Think.com is an Oracle hosted, global, web-based educational environment and is designed for pupils in primary (ages 7-10) and intermediate school (ages 11-13). It enables students and teachers to create, communicate and collaborate on the Web with Think.com members around the world, providing them with personal Web pages, along with powerful communication and collaboration tools, for free. The 3 Paete Elementary School branches, namely Central, Ibaba and Quinale, benefited from the successful training of 14 teachers and 3 program administrators from each of the branches to integrate Think.com into the teaching and learning activities of Grade 5 and 6 pupils.

With Oracle’s Think.com, the Paete Elementary Schools’ pupils – with the guidance of their teachers – are provided access to their own personal Web space within a protected online community, where they can exchange content, e-mail, create web pages, upload images, and host collaborative learning activities with other intermediate school pupils across the world. Hundreds of thousands of school-attending students from 26 countries currently use Think.com, including Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States.

Paete, Laguna Municipal Mayor Emmanuel Cadayona, who is closely associated with this project, has supported and closely followed the progress of Oracle’s Think.com program since its launch in the 3 Paete Elementary Schools.

"Oracle’s Think.Com is the best thing that happened to our Elementary Schools, next to PAETECH, the Foundation that provided the computer literacy program to our youth," said Cadayona. "Our students and teachers as well are very glad to be a part of a global interaction among students and teachers thru Think.Com. In behalf of the Municipality of Paete, Laguna, please accept our heartfelt gratitude."

Oracle partnered with the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED) to launch Think.com in the Paete Elementary Schools. ACED – the outreach arm of one of the Philippines’ top universities, Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) – was established in 1996 to build up the state of Philippine public school education in various areas of educational development. Oracle’s cooperation with ACED is specific to IT education training for pupils and teachers in the primary and intermediate levels.

"More than just a virtual blackboard and notebook, Oracle’s Think.Com also serves as an avenue to expand stakeholdership with the purpose of a more effective and sustainable development of Philippine public schools. We see local governments, the private sector, private academic institutions, the local communities and public schools rally around one dream, to be recognized as a nation full of inspired and determined youth," said Anne Lan K. Candelaria, Managing Director, Ateneo Center for Educational Development.

Corporate Citizenship through the Oracle Education Initiative

The Think.com program is part of the Oracle Education Initiative (OEI), aimed at catalyzing learning at all levels of education by leveraging the company’s core competencies in information management and Internet technologies. By investing in the education of today’s students and partnering with governments and academic bodies, Oracle is helping pupils and students meet the challenges of the information age.

"Oracle had long realized the importance of raising the quality of education through the use of information technology," said Yashi Kant, Managing Director, Oracle (Philippines) Corporation. "The Think.com initative is our way of enabling education, through the use of technology, to be readily accessible to the Paete, Laguna community by providing the relevant skills to its elementary school teachers and pupils, to be that at par with their peers anywhere in the world."

Kant added, "Corporate social responsibility through the promotion of education capabilities is the goal of the Oracle Education Initiative (OEI) globally, and the Philippines is no exception. The successful launch of Think.com in the Paete Elementary Schools demonstrates Oracle’s commitment to help develop Philippine education at the primary and intermediate level."

It was some 10 years ago in the Philippines, when Oracle first began its community-based initiatives to help raise the quality of education within the Asia Pacific region, through the activities of the OEI. Since then, Oracle has donated an in-kind grant value of US$ 670 million involving over 475,000 students in more than 3,000 educational institutions across 16 Asia Pacific countries. In the Philippines, plans are underway to expand the Think.com program to other elementary schools in the country.