Education Moves Into the 21st Century With the Help of Partners in Learning

The goal of Michigan Partners in Learning (MPiL) is to strengthen the state’s capacity to develop successful 21st Century educators and learners. Governor Jennifer Granholm first announced the four-year, up to $4 million grant, in 2004. Since then, the Michigan Department of Education and Microsoft have joined forces to develop and implement systemic programs addressing the state’s most critical educational and economic needs, such as the area of technology. Michigan is one of seven states working with Microsoft and local education communities.

Examples of 2004-05 successes include the development of new online materials providing more than 2,700 teachers training to help students reach Michigan’s Grade Level Content Expectation requirements and enhancing the MyDreamExplorer career development program (a Web site, located at www.mydreamexplorer.com, which will draw connections between curricula and careers to help students understand the relevance of their work in the classroom and realize their opportunities) with .NET technologies. Microsoft .NET is the Microsoft strategy for connecting systems, information, and devices through Web services so people can collaborate and communicate more effectively.

Current MPiL projects include:

• Project I: The Michigan Leadership Improvement Framework Endorsement (MI-LIFE). MI-LIFE is a professional learning program for administrators to
  increase leadership skills.
• Project II: CareerForward™ (cFWD)— Online course for all Michigan students. MPiL has developed an online course that will provide students and teachers a vehicle to meet the state’s new online learning experience requirement.

For more information on Partners in Learning, visit www.microsoft.com/uspil. For more information on MI-LIFE, visit www.mi-life.org. For more information on CareerForward, visit www.mivhs.org/careerforward or call (800) 393-6052.