.  We see Desire2Learn really delivering a broad range of solutions that connect a range of Microsoft technologies in real ways that schools want to use them in terms of providing flexible connections to learning management applications, providing a very collaborative stack, and building it on affordable and flexible technology that scales with schools.

Earlier, I had the chance to speak with Jeremy Auger, Desire2Learn’s Chief Operating Officer. One of the things we talked about was the way in which they're using the Microsoft platform to build very custom solutions for schools, that they're taking what they've learned and feedback from schools who have used learning management systems before and filling the gaps and responding to customers’ wish lists.