The Oracle Education Foundation welcomes Think.com

The Foundation presently operates the highly popular ThinkQuest Web site building competition and its library of student created educational Web sites. Integrating these two popular, collaborative, learning programs will strengthen the Foundation's mission to enhance cross-cultural learning and global citizenship through the innovative and effective use of technology.

"Oracle and the Oracle Education Foundation have a long term commitment to working with and supporting the education community," said Jim Ballard, vice president of Oracle Education Foundation programs. "The transfer will allow Think.com and its members to benefit from the guidance of the Foundation's independent board of directors, a group of internationally recognized education experts, as well as further integrate the two programs."

Integration with ThinkQuest

The Oracle Education Foundation will combine key components of ThinkQuest and Think.com to create engaging student learning tools. Think.com's expertise in online student project environments, when integrated with the ThinkQuest competition, will allow competing teams to more easily collaborate with their peers around the world. Think.com member schools will have the benefit of incorporating the ThinkQuest project-based learning features into their use of Think.com. Additionally, the membership process will be combined so that schools can easily register for both programs simultaneously.

"We are excited about the possibilities of integrating Think.com and ThinkQuest," said Jim Ballard. "The combined program will allow Oracle to have a greater impact on students' lives through global collaboration with technology."

Think.com is currently used by more than 200,000 students in 18 countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, United Kingdom and United States. The transfer of Think.com to the Foundation will be complete in the Fall of 2006.

Atef Helmy, Managing Director, Oracle Egypt, said: " Think.com's successful implementation in Egypt will make it available in Arabic to educational organizations elsewhere in the region for their student, parent and teacher community. Its transfer from Oracle Corporation to the non-profit Oracle Foundation reflects the social development orientation of this, and sister, initiatives."