BEIJING, Nov. 26 -- In a recent kickoff meeting in Beijing, Oracle(Company
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Studies), the world's largest enterprise software company, announced it will be supporting the National Center for Educational Technology (NCET), an organization under the Chinese Ministry of Education, in carrying out one of the NCET's key educational research projects. Primary and secondary schools in China will use Oracle's online learning environment, Think.com, as a regular part of their classroom learning experience. At the same time NCET education researchers will study the effects of using these technology-based tools on teaching and learning.
NCET will provide project leadership and will train learning coaches to guide the use of Oracle's Think.com online environment throughout the research study. NCET has selected 126 participating schools from Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Jilin, Henan, Fujian, Jiangxi and Sichuan provinces as well as Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities.
Oracle's Think.com will provide students and their teachers with a protected email account and personal web pages where they can publish articles, upload images and host discussions with other Think.com-using students from around the world. Students will be able to stay connected to their classrooms from home, school or the library. Teachers will use Oracle's Think.com to post multimedia classroom activities, provide online project workspaces, communicate online with parents, and, in the process, will build new technology skills to apply to their teaching. Oracle's Think.com can be accessed from any standard web browser, and supports the Chinese language in addition to English, Spanish and Thai.
"Think.com is an integral part of Oracle's commitment to bring Internet resources and tools into classrooms around the world. Students and teachers will be able to communicate, collaborate, and learn in richer and more powerful ways -- not only in their own classrooms, but with students and teachers across China and from dozens of other countries," said Lori Facey, vice president of Oracle Education Initiatives.
"The agreement with NCET affirms Oracle China's continued commitment to accelerate information technology as an educational tool in China. As a technology leader, Oracle hopes to participate in -- and contribute to -- more educational projects in the future," said Loke Soon Choo, regional managing director, Oracle Greater China.
"One of the strategic goals of the Chinese government is to use information technology to drive the modernization of educational systems. We hope to combine our research strength in IT application for education with Oracle's advanced technologies to help foster a new generation of students capable of winning future competition," said Wang Zhuzhu, deputy director general, National Center for Education Technology, Ministry of Education.
The Oracle-NCET collaboration is also part of Oracle's "Golden China Initiatives" which focuses on localization, partnership and commitment to the China market. Launched in 2002, the Golden China Initiatives include the development of local research and development facilities and educational programs.
About Oracle
Oracle Corporation is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at www.oracle.com.
About NCET
The National Center for Educational Technology is an organization under the Ministry of Education. It focuses on tapping elementary and vocational education resources as well as deployment and application of educational networks. For more information, please visit www.ncet.edu.cn.
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