Oracle Foundation ties up with Navodaya Vidyalaya

            The Oracle Education Foundation (OEF) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti announced on Thursday that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bring OEF’s ThinkQuest to 40,000 students attending Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) across India.

          JNVs are co-educational residential schools for talented children from rural areas. ThinkQuest is an online learning platform that helps students develop important 21st century skills, including critical thinking, communication, and technology skills. With ThinkQuest, students and teachers can create web-based projects and engage in collaboration with peers globally,        
said a press release.

           ThinkQuest will be implemented in more than 400 JNVs over a three-year period. In the first phase of the rollout, OEF will train 240 teachers on how to use ThinkQuest as an effective teaching tool, the release added.

               In addition, OEF will conduct a Project Learning Institute for 60 teachers. The Project Learning Institute is a professional development program that trains teachers on how to integrate technology, project learning, and 21st century skills development into their curricula.

“We endeavor to provide the best quality of education to our students. Our partnership with the Oracle Education Foundation will allow our students to use the power of technology to develop important 21st century skills,” said Manoj Singh, Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.

                      He added that using ThinkQuest, students and teachers would be able to collaborate with peers from across the globe. In addition, their teachers will gain hands-on training on how to successfully adopt project learning in the classroom.

                    “We are delighted to partner with Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti to help students develop 21st century skills. With this MoU, we strengthen our existing commitment to providing quality, modern education to students from the interiors of India’s vast geography,” said Krishna Sistla, senior director, Oracle Education Initiatives, Asia Pacific and Japan.

Supporting Resources

• ThinkQuest (http://www.thinkquest.org/)
• Oracle Education Foundation (http://www.oraclefoundation.org/)
• Become a fan of ThinkQuest on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/thinkquest)
• View the Oracle Education Foundation YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/OracleFoundation)

About the Oracle Education Foundation

The Oracle Education Foundation is a nonprofit organization funded by Oracle. It delivers ThinkQuest, an online learning platform that helps students develop important 21st century skills, including communication, critical thinking, and technology skills. ThinkQuest includes a project environment that supports collaborative learning; technology competitions that challenge students to solve real-world problems; the award-winning ThinkQuest Library, a learning resource visited by millions; and professional development for educators. For more information, visit http://www.oraclefoundation.org.

About Oracle

Oracle is the world's most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. 

For more information about Oracle, please visit  Web site at http://www.oracle.com.