OREANDA-NEWS. September 28, 2012. Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City played an instrumental role in launching the United Nations Secretary-General’s ambitious and critical Education First initiative. As the second largest PC company in the world, Lenovo is also a founding member of the new Global Business Coalition for Education which today announced a joint commitment as part of Education First to send high-level business delegations to meet with the leadership of key countries in support of the organization’s mission to improve learning outcomes around the world. 

“Education is an essential ingredient for driving so many critical elements of our society, from a qualified workforce and economic growth to social justice and participatory forms of government,” said Tom Looney, vice president and general manager for Lenovo North America. “Companies today can no longer think in terms of short term gain, but must instead devote their resources to partnering with governments, academics and non-profit organizations to build sustainable, healthy societies and economies for the long term. The Education First initiative launched at the United Nations today represents the best of what we can accomplish by working together, and Lenovo is honored to be part of it.”
 
Education First, led by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, BAN Ki-moon, gathers a broad spectrum of world leaders and advocates who all aspire to use the transformative power of education to build a better future for all. The initiative aims to raise the political profile of education, strengthen the global movement to achieve quality education and generate additional and sufficient funding through sustained advocacy efforts. Education First will officially be launched on the margins of UN General Assembly by the Secretary-General and world leaders.
 
The Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Ed) - which today also announced its commitment to aid Education First efforts - brings together corporate leaders committed to delivering on the promise of quality education for all of the world’s children.
 
"For the first time, we are bringing together companies from across the globe to cooperate in using their core business assets, social responsibility and philanthropy portfolios to move the needle on education,” said Sarah Brown, chair of the GBC-Ed executive board. “The business community has been a missing link in helping us to meet our education goals and today represents a new direction to advance progress."
 
“Global Business Coalition for Education members believe that their core business assets, social responsibility and philanthropy, when used in collaboration with government and other stakeholders, can be a powerful tool for providing access to quality education and improving learning outcomes globally,” said Tom Looney. “Lenovo is proud to serve as a founding member of the organization, and we look forward to getting to work on behalf of the Coalition and other worthy efforts around the world.” 
 
Lenovo Aims to Advance, Enhance and Extend Education at All Levels
Lenovo’s work with the Global Business Coalition for Education and Education First are just the latest efforts by the company to improve learning outcomes around the world. As the world’s number one PC company in the education market, Lenovo has and continues to support an array of education related programs through the company’s industry leading products and technologies, community investments and program sponsorships. Instead of engaging in education-related philanthropy to merely improve the company’s reputation, Lenovo engages as an activist investor in education technology innovation. Working with government, non-profit and other corporate actors, Lenovo leads projects which ultimately create shared value within the markets where it operates.  The company’s investments build profound knowledge of the education sector and its challenges, while allowing it to imbue value in its devices for students and teachers.  Simultaneously, Lenovo’s direct investments immediately help local schools, national education systems and its research partners.  Lenovo advocates educational improvement not by making donations, but actively and purposefully engaging the global community.
 
Two innovative examples from the past year include Lenovo’s Space Lab initiative that enabled students worldwide to submit experiments through YouTube for a chance to see them conducted in space, and the company’s ground-breaking partnership with the National Academy Foundation to create and a deliver cutting edge curriculum designed to foster and develop interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education among high school students by teaching them how to create and market their own mobile apps.
 
 Lenovo Conducts Primary Research with University of Pennsylvania to Drive Education Innovation and Classroom Results

Since 2010, Lenovo has conducted and commissioned primary research on education technology focused on addressing two of the most prevalent problems in education today – improving learning outcomes and increasing the operational efficiency of schools. Today, Lenovo released the results of a yearlong study with the University of Pennsylvania that produced three reports on the subjects of virtual learning, student engagement and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education:
“Revealing Complex Interactions of Scientific Phenomenon at Multiple Levels: How Digitally Augmented Visualizations Can Enable Learning in a Science Museum” by Susan Yoon, associate professor of education and co-director of C4LS, Penn’s Center for Collaboration, Computation, Complexity, and Creativity in the Learning Sciences
“What Makes Competitions Fun to Participate? The Role of Audience for Middle School Game Designers” by Yasmin Kafai, professor of education and of computer and information science, and co-director of C4LS, Penn’s Center for Collaboration, Computation, Complexity, and Creativity in the Learning Sciences
“Hop, Skip, and Jump: A Pedagogical Progression to Promote Computational Thinking from Schoolyard Games to Block-Based Programming to Text-Based Programming” by Jean Griffin, director of computer science partnerships for Moelis Access Science, a program of Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships
Note: Research results will be made available to the public in the coming weeks.
 
"Penn and Lenovo have enjoyed a long-standing relationship that has its roots in providing high-quality technology products in support of world-class teaching, learning and research,” said Christopher Bradie, associate vice president of Penn’s Business Services Division, who worked with Lenovo to initiate this project. “The Lenovo Education Research Initiative allows us to broaden that relationship to include support for research initiatives designed to understand how we can use technology to better support the educational challenges and opportunities in our communities."