May 6, 2009

Oracle Education Foundation Partners with
Professor Garfield Foundation
on Literacy Initiative for K-8 Students

Students Will Use ThinkQuest Learning Platform to
Collaborate on Digital Comic Books

• The Oracle Education Foundation (OEF) has partnered with the Professor Garfield Foundation on a digital story-telling initiative designed to increase literacy among K-8 students.
• Participating students will create digital comic books, using OEF’s ThinkQuest platform to connect with peers online and share ideas.
• ThinkQuest is a protected, online learning platform that enables teachers to integrate learning projects into their classroom curricula and students to develop critical 21 st century skills, including communication, teamwork, and technology skills.
• Students will have the opportunity to get creative and enter their work into OEF’s ThinkQuest Narrative Competition.
• The ThinkQuest Narrative Competition challenges teams of students from all over the world to publish their ideas on global topics. Qualifying entries are published in the ThinkQuest Library, the world’s largest online repository of student-developed learning projects.

• “The Oracle Education Foundation is proud to partner with the Professor Garfield Foundation,” said Clare Dolan, Vice President, Oracle Corporate Citizenship. “By providing students with access to ThinkQuest, we give them space to share ideas and unleash their creativity.”
• Jim Davis, Garfield’s creator, said, “The Professor Garfield Comics Lab Extreme program puts ‘digital tools’ into the hands of a ‘digital generation.’ The partnership between the Oracle Education Foundation and the Professor Garfield Foundation will allow children to collaborate on a global stage in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Children will be able to create a graphic novel that combines a variety of multimedia assets, such as imagery, text, audio, video, and animation. This will take storytelling to a whole new level.”

Supporting Resources

• ThinkQuest
• Oracle Education Foundation
• Professor Garfield Foundation

About the Professor Garfield Foundation
The Professor Garfield Foundation was founded by Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis and Ball State University to create digital education and entertainment  with a primary emphasis on children’s literacy. The FREE website, www.professorgarfield.org is a  fun interactive online environment where children can safely explore, learn and creatively express themselves. The Foundation (PGF) was formed in 2003 as a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization to provide children, parents, and teachers an opportunity to enhance and support classroom learning in new and innovative ways.

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
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest business software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at www.oracle.com.