Bangkok,
29
July 2014 – Microsoft (Thailand) Limited and the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand’s leading non-governmental organizations, have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their long-running partnership to advance the capabilities of Thai youths. Under the two-year agreement, Microsoft will bring its world-class development initiatives, devices, productivity solutions, and award-winning mobile applications to the revolutionary academic environment at Mechai Pattana School in Buriram Province as well as a network of small community schools across Thailand.
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Population and Community Development Association and Microsoft expand educational development pact July 28, 2014 Acclaimed productivity and mobile solutions from Microsoft to enhance rural learning at Mechai Pattana School and network of small community schools. |
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Through this partnership, students, teachers, and local community members will gain access to Office 365 – an enterprise-class cloud productivity solution that delivers a safe and secure platform for education and collaboration – as well as proven, transformative development programs like Innovative Teachers, IT Academy, and YouthSpark. Additionally, initiatives like Virtual Mentoring and Student Internship provide unprecedented opportunities for students to take part in Microsoft activities in Thailand and better equip themselves for their future careers.
Mechai Pattana School will also receive the Microsoft Surface 2 tablets to provide students with access to educational content and productivity tools in a mobile, versatile manner. Furthermore, the agreement serves as the introduction of Microsoft Education Delivery and Nokia Data Gathering – two internationally-acclaimed mobile solutions that equip isolated schools and communities with quality educational content and tools in a pilot program. These innovations will be cascaded to a network of small schools under the Association of Small Community Schools of Thailand’s supervision with the goal of reaching out to 46 schools by September 2015.
“Microsoft has always believed in a holistic approach to transforming education, and the PDA’s work in this regard has been nothing short of exceptional,” said Haresh Khoobchandani, Managing Director, Microsoft (Thailand) Limited. “With this latest memorandum of understanding, we are bolstering the Association’s outstanding capacity to innovate with world-class devices and solutions for a safe and secure academic environment as well as support programs under the YouthSpark initiative, which has accelerated the development of over 8 million youths in Thailand and 300 million worldwide.”
As an organization dedicated to rural community empowerment, the PDA has striven to provide “life skills” development for hundreds of thousands of youths and community leaders across Thailand – including previous collaborations with Microsoft in ICT skills training and integration of advanced devices and services into various activities at Mechai Pattana School.
Mechai Viravaidya, PDA Chairman, said: “Our vision of education is to create a center of lifelong learning, not just for students but also members of their community. Mechai Pattana School is a representation of this vision. In addition to academic teaching under the standard curriculum, we also offer real-world expertise in various fields with the goal of developing students into capable, self-sustaining social entrepreneurs.”
“With internet-based learning and IT skills already playing an important role in our school, Microsoft’s innovative vision for education will help us open up even more opportunities to educate and innovate,” he added.
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Population and Community Development Association and Microsoft expand educational development pact July 28, 2014 Students, teachers, and local community members will gain access to Office 365 – an enterprise-class cloud productivity solution that delivers a safe and secure platform for education and collaboration |
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On top of Office 365 and various developmental initiatives, the agreement will also introduce mobile solutions developed by Microsoft Device to Thai schools. With Microsoft Education Delivery, teachers can use smartphones to access a repository of high-quality educational materials, download them to their devices, and display them on televisions or projectors in classes without requiring a constant internet connection. Nokia Data Gathering, meanwhile, lets teachers use their phones to efficiently collect various field data for further analysis.
“Both mobile solutions have been recognized globally as high-impact social innovations following successful deployments in communities across the globe,” said Tan Mei-Ling, Regional Lead for Corporate Social Investment, Initiatives, and Partnerships for Asia-Pacific, Microsoft Device. “Since its debut in 2004, Microsoft Education Delivery has reached out to 700,000 students and 16,000 teachers in 2,500 schools, spanning 12 countries. More than 300 organizations have adopted Nokia Data Gathering in various projects on 4 continents to address a wide range of social issues – from droughts and diseases to, in Thailand’s case, quality of education.”
The partnership with PDA is the latest step in Microsoft’s 20-year journey to educational transformation in Thailand under the vision of “Making 70 Million Lives Better.” The company recently entered a partnership with the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) to provide Office 365 access to 8 million students and 400,000 teachers across the country, while a Smart Classroom pilot program is currently under way at Suankularb Wittayalai Nonthaburi School and HRH Princess Soamsavali School.
“Technology is indisputably the driving force behind the next revolution in education, and we hope that our work with PDA will pave the way for smaller schools to benefit from the latest advances,” Khoobchandani concluded. “Students, no matter where they are, deserve the best in educational opportunities to realize their full potential”
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For further information, (press) please contact:
Thornthawat Thongnab or Sarayut Intarakosit
Hill+Knowlton Strategies Thailand
Tel: 0-2627-3501 ext. 106, 107
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]