More than 700 teachers, school leaders, education leaders, and government officials from more than 70 countries attended this year's Partners in Learning Global Forum -- an action-packed week of education workshops, inspiring networking events, awards, and announcements by Microsoft.
Special announcements at the event included a new collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education to inspire and recruit teachers, a partnership with the British Council to drive access to education around the world, and the continuation of the Shout program with the Smithsonian Institution and TakingITGlobal — this year’s focus will be on water conservation and caretaking.
Winners!
Eighteen recipients of the Global Forum Educator Awards were announced at the event. This year’s winners were selected from more than 115 projects, narrowed from more than 200,000 applicants.
Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom
Winner: Chris Clay (New Zealand): “Linking Educational Accomplishments to Real-World Needs”
First Runner-Up: Doreen McHale (Ireland): “Birds of Bray”
Second Runner-Up: Tessa Van Zadelhoff (Netherlands): “A Travel Agency in our Classroom”
Collaboration
Winner: Doug Bergman, Johnny Kissko, Louis Zulli, Donna Thomas and Margaret Noble (United States): “When Fish Fly”
First Runner-Up: Rui Silva (Portugal): “Eco-Partnerships”
Second Runner-Up: Zhao Yi (China): “Jack Magic Vegetables Company”
Knowledge Building and Critical Thinking
Winner: Margaret Noble and David Stahnke (United States): “Illuminated Mathematics”
First Runner-Up: Athena Hain-Saunders (Australia): “Real Science Beyond the Classroom”
Second Runner-Up: Kara Barker and Roger Lister (Sweden): “Forensic Science”
Innovation in Challenging Contexts
Winner: Sandra Caldas Saragoca (Brazil): “Education Beyond Walls”
First Runner-Up: Gareth Ritter (United Kingdom): “Interactive Resources Made by Pupils for Pupils”
Second Runner-Up: Sangeet Shukramani (India): “One Earth … Our Earth — Together We Can Make A Difference”
Cutting-Edge Use of Microsoft Technology for Learning
Winner: Louis Zulli Jr, (United States): “Center for Advanced Technologies News and Information Portal (CATNIP)”
First Runner-Up: Steven Ronsijn (Belgium): “genY”
Second Runner-Up: Zainuddin Zakaria (Malaysia): “Kodu in Classrooms Around the World”
Educators’ Choice
Best Practice: Carlos Antonio Carlo (El Salvador): “I Want to Make Movies”
First Runner-Up: Marina Vasileva (Macedonia): “Grandma’s Games”
Second Runner-Up: Wen-Ching Yang and I-Fa Su (Taiwan): “Travel the World Together from the Bazhang River”
Next year's event
The 2012 Partners in Learning Global Forum will be in Athens, Greece, the first time the event will be held in the Central Europe region. Country and regional competitions for next year’s awards will take place beginning this month. Interested teachers should contact a local Microsoft office.
Past events
- 2010 – Cape Town, South Africa
- 2009 – Salvador, Brazil
- 2008 – Hong Kong SAR
- 2007 – Helsinki, Finland
- 2006 – Philadelphia, PA, USA
- 2005 – Redmond, WA, USA
