A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Microsoft Corp.: Anytime Anywhere Learning Program

Microsoft believes that the single most important use of technology is to improve education. This belief is demonstrated through its vision of and continuing efforts to help build a global "Connected Learning Community" in which all students, educators, and parents have access to technology and the tools and skills to support learning today and for a lifetime.

Microsoft's Anytime Anywhere Learning (AAL) is a simple yet powerful idea, a world in which all students and teachers have access to a personal computer and online information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, allowing them to pursue individual paths to learning. In this world, learning does not result from access alone but from continuous, dynamic interaction among students, educators, parents, and the extended community.

Through a funding partnership between the school district and parents, students in New York City's Community District Six use their Microsoft Windows®-based laptops loaded with Microsoft Office Professional and a modem for connectivity to the Internet as a basic learner's tool kit anytime they need to, anywhere they may be. When District Six Superintendent Anthony Amato learned of this approach to technology integration, the district's original technology plan called for computer labs where students would have scheduled classes 45 minutes each week. But Amato quickly realized this approach would mean nothing to the children in terms of what computers are used for in the real world. He also knew that after graduation his students would have to compete with others who grew up with access to technology both at home and at school. Partnering with parents to purchase or lease laptop computers for students to use 100 percent of the time was an opportunity to address these issues.

Amato started the program with 26 fifth-graders and one teacher at Mott Hall School and was adamant that if he did not see a positive impact on learning and teaching, he would not expand. The teacher reported that students had a new excitement for learning, working to master each class assignment. Plus, her classroom attendance rate reached nearly 100 percent. In the second year, Amato expanded Anytime Anywhere Learning to more than 1,400 students at 16 schools and is committed to increasing participation. In 52 schools nationwide that pioneered Anytime Anywhere Learning, teachers consistently report the powerful impact that full-time access to laptop computers running Microsoft Office is having on how they teach and what students accomplish. Students are taking responsibility for their own learning and the laptop and software is allowing the teachers to customize instruction to fit each student's individual needs.

Through a resource book and Web site, Microsoft provides schools with ideas, best practices, strategies, models, and case studies, as well as connections to potential solutions for hardware, financing, insurance, and training. Microsoft and Toshiba also are funding a three-year independent evaluation to measure the impact that the use of full-featured laptops on a one-to-one ratio has on teaching and learning.

Contact:

Jane Broom
Program Manager
Anytime Anywhere Learning Program
Microsoft Corp.
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
425-936-4253
www.microsoft.com/education/k12/aal

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