Oracle Press Release

Oracle Education Foundation Launches First Project Learning Institute in Europe

Over 100 Teachers Learn How to Integrate 21st Century Skills Development into the Classroom

Bucharest, Romania – 15 April 2009

News Facts

This week the Oracle Education Foundation (OEF) welcomed over 100 teachers to its first Project Learning Institute in Romania. This training event, a first also in Europe, will be held at Mihai Viteazul National College, Bucharest from April 13-16, 2009.

The Project Learning Institute is a professional development program that trains teachers how to integrate technology, project learning, and 21st century skills development into their classroom curricula.

The course uses OEF’s online learning platform, ThinkQuest, to showcase exceptional project-learning examples and help teachers produce projects as a part of their training experience. ThinkQuest currently supports over 18,000 students and teachers in Romania.

All of the training participants are teachers supported by the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth of Romania. These teachers completed six weeks of online training prior to attending the live training event in Bucharest.

The Project Learning Institute supports Romania’s Ministry of Education, Research and Youth in its objective to adopt project learning in classrooms across the country.

Over 400 teachers from 23 countries have attended Project Learning Institutes in Brazil, Egypt, India, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States.

Supporting Quotes

“The Project Learning Institute helps educators around the world successfully incorporate technology, project learning, and 21st century skills development into their everyday curricula,” said Clare Dolan, Vice President, Oracle Corporate Citizenship.

“To be successful in today’s global economy, students need to develop skills that go beyond up-to-date industry knowledge,” said Sorin Mindrutescu, Country Leader, Oracle Romania. “The teachers attending the Project Learning Institute will be able to help their students develop important skills such as critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, and cross-cultural understanding – skills that will help them to be more successful when entering the labour market.”

“The Ministry of Education, Research and Youth has always been at the forefront of adopting new and innovative teaching ideas that prepare our students to meet the demands of the changing world around them,” said Mrs. Ecaterina Andronescu, Minister of Education, Research and Innovation. “The teachers who participate in the Project Learning Institute will be trained to help initiate a technology-supported, project-learning approach in all our schools.”

“Romania’s Ministry of Education and Youth emphasize learner-centered pedagogy and project-based learning,” said Sorin Trocaru, Project Manager MoERY. “The Project Learning Institute helps 100 teachers in the country develop the skills required to support these objectives in the classroom.”

Supporting Resources

ThinkQuest: http://www.thinkquest.org

Oracle Education Foundation: http://www.oraclefoundation.org

About the Oracle Education Foundation

The Oracle Education Foundation is a nonprofit organization funded by Oracle. It delivers ThinkQuest, a widely acclaimed education technology program, to K-12 schools globally. ThinkQuest is a protected, online learning platform that enables teachers to integrate learning projects into their classroom curriculum and students to develop critical 21st century skills. For more information, visit http://www.oraclefoundation.org.

About Oracle

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Contact Info

Anita Kerekes
Oracle Romania
+36 1 224 1783
anita.kerekes@oracle.com