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Developing 21st Century Skills through Online Collaboration

Lynne GillProgramme Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Oracle Education Foundation

• Independent charitable organisation funded by Oracle

• Dedicated to helping students develop 21st Century skills

• Provides ThinkQuest as a free service to primary and secondary schools

– 405,000 students/teachers in 43 countries

– Partners with 63 non-profit or government organisations

ThinkQuest

• Protected, online learning platform

• Enables teachers to integrate learning projects into curriculum and students to develop 21st century skills

• Includes:

– Project environment

– Competition space

– ThinkQuest Library

– Professional development

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Benefits

Develop 21st century skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, communication, creativity, technology, self-direction, and

cross-cultural understanding

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Learning Projects

Integrate learning projects into your classroom curriculum. Choose a topic, assign students, invite teachers, and

collaborate with members around the world.

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Competition

A space for students to participate in technology contests.

Eligible entries are published in the ThinkQuest Library.Website: Students build educational websites on topics of choice

Narrative: Students publish ideas on issues of global importance

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Library

An award-winning resource containing 7,000+ student projects.

An opportunity for students to publish their work online to be viewed by millions.

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Professional Development - Curriculum Offerings

1. Instructor-led seminar for new users

2. Self-paced tutorial for the competition

3. Project learning methodology for the classroom

Program ExampleProject Example: “The Bee Project”

• Cross-cultural collaboration in UK, USA, Australia and Germany

– Students study the importance of bees and research the impact of bee colonies on the human food chain

– Project aligns to Science, ICT and Language studies and includes hands on activities

• Benefits

– Uses technology to heighten awareness around Green issues

– Enables teachers to embed cross-cultural project activities into standard curriculum

Program ExampleCollaboration with the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth in Romania

• Country-wide adoption of ThinkQuest

– 3,600 teachers received professional development

– Hosted the first Project Learning Institute in Europe

– 17,000 students use ThinkQuest in their daily curriculum

• Benefits

– Builds 21st Century skills with real world relevance

– Enables teachers to embed technology into the curriculum

– Assists Ministry in creating a virtual learning network

Lessons Learned - What Works

• Multi–Stakeholder Partnerships are critical to success

• School Principal support of ICT and 21st century skills

• Teacher Professional Development

• Ambassadors

• Students enjoy a challenge of Competitions

– 18,000 students participated in the competitions

– showcase work on websites

Lessons Learned - The Challenges

• Infrastructure and Access

• Curriculum Overload

• Promoting Benefits to Teachers

• Disconnect between Policy and Practice