Microsoft Education Program Heads to the Middle East

Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Partners in Learning program, which helps educators and school leaders connect, collaborate, create and share so that students can realize their greatest potential, is expanding its program to the Middle East in order to train more teachers and extend training opportunities to students.

One of the most important aspects of the program is the training of teachers in the use of education technology, according to Azza Shinnawy, Education lead for Microsoft Gulf.

"We believe that technology is not an end, it is of no value if no one knows how to use it, so the whole value about teacher training is that we collaborate with governments to train teachers how to best use the technologies and exploit them to the maximum to be able to deliver them in an exciting and innovative way that will impact positively on learning outcomes for students," said Shinnawy in an ITP.net article.

Teachers all around the world need to be trained, and not just once but through ongoing sessions, according to Microsoft. The program prides itself on offering professional development to government officials, school leaders and educators to help them take new approaches to teaching and learning, using technology to help students develop 21st century skills.

"The technology today is different from tomorrow or the year after, so it is a dynamic engagement that all companies, which have vested interests to have the education community benefit from their technologies, have the mandate to train teachers, not just to give the product to educators and leave it to the entity to figure out how to use it, so on this front Microsoft is totally committed," Shinnawy said.

The Partners in Learning program has cast its eyes particularly to the Middle East and is currently working in collaboration with Middle Eastern governments in getting them to adopt the program. Shinnawy said the governments in the Middle East region are very keen to innovate and introduce new technologies and ways of learning that will benefit students.

"They [governments] are privileged in terms of ability to expose their students to the latest technology that can really support them in joining the labour market, so on this front, they are doing a very pro-active job in terms of ensuring students, whether they are in the K-12 or university and higher education, go into the labour market fully exposed to what is there," said Shinnawy.

In other education technology news, EverFi, Inc., the leading education technology platform addressing growing state mandates in new subject areas including financial literacy, student loan management, digital literacy and alcohol prevention, has made two important additions in its advisory board.

Nick Ayers, former executive director of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), and Nathan Daschle, former executive director of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), have joined EverFi’s advisory board.

EverFi officials said these two professionals will help EverFi launch statewide programs which are directed towards providing innovative tools and technology to teachers and school districts, particularly in low-income communities across all 50 states.