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Global Forum 2011

Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum 2011

This year’s Global Forum, held November 7-10 in Washington D.C., was a great success hosting more than 700 educators from 70 countries.

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.

Category Winner First runner-up Second runner-up
Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom Chris Clay (New Zealand): "Linking Educational Accomplishments to Real-World Needs" Doreen McHale (Ireland): "Birds of Bray" Tessa Van Zadelhoff (Netherlands): "A Travel Agency in our Classroom"
Collaboration Doug Bergman, Johnny Kissko, Louis Zulli, Donna Thomas and Margaret Noble (United States): "When Fish Fly" Rui Silva (Portugal): "Eco-Partnerships" Zhao Yi (China): "Jack Magic Vegetables Company"
Knowledge Building and Critical Thinking Margaret Noble and David Stahnke (United States): "Illuminated Mathematics" Athena Hain-Saunders (Australia): "Real Science Beyond the Classroom" Kara Barker and Roger Lister (Sweden): "Forensic Science"
Innovation in Challenging Context Sandra Caldas Saragoca (Brazil): "Education Beyond Walls" Gareth Ritter (United Kingdom): "Interactive Resources Made by Pupils for Pupils" Sangeet Shukramani (India): "One Earth … Our Earth — Together We Can Make A Difference"
Cutting-Edge Use of Microsoft Technology for Learning Louis Zulli Jr, (United States): "Center for Advanced Technologies News and Information Portal (CATNIP)" Steven Ronsijn (Belgium): "genY" Zainuddin Zakaria (Malaysia): "Kodu in Classrooms Around the World"
Educators’ Choice Carlos Antonio Carlo (El Salvador): "I Want to Make Movies" Marina Vasileva (Macedonia): "Grandma’s Games" 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