Microsoft renewed its commitment to an education program called “Partners in Learning” … Training also gives software exposure around the globe…
“At its Government Leaders Forum in Berlin on Wednesday, Microsoft plans to announce that it is reinvesting in its Partners In Learning program, a global effort to provide software and training to teachers, students, and schools…”
Frankfurt –– Microsoft Corp. will spend US$235.5 million in schools worldwide over the next five years, as part of the plan to help bridge the digital divide, and triple the number of students and teachers trained in its software programs to up to 270 million by 2013, the company said on Tuesday.
“In Berlin on Wednesday, Bill Gates is expected to announce a five-year, $235.5 million investment in the company’s “Partners in Learning” program.”
The world’s biggest software company said it aimed to reach 270 million people with the second stage of its Partners in Learning program, three times as many as it reached with a similar investment over the last five years.
The company is expanding the program beyond kindergarten through 12th grade to colleges and universities. Microsoft says the new money will bring its total investment in the program to about $500 million over 10 years.
Microsoft works with governments and non-governmental organizations around the world to help put computers such as Intel’s “Classmate” laptop into schools, train teachers and influence education policy.
“The company says it hopes to achieve its first major milestone – reaching the next billion of the 5 billion who still have little or no access to technology – by 2015.”
“Investing in education is the best way to help young people achieve their potential,” outgoing Chairman and Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in a statement.
Microsoft says the goal is to boost educational and economic opportunities, and collaboration among educators, in areas with limited access to technology. In its first five years, Microsoft said the program reached 90 million people in 100 countries.
The money, part of the Partners in Learning program, will go toward training and skills programs in areas with limited IT training and equipment, said Orlando Ayala, vice president of the Unlimited Potential Group, part of Microsoft’s education division, on Tuesday.
The announcement is one of several expected to come from the Government Leaders Forum (GLF), an annual conference where Microsoft courts educators and government officials. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates will keynote at the GLF on Wednesday in Berlin.
“It is very important that some of these strategies that have, in the past, been characterized as pure citizenship get really married with opportunity down the road,” Ayala said. “That opportunity hopefully comes to everybody. In the case of Microsoft, yeah, absolutely, hopefully down the road we expect that, if people build the skills in our software, they will continue to use it, they will be consumers.”
Among other efforts, Partners in Learning provides training and certification for teachers, as well as an online gathering place where teachers can collaborate and share new curriculum ideas.
“We believe it is really the cornerstone of economic opportunity,” said Ayala. “Our software has been an important enabler of economic wealth.”
Microsoft’s investment shows how important it views developing markets to its future business. Last year, Microsoft introduced the Student Innovation Suite, which includes the XP Starter Edition plus educational applications, for $3 for qualifying countries.
The company is trying to fend off the Linux operating system and other open-source technologies in developing nations and the rest of the world. One of the most prominent initiatives for computing in emerging markets, the One Laptop Per Child program, uses Linux but has been working with Microsoft to offer Windows XP, as well.
“I think as a company we welcome choice,” Ayala said. “Frankly, we welcome the competition.”
The company’s educational funding comes with a hitch: “Of course, that includes the fact they the schools use Windows,” Ayala said.
Microsoft, which is keen to have its software more widely adopted in the public sector, also announced a new range of online services for so-called e-government on Tuesday.
The software, due to go on sale later this year, promises to help the public access government services such as community Web sites or case management tools over the Internet.
It will be able to be integrated into local and regional governments’ existing technology platforms, Microsoft said.
Ayala highlighted several programs as recent highlights, including a Swedish teacher who partnered with a school in Madagascar to do a joint education project on biodiversity in Africa, and a robotics project in Malaysia where students created a mock disaster and used robotics to examine public safety issues.
In Columbia, Microsoft has a program in seven schools where students essentially do independent study on a laptop, using a curriculum that can move at exactly the student’s own pace. The program was quite controversial when it began five years ago, Ayala said. “Today those students are scoring better in the national tests than traditional students.”
“In the U.S., Microsoft is sponsoring the Philadelphia School of the Future, where students use tablet PCs instead of textbooks.”
Microsoft has recently made significant deals in developing areas. A non-governmental organization in Russia is buying 1 million units of the Student Innovation Suite over the next five years, Ayala said. The company is also supplying 50,000 units of the same software to Mexico and 150,000 to Libya, he said.
Partnering with local governments and nonprofits is an important component of the program, Ayala said. “We know that no single model is going to fit everybody.”
While Microsoft is nudging consumers and businesses in developed markets to use its latest Windows Vista operating system, XP will remain the OS the company supports for low-cost laptops such as the Asus Eee and Intel’s Classmate PC, Ayala said.
The reason is XP has a smaller footprint than Vista, Ayala said, referring to factors such as how much memory the OS uses and the size of the OS on a PC’s hard drive.
Also, Microsoft is campaigning to get its latest Office document format adopted as an international standard to help it win more business from the public sector, where it competes with increasing popular open-source software such as Linux.
The International Organization for Standardization has rejected Microsoft’s bid in a first round of voting but will meet again next month to decide the matter finally.