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On July 12, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales presented Oracle with the prestigious Merrill Lynch Investing in Young People Award at the Business in the Community (BITC) Awards for Excellence. Supported by the U.K.'s Department for Education and Skills, the award recognizes Oracle's efforts to raise the achievement of young people through programs within a standard curriculum or outside of the mainstream educational context.
Notably, the Oracle Education Foundation was recognized for promoting student accomplishment through technology and online collaboration using its online, interactive learning community—Think.com.
Think.com, a program of the Oracle Education Foundation, provides primary and secondary schools with a protected, interactive online learning community where students and teachers can share educational content, collaborate on projects and build knowledge. Think.com encourages the exchange of ideas and experiences between school children around the world. Think.com is used by more than 350,000 students in 41 countries and is available in 8 languages.
Nick Chambers, Education Development Director at BITC said, "I am delighted that Oracle has won the Merrill Lynch Investing in Young People Award 2006. They have demonstrated how technology can be used to encourage the exchange of ideas and experiences between schools of different size, age and location and enable their pupils to share ideas and learn from one another. Business in the Community encourages business to work in partnership with schools in order to help young people to achieve their potential."
Ian Smith, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Oracle, UK and Ireland and South Africa believes that it is an honor for Oracle to win a BITC Award for Excellence, recognizing Oracle for the role it plays in supporting the development of young people within the education system. "Sometimes I feel that Think.com is Oracle's best-kept secret."
Collaborating with WebPlay
In the UK, Oracle works in collaboration with WebPlay, an internet-based arts education charity that uses Think.com to help students create and produce plays in conjunction with other children globally and with professional theater companies.
Newick House in Sussex, a special school for pupils with a range of needs including learning difficulties and autism experienced the benefits of Think.com and WebPlay first hand. Over the past two years their pupils have experienced many successes:
Communicated online with pupils in the USA and UK.
Built and maintained their own web pages.
Wrote and performed own plays that were videoed, shared globally and judged in the WebPlay Oscars.
With business and societal benefits demonstrated, the WebPlay program also has shown quantifiable metrics over time. The written and verbal skills of participants improved as a result of the program indicating nearly 80 percent of the participants achieved measurable improvements.
"Think.com has been instrumental to WebPlay's success and has strengthened the impact our program has on children's learning," explains Sydney Thornbury, Executive Director, WebPlay. "Working in partnership with Oracle and Think.com provides a safe online environment that children from across the world can use to learn about theater and each other. Evaluations have confirmed that WebPlay is highly motivational and effective at developing children's learning and we are delighted to be working with Oracle to bring the program to more children each year."
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