Oracle Education Foundation launches ThinkQuest International 2008
The Oracle Education Foundation has launched ThinkQuest International 2008, a global project learning competition open to young students from around the world. The competition encourages participants to team with peers in other regions to create educational websites and develop valuable skills. Prizes include the opportunity to travel to the annual ThinkQuest Live event.
On August 23, the
Oracle Education Foundation launched
ThinkQuest International 2008, inviting students and teachers from around the globe to take part in one of the best known project learning competitions in the world today.
ThinkQuest is open to students between the ages of 9 and 19 and their teacher-coaches worldwide. Students are encouraged to team with peers in other regions to develop websites on educational topics.
As they create their sites, participants develop important 21st century skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, self-direction, problem solving and technology expertise. Participating teams also have their projects published in the popular ThinkQuest Library, allowing them to share the fruits of their research with 30 million web learners each year.
One of the winning participants in the 2006 ThinkQuest International was Gerben, a student at Hague College in the Netherlands. Gerben was invited to join a team researching the global digital divide and the problems arising from the lack of access to computing and internet technology in developing nations and among the world's poor.
Gerben acted as the team's web designer, creating a clear and eye-catching design for the
e-Divide: Information Inequality Web site. He coordinated the design project using text and artwork supplied by team mates in Australia, Egypt, India and the USA.
Reflecting on the way his international team collaborated on the project, Gerben said, "I will always remember my hour-long conversations with Ngoc about the difference between the western world and the Asian way of thinking. Nor will I forget the long, late-night discussions with Ammu. I will never, ever forget the moment that I found out that even someone with limited access to computers and the internet could design such nice web-artwork as Jasmin did. It was at this moment that I realised I was spoiled in a way many people only dream about."
Claire Dolan, Vice President, Oracle Education Initiatives said, "ThinkQuest is a unique educational program. It brings together students and technology in ways that positively impact kids' lives and the communities in which they live. More than 280,000 students benefit each year from the Oracle Education Foundation's technology programs, which help kids develop vital skills for life and work in the 21st century."
Entries are due on April 2, 2008, allowing teams up to eight months to build their websites, which will all be judged by professional educators. Qualifying entries will be published in the ThinkQuest Library. Winners will receive prizes from the Oracle Education Foundation, including laptops and US$1,000 school grants for the top five teams in each age division, travel to the annual ThinkQuest Live event for the top three teams in each division, and digital cameras for the team that receives the Global Perspectives Award.
