Advancing computing education globally

Using the new free Oracle Academy Cloud Program, teachers and students are accessing the cloud and innovative technologies remotely for free. Since the end of May 2020, the School of Informatics and Telecommunications of the Duoc UC Professional Institute, Chile, which has more than 14,000 students preparing for different careers, began teaching database subjects solely in the cloud. The Cloud Program was implemented for classes that required database laboratories in the careers of Computer Engineering and Computer Programmer Analysis at the School of Computer Science and Telecommunications, since the students did not have physical access to them. The Oracle Academy Cloud Program has enabled teachers and students to access cloud services, anytime, anywhere, and completely free of charge, including Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Oracle Autonomous Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and virtual machines (VM), and use them as a "remote laboratory” to teach, learn, explore, and build in the cloud. “In the past few months, we have been supporting Duoc UC to create and provision more than 50 teacher accounts so that they can teach their classes virtually and free to their students through the Oracle Academy Cloud Program. Providing access to the cloud and innovative technology such as Oracle Autonomous Database and VM opens a way for teachers and students to continue teaching and developing in computing careers, successfully and on time,” said Richard Delgado, regional director of Oracle Academy for Latin America and the Caribbean. "The work done with Oracle Academy has allowed us to make available to students the environments they need to advance in the subjects of databases. This is one of the measures we have taken to advance learning in the current situation of physical non-attendance,” noted Ximena Sibils, director of the School of Informatics and Telecommunications at Duoc UC. The Duoc UC School of Informatics and Telecommunications plans to expand and deepen the support that Oracle Academy provides, granting each of the students studying computing subjects—in 2020-21, nearly 5,500—an individual account so each has access to the Oracle Cloud Free Tier throughout their course of study. As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. The program engages with thousands of educational institutions and educators in more than 120 countries, helping millions of students become college and career ready. "Through this program, we provide the tools educators need to engage, inspire, and prepare students to become innovators and leaders of the future,” said Delgado. Duoc UC has been a member of Oracle Academy since 2013, engaging students to experiment and practice with the latest technologies, and supporting them to better prepare themselves to face the job market in the era of big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.

Using the new free Oracle Academy Cloud Program, teachers and students are accessing the cloud and innovative technologies remotely for free. Since the end of May 2020, the School of Informatics and...

Recently, Oracle Academy and Oracle Hellas won two awards in Greece, which now makes 18 awards won in 5 years. On June 29, 2020, the Education Leaders Awards 2020 recognized Oracle Academy with a Silver award in the category “Online & Distance Learning” and a Bronze award in the category “Lifelong Learning & Employability.” The awards were organized by Boussias Communications. Earlier in the year, the Hellenic Responsible Business Awards presented Oracle Academy and Oracle Hellas with two Bronze awards on February 24, 2020. The program’s contributions were recognized in the categories “Long term Investment (Local/Regional or National)” and “Education/Scholarships/Large Company.” These awards were organized by Boussias Communications under the auspices of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises. For the first time, Oracle Academy also was recognized in Cyprus, receiving the Silver award in the category “Technology for the Common Good – Digital Education & Skills” during the Cyprus Responsible Business Awards 2019 ceremony held in the Presidential Megaron in Nicosia, Cyprus, on October 10, 2019. The awards were organized by Boussias Communications and Dias Publishing Ltd. These awards respond to the Greek and Cypriot business communities’ need to showcase successful cooperation models that transform the face of the modern, sustainable entrepreneurship aiming at the common good. Since 2015, Oracle Academy has received more 18 awards for its contributions to the Greek educational system through the Education Leaders Awards, the Hellenic Responsible Business Awards, the Business IT Excellence (BITE) Awards, and the Bravo Sustainable Business Awards.      

Recently, Oracle Academy and Oracle Hellas won two awards in Greece, which now makes 18 awards won in 5 years. On June 29, 2020, the Education Leaders Awards 2020 recognized Oracle Academy with a Silver...

Oracle Academy recently sponsored and participated in the second edition of the EdTech Summit, Nigeria’s largest summit connecting educators, innovators, and influencers in the education landscape of Nigeria. The summit, which usually is held annually in Abuja, Nigeria, transitioned into the virtual environment and took place June 29-30, 2020. The theme for the summit was ‘Emergency Response: Edtech for Teaching and Learning’ and was hosted by the Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria and Afritex Initiative. This theme was aimed at x-raying the current challenges with educational technology and their possible solutions. There was a session dedicated to exploring Oracle Academy’s program and benefits. This year’s summit attracted a number of notable speakers, including: Minister of State for Education Nigeria, Emeka Nwajiuba Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Nigeria, Isa Ali Pantami Covenant University Vice Chancellor, Remi Atayero Oracle Academy Program Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sefunmi Durojaye (pictured) Following the presentation by Sefunmi, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions, and relevant stakeholders in the education sector exchanged knowledge and shared experience and challenges. An outstanding feature of the summit was the virtual exhibitor booth that enabled interactions between interested participants and Oracle Academy. Staff further informed booth visitors about the Oracle Academy offerings, and how institutions, educators and students can access and use the free resources. Key takeaways from the summit: Private and public colleges in Nigeria are fast adapting to changes in the globe by adopting educational technologies for students’ continuous learning. The government resolved to partner more with private sector EdTech platforms like Oracle Academy to provide learning and teaching resources to institutions, educators, and students. The country can model itself after other countries that have a workable edtech framework. Oracle Academy is committed to providing FREE comprehensive teaching and learning resources alongside hands-on practice to members through resources such as Oracle Academy Education Bytes, alongside full curriculum offerings.

Oracle Academy recently sponsored and participated in the second edition of the EdTech Summit, Nigeria’s largest summit connecting educators, innovators, and influencers in the education landscape of...

On July 6, 2020, Oracle Academy hosted more than 240 teachers and students to a live webinar, “Learn how to build enterprise applications with Oracle APEX.” Participants came from a range of academic departments, including computer science, engineering and non-IT related departments, and engaged in online-hosted hands-on labs. Salim Hlayel, Principal Product Manager, Oracle Application Express (APEX), delivered the technical sessions, which were four hours each. Each included a practical demonstration of applications development in Oracle APEX, and then participants had the opportunity to hone and practice their knowledge in three designated hands-on labs. Additionally, educators participated in an online demonstration on how to access Oracle Academy hands-on workshops, which make experiences with computing fun and engaging for students. Attendees also learned how to engage Oracle APEX as a teaching and learning tool to interest students with application development concepts in a real and meaningful way.  Oracle Academy provides members with a comprehensive range of learning resources, including the Oracle Application Express (APEX) Development Foundations course, which provides the curriculum to faculty to teach students the techniques and tools required to design, develop, and deploy database-driven web applications using Oracle APEX. Oracle Academy values educators as our partners who lead innovative student learning in and outside of the classroom, We are pleased to bring knowledge building events such as this webinar to our members.

On July 6, 2020, Oracle Academy hosted more than 240 teachers and students to a live webinar, “Learn how to build enterprise applications with Oracle APEX.” Participants came from a range of academic...

Oracle Academy in India recently conducted a series of three live virtual sessions for its member institutions and educators. The virtual events were attended by over 1,900 educators from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and across Southeast Asia, and over to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Oracle Academy staff designed the events to enable educators to leverage the value of the Oracle Academy Cloud Program resources in their classrooms for their students. In particular, the sessions helped participants learn how to establish their Cloud Program accounts and how to use the ‘Always Free’ Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute VMs, object storage, data egress, and other essential building blocks needed to create applications on top of Oracle Autonomous Database. Educators learned how they easily can provision student accounts so that their classes are up and running in a cloud environment without the need to download, install, or maintain software or databases on premise. In addition, the sessions also covered ‘deep dives’ into some of the core curriculum topics available from Oracle Academy around Java, database, data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. The audience attended presentations from some of Oracle’s primary experts in the region, including: Amitpal Dhillon, a Senior Product Manager; Sharath Babu Thirunagari, Director, Product Development; Ali Parvani, a Principal Java and GraalVM Solutions Consultant; Janet Uy, Big Data Analytics Consultant; and Lahiru Weerakoon, a Senior Solution Engineer. We thank these experts for lending their time and expertise to helping educators bring the latest in computing technology to their students. About Oracle Academy As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. The program engages with thousands of educational institutions and educators in more than 120 countries, helping millions of students become college and career ready. Learn more.

Oracle Academy in India recently conducted a series of three live virtual sessions for its member institutions and educators. The virtual events were attended by over 1,900 educators from India, Sri...

The Ministry of Education & Culture (MoEC) Indonesia recently held online professional development events for secondary vocational school teachers from computer science departments. Seventy-five teachers from 33 provinces in Indonesia attended the Java Fundamentals, Java Foundations, and Database Foundations virtual training events from Oracle Academy to help them bring engaging content into their classrooms for their students. Programs in vocational and pre-professional high schools that fall under the MoEC are known as Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan, or SMK. This is formal vocational education at the secondary school level that prepares students to be career ready to enter the workforce.  The Director General of Vocational Education of MoEC Indonesia, Wikan Sakarinto, PhD, opened the program, commenting, “We really appreciate Oracle and all our stakeholders in helping to hold this event, in line with our teacher training program. As we know, SMK is one of the educational institutions that creates a skilled and competent workforce. We hope that through these trainings, the teachers can get experience and enhance their competence in teaching. SMK students need to be close to the industry so they can adopt not only the hard skills but also the soft skills, including understanding the culture.” Oracle Academy Japan & Asia Pacific Regional Director, Damian Haas, provided opening welcoming comments, saying, “Oracle Academy is pleased to be a central part of the Ministry’s program to enable educators across the vocational training sector. Our long partnership with the MoEC continues to expand its reach across Indonesia, helping teachers bring in-demand technologies and skills to their classrooms and students.” The training opening ceremony was attended by hundreds, including Oracle Indonesia Country Managing Director Davian Omas; Director of Partnership and Alignment of the Industrial World, MoEC Indonesia, Dr. Bakrun; all the training participants; Oracle Academy instructors, the MoEC team, and Oracle Academy team led by Nurul Huda. This was the first of a series of virtual training events that MoEC Indonesia plans to provide for secondary vocational school teachers across the country using technology and resources provided by Oracle Academy.

The Ministry of Education & Culture (MoEC) Indonesia recently held online professional development events for secondary vocational school teachers from computer science departments. Seventy-five...

More than 500 youth from across Bulgaria, who created their own student company or startup in the last 10 months, presented online their products and services during the five-day Youth Startup Forum "Rising Stars", which was held in Bulgaria from June 8 - 12, 2020. In total, 63 teams that participated in the “Training Company” program, and eight startups from the pre-accelerator program “Beyond,” presented or pitched their business ideas and companies to 40 jury members and competed for the awards “Best Study Company in Bulgaria” and “Best Student Startup in Bulgaria.” This year, Oracle Academy was a supporter of the category award “Oracle Academy Digital Creativity.” The student company “Bluteeth” won this award, which was presented to them by George Alexandrov, Oracle Bulgaria Country Senior Manager, Managing Director, ECEMEA Tech Named Sales. This team, comprised of 10th-graders from Peter Beron High School of Mathematics, Varna, Bulgaria, also won third place for “Best student company in Bulgaria.” Their prize was well deserved for their high-tech development product, a module that measures time and efficiency when people brush their teeth. The best student company of Junior Achievement Bulgaria for 2020 went to team “Calliope” from Vasil Levski High School, Karlovo. These young entrepreneurs from the Rose Valley of Bulgaria will represent the country in the “Company of the Year” competition, the international competition of Junior Achievement Europe. The product, developed by students, are “Kalimazing Chocolates,” chocolates filled with sugar-free rose syrup. The chocolates are a result of a closed production cycle, which begins with the care of a field of oil-bearing roses in the Karlovo region, planted for the last three years by the team members. Among the official guests at the closing ceremony of the Rising Stars were EU Commissioner Maria Gabriel, former president of Bulgaria Georgi Plevneliev, the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Tanya Mihaylova, and the executive director of the European Network of Junior Achievement, Salvatore Nigro. Oracle Academy salutes these innovative youth for their creativity and drive.  

More than 500 youth from across Bulgaria, who created their own student company or startup in the last 10 months, presented online their products and services during the five-day Youth Startup Forum "Ri...

Oracle Academy in Croatia contributed to the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Java programming language in collaboration with the Croatian Java Users Association (HUJAK). Java experts delivered an online discussion on May 22, 2020, just a day before the "birthday of Java" and a day after the official Oracle celebration event, "Moved by Java." Representatives of the academic community on the discussion included: Prof. Dragutin Kermek, PhD, Vice Dean at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics in Varaždin, University of Zagreb Frane Urem, PhD, Vice Dean at the Polytechnic of Šibenik; and Branko Mihaljević, PhD, Research Associate at RIT Croatia, one of the global locations of Rochester Institute of Technology. They were accompanied by representatives of the IT Industry. Oracle was represented by Ivan Delić, Cloud Domain Sales Consultant from Oracle Croatia, and Ericsson was represented by Milan Ramljak, Senior System I&V Engineer at Ericsson Nikola Tesla. Representatives of the professional associations included Branko Mihaljević, one of the founders and President of HUJAK, who delivered a comprehensive keynote presentation; and Mr. Hrvoje Balen, member of the Board of the Algebra University College and Vice-President of the Croatian HUP-ICT Association, who spoke about the relevance of Java in both the Croatian and global technology industry. The vibrant discussion about the past, present, and future of Java, moderated by Darko Jureković, Oracle Academy Program Manager in Croatia, lasted longer than planned, which itself speaks about the relevance of Java as a development platform for both academia and the IT industry in Croatia. Panelists agreed that key takeaways from the discussion were the following: To address the deficit of skilled IT workers, and in particular, Java programmers in Croatia, a coordinated effort from all stakeholders is needed, starting with introducing STEM to children as early as possible in primary school, as was done recently by the curriculum changes in Croatia. This effort should encompass: production of course materials in Croatian language for vocational schools (a legal requirement), introduction of Java into programming competitions at all levels of education, and closer cooperation of both public and private colleges and universities with the IT sector. Last but not least, it must be highlighted to both students and professionals that IT careers require willingness and readiness for lifelong learning and professional development. The recording (in Croatian) is available for review on HUJAK website. Oracle Academy provides our members with comprehensive Java curriuculum resources and hands-on labs and projects for educators to use to teach Java programming to students and provide them with hands-on practice.

Oracle Academy in Croatia contributed to the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Java programming language in collaboration with the Croatian Java Users Association (HUJAK). Java...

As a part of Oracle Academy’s involvement in the BUILD-IT Alliance in Vietnam, educators from selected engineering and technology universities recently attended a virtual event hosted by Oracle Academy to introduce the Oracle Academy Cloud Program (OACP) and provide hands-on demonstration. Eighteen educators keen to understand the Oracle Academy Cloud Program attended the event and learned how they can connect to the Oracle Cloud free of charge to teach, explore and build. Oracle Academy Country Manager for Vietnam, Michelle Gao, provided attendees with an update on the latest Oracle Academy offerings, including the newly launched Oracle Academy Member Hub. A local speaker with rich Oracle Cloud experience, Binh Do from Oracle Vietnam, then delivered an in-depth presentation about the Oracle Academy Cloud Program, including demonstrations and how to request their free Cloud accounts and build ‘Always Free’ services on the cloud. As an Oracle Cloud expert for the Vietnam market, Binh also shared important information about Oracle Cloud case studies in Vietnam to inspire attendees to adopt the Oracle Academy Cloud Program in their classrooms. The BUILD-IT Alliance is a public-private ecosystem in Vietnam that supports educational quality and development at participating Vietnamese universities. Along with USAID and Arizona State University (ASU), Oracle Academy is a partner in the BUILD-IT project and supports these Vietnamese universities in the ongoing development of industry-relevant computing courses that prepare students for careers. Learn more in our video.

As a part of Oracle Academy’s involvement in the BUILD-IT Alliance in Vietnam, educators from selected engineering and technology universities recently attended a virtual event hosted by Oracle Academy to...

As part of Oracle Indonesia support for the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Republic of Indonesia “Fresh Graduate Academy - Digital Talent Scholarship (FGA-DTS) Program 2020”, Oracle Academy recently delivered virtual ‘Train the Trainer’ events on Database for 45 educators from 30 universities, and on Java Programming for 62 educators from 37 universities. The FGA-DTS program aims to graduate university students with industry-relevant skills to help reduce the number of unemployed in the country, as well as meet the significant need for skilled technology workers. The goal is to create a balanced ecosystem to maximize the triple helix of government, industry and education to support digital economy facilitators and accelerators. The FGA-DTS objectives are in line with the Oracle Academy mission to advance computing education globally to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields and help educators make students career ready. Oracle Academy understands and values educators as partners who are empowered to help students learn both in and outside the classroom. Teaching teachers ‘how to teach’ computing skills with Oracle Academy learning resources requires access to the right tools. With Oracle Academy membership, these educators and their students get exactly that—core curriculum centered around Java and Database, plus access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Autonomous Database, Compute VM and more through the Oracle Academy Cloud Program—all free and available for individual learning, classroom teaching, and not-for-profit, academic, course- and degree-related research. As part of the FGA-DTS 2020 program, students who have studied and passed the Oracle Academy Database and Java Programming curriculum are able to sit for Oracle Professional Certification exams offered by Oracle University to demonstrate their knowledge and skills that is recognized by IT professionals and industry. Oracle Academy courses align to Oracle professional certifications, which help students differentiate themselves from the competition when applying to a graduate program, internship, job or promotion. Dedy Permadi, PhD, from Digital Policy and Human Resources, said, “The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is grateful for the collaboration with Oracle Indonesia through Oracle Academy to hold the virtual Trainings for Trainers (ToT). The program will set a foundation for the upcoming offline FGA DTS program intended to upskill graduates in the IT sector, close skills gap, and fulfill the demand for digital talents in Indonesia.” Rizqy Ardiansyah, a professional trainer from Oracle Academy, led the virtual sessions. Comments from attendees were positive. Ahmad Ridha, an educator from the Computer Science Department, Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), said, “Participating in database training from Oracle Academy was a good learning experience for me, especially during the current situation requiring us to stay at home. The instructor delivered the materials effectively and communicated very well with the participants throughout the course. I look forward to utilizing the lessons learned for my classes. The students will benefit from getting to know the technologies used in the industry.” Dr. Imam Marzuki Shofi from UIN Syarif Hidayatullah attended the Java Programming training, and said, “…The curriculum is very complete, with fun learning, starting from the OOP concept using Alice 3D and Greenfoot 2D, to JDBC, Bytecode and ClassLoader. The instructor is an expert, so he was able to deliver it in a simple and easy way to understand. I highly recommend this for those who want to master Java programming.” Hafiyyan Sayyid, M. Kom, a computer science faculty member from the University of Indonesia who attended the Java Programming training, said, "Not only were we trained in how to create programs, but first we were trained in mindset by creating animations and simple games. This is suitable for people who are just learning programming. For those who are interested in extending their knowledge of Java programming, this material is suitable for use. Besides being trained to create programs according to your needs, you also are given a way to analyze and optimize the performance of Java programs.” About Oracle Academy As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. The program engages with thousands of educational institutions and educators in more than 120 countries, helping millions of students become college and career ready. Learn more.

As part of Oracle Indonesia support for the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Republic of Indonesia “Fresh Graduate Academy - Digital Talent Scholarship (FGA-DTS) Program 2020”,...

Now more than ever, virtual learning options developed by expert educators are critical resources that faculty need to keep learners engaged. To support member institutions and educators in meeting this need, Oracle Academy offers free, proven expert computing education curriculum. These curriculum resources focus on database, Java, Oracle cloud access, computing teaching and learning, software, and more—all free and available using only a browser. With a large push to move classes online and provide distanced learning, Oracle Academy is providing a robust schedule of FREE educator professional development courses. These courses help educators take time to invest in their future by adding to their knowledge base.  Our Summer/Fall open class training schedule includes the following courses: Database Foundations 13 sessions | August 18 –Sept. 29 | Tuesday and Thursday | 6:00-7:30 p.m. CST Programming with PL/SQL COMPLETED - 10 sessions | July 13–July 24 | Monday–Friday | 2:00-4:00 p.m. CST 15 sessions | Sept. 30–Nov. 18 | Tuesday and Wednesday | 6:00-7:30 p.m. CST Database Design and Programming with SQL COMPLETED - 10 sessions | July 6–July 17 | Monday–Friday | 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. CST Java Programming COMPLETED - 10 sessions | July 20–July31 | Monday–Friday | 9:00-11:00 a.m. CST 10 sessions | July 27–August 7 | Monday–Friday | 2:00-4:00 p.m. CST Java Foundations 13 sessions | August 10–Sept. 23 | Monday and Wednesday | 6:00-7:30 p.m. CST  (Not held on Sept. 7) As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. Oracle Academy understands and values educators as partners who are empowered to facilitate innovative student learning in and outside the classroom. We engage with thousands of educational institutions and educators in more than 120 countries, helping millions of students become college and career ready. Please note, educators must have an Oracle Academy Institutional Membership to access virtual professional education training. Not a member of Oracle Academy? Join today! (It’s FREE.) If you have any questions please contact us, and we can help!  

Now more than ever, virtual learning options developed by expert educators are critical resources that faculty need to keep learners engaged. To support member institutions and educators in meeting...

To help meet educators’ needs for engaging and robust virtual teaching assets, Oracle Academy offers member institutions and educators free expert computing education curriculum, access to Oracle Cloud and Autonomous Database, Java practice environments through Oracle APEX, technology and software, and other resources—all free and available using only a browser. On May 20, 2020, Tyra Crockett, Oracle Academy Sr. Marketing Manager for North America; NetSuite Center of Excellence Senior Director, David Gustovich; and Director, Ken Staresinic, delivered a virtual event to more than 160 registered attendees representing the United States and Canada. The seminar focused on NetSuite cloud solution, provided free to qualifying institutions and educators, with a focus on supply chain concepts. Attendees learned how to engage the NetSuite ERP cloud solution as a teaching and learning tool to intrigue students with supply chain concepts in a real and meaningful way. The presenters employed their valuable expertise as supply chain management practitioners to provide a live demonstration of the software as a service (SaaS) solution. They also participated in a Q&A session with faculty to help them as they prepare to provide students with hands-on ERP classroom experience. Oracle Academy understands and values educators as partners who are empowered to facilitate innovative student learning in and outside the classroom. Therefore, we offer access to the NetSuite cloud solution to postsecondary Institutional members who have experience or expertise in SaaS ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), or eCommerce products. As the world’s leading cloud-based business management software, NetSuite SaaS solutions prepare students for the business world by helping them build the key skills today’s employers seek. Not a member of Oracle Academy? Join today! (It’s FREE.) If you have any questions, please contact us and we can help!  

To help meet educators’ needs for engaging and robust virtual teaching assets, Oracle Academy offers member institutions and educators free expert computing education curriculum, access to Oracle Cloud...

On April 14, 2020, North America Oracle Academy member educators had the opportunity to attend a live webinar, Using Alice to Teach Programming. The session offered an overview in teaching students Java programming basics in a virtual environment. Tyra Crockett, Oracle Academy Sr. Marketing Manager for North America, and Alice Project Executive Director, Eric Brown, presented a live webcast providing an overview of Alice and highlighting tips and tricks on how to engage students virtually using the software. More than 90 educators joined the webcast and experienced a demonstration of the tool, plus participated in a lively question and answer session on best practices. Additionally, educators learned how to access Oracle Academy hands-on workshops, which make first experiences with computing fun and engaging for students. These workshops allow educators to leverage best academic curriculum practices like project-based learning and assessment tools. Our Java workshops include Getting Started with Java using Alice, which teaches programming concepts through developing 3-D animations. Oracle Academy understands and values educators as partners who are empowered to facilitate innovative student learning in and outside the classroom. As part of our free resources, we offer access to Oracle Academy workshop resources to all Individual and Institutional members. Not a member of Oracle Academy? Join today! (It’s FREE.) If you have any questions, please contact us and we can help!  

On April 14, 2020, North America Oracle Academy member educators had the opportunity to attend a live webinar, Using Alice to Teach Programming.The session offered an overview in teaching students...

Today more than ever, it is important to tap into the innovative and creative energy of our students. In recent years, our young people have shown resilience and creativity in reacting to the challenges of technological change, and they can guide us through future innovations. Stimulating them with challenges and encouraging innovation allows them to open up their minds to develop their needs and expectations. With this in mind, Oracle Academy launched the first Oracle Academy Sprint Call in Italy together with Diversity Opportunity SRL. Diversity Opportunity SRL specializes in projects focused on diversity and opportunity for university students and other youth. The Sprint is a hackathon that encourages students to design and implement an innovative communication plan on the Oracle database platform, provided free by Oracle Academy. The plan targets university students, with the idea of made by young people for young people. During the hackathon, 35 students will try their hand at the challenge using the database platform, with support from university professors and start-up companies that exemplify the rapid transmigration of the skills they have acquired with the platform, towards new professions opened up by the cloud and coding. Each group will have as a mentor one-university professor, one start-up mentor, and one Oracle staff mentor. The most effective and innovative project will be chosen by a jury of Oracle managers, university professors, and start-ups. The challenge will be amplified through the social channels and websites of universities and faculty groups. This is an exciting ongoing challenge that creates engagement, motivation, and passion for a world of new Oracle technologies, and promotes the free Oracle Academy program to universities, faculty, students, and start-ups. For more information, please contact the Oracle Academy Program Manager, Italy.

Today more than ever, it is important to tap into the innovative and creative energy of our students. In recent years, our young people have shown resilience and creativity in reacting to the...

The Hungarian Oracle Users Group (HOUG) conference has historically been the largest annual gathering of the Oracle community in Hungary. This year, the conference moved from its traditional, face-to-face mode, usually held in the picturesque city of Siofokin, Hungary, into the Zoom environment. This virtual conference took place April 28-29, 2020. Hosted by Eva Csilla Fazekas, Oracle University Manager, Oracle Hungary, the conference dedicated a whole afternoon to discussing the Oracle Academy program. In 2017, Oracle Hungary and the Governmental Information-Technology Development Agency in Hungary (GITDA or KIFÜ in Hungarian) signed a three-year-long partnership agreement. Under the agreement, a series of Oracle Academy training courses were provided to Oracle Academy members in the country through Oracle University’s main partner in Hungary, the Webváltó Kft. Company. With the agreement in place and interest in virtual teaching resources high, it is not surprising the online session attracted representatives of higher education institutions as well as vocational technical schools. In four consecutive sessions, Darko Jureković, Oracle Academy country manager, presented information on the Oracle Academy Cloud Program, with support by Norbert Reti, from People Come First Foundation, who provided detailed how-to instructions in Hungarian on how to register for free Oracle Academy membership. An overview of the EU-funded project led by KIFÜ was delivered by their project manager Lajos Megyeri. The conference wrapped up with an overview by Balázs Kiss from Webváltó of the Oracle Junior Program, a series of lectures organized jointly by Oracle Hungary, Eötvös Loránd University, Webváltó, and the People Come First Foundation. The recording of the conference will remain available to the participants and everyone interested in Oracle technologies and the free Oracle Academy program: https://youtu.be/j591hLKlU5c  

The Hungarian Oracle Users Group (HOUG) conference has historically been the largest annual gathering of the Oracle community in Hungary. This year, the conference moved from its traditional,...

It might be a good time to reflect on the outcomes of a 3-year long agreement that Oracle Academy signed with the Ministry of Education Montenegro. Over the three year partnership Oracle Academy committed to train 300 teachers from Montengro, however to date 355 teachers from Montenegro have been successfully trained through the delivery of over 15 training events, thanks to this agreement with Montenegrin Ministry of Education, and their support. The initial trainings were a combination of virtual and in-class events, and recent training events finished fully online, to allow teacher to learn from home in accordance with the current circumstances. As a result of this collaboration teachers were able to attend Oracle Academy training classes from a variety of curriculum in technologies including Database Foundations, Database Design and Programming with SQL, Java Fundamentals, Java Foundations and Java Programming. As a next step students taught by these teachers will be encouraged to complete the Oracle Certified Junior Certification in Database or Java Foundations for a successful start to their professional life. Students will receive hands-on experience with the latest technologies, helping to make them college and career ready in the digital era. Montenegrin Minister of Education, Dr Damir Šehović said: “We are especially proud that our partner is Oracle, one of the global leaders in software production, whose mission is to improve education in the field of computer science through the Oracle Academy.   Oracle Academy supports  3,5 million students and nearly 12.000 institutions in 120 countries, and since 2018, Montenegro has been there as well. We were together improving education in the field of computer science in Montenegro, and helped students and teachers to first acquire knowledge, and then using it create something completely new, which will help them in teaching.“       

It might be a good time to reflect on the outcomes of a 3-year long agreement that Oracle Academy signed with the Ministry of Education Montenegro. Over the three year partnership Oracle Academy...

The first Oracle Academy Virtual Educator Day for Italy opened on May 12, 2020, hosted by panelists: Oracle Academy Senior Marketing Manager Orlaith Lawton, based in Dublin Oracle Academy Program Manager, Italy, Roberta Battagli Special guest Claudio Palucci, Oracle Principal Solution Engineer, based in Rome Battagli introduced educators to Oracle Academy’s free resources to teach and learn computing. This includes curriculum centered around Java and database,  learning resources, Oracle cloud technologies, software and applications, support, and professional certification resources. Claudio, a regular contributor to Oracle Academy programs, walked attendees through “Un viaggio nella tecnologia insieme ad Oracle,” a journey into technology with Oracle. This historical journey covered the origins of the database to the technology of today and the future, including Exadata Database Machines. We particularly wish to thank Claudio for sharing his expertise and for his continued support for Oracle Academy in Italy! The online event can viewed in full here. As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. The program engages with thousands of educational institutions and educators in more than 120 countries, helping millions of students become college and career ready. Oracle Academy membership is free to educators and institutions. In Italy, Battagli is happy to support academic institutions that wish to apply for membership for themselves and their educators. For further information, please contact Oracle Academy Italy.  

The first Oracle Academy Virtual Educator Day for Italy opened on May 12, 2020, hosted by panelists: Oracle Academy Senior Marketing Manager Orlaith Lawton, based in Dublin Oracle Academy Program...

On April, 20, 2020, Saudi Arabian Oracle Academy educator members had the opportunity to attend a live webinar, First Hyperscale Cloud in Saudi Arabia is Here. Cloud Platform expert Nizar Al Toraif let educators know that the wait to move to the cloud is over. Oracle has been deploying its generation 2 cloud infrastructure in data center regions across the world to ensure application availability. He explained that  low-latency and high-bandwidth interconnect enables zero-data-loss architectures for applications like Oracle Database and high availability for scale-out technologies like Cassandra. The attendees also heard from Oracle experts on how to: - Understand how Oracle cloud is different by design - Get fast, non-blocking, predictable cloud performance - Protect existing investments and build new, cloud native applications Educators learned how they could access the benefits of Oracle Cloud Free Tier through the Oracle Academy Cloud Program, a free resource for Oracle Academy Institutional members. The Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides always-free access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute Virtual Machines (VM), object storage, data egress, and other key tools so educators and students can learn, build, and explore in the cloud.  These resources can be accessed with support from the local Oracle Academy program manager and business development representative, Najla Alkebsi, who also advised members of additional resources they can access.

On April, 20, 2020, Saudi Arabian Oracle Academy educator members had the opportunity to attend a live webinar, First Hyperscale Cloud in Saudi Arabia is Here. Cloud Platform expert Nizar Al Toraif let...

The National Open University of Nigeria is a federal open and distance learning institution, the first of its kind in the West African sub-Sahara region. It is Nigeria's largest tertiary institution in terms of student numbers, and is popularly referred to as 'NOUN'. On May 12, 2020, a collaboration between NOUN and Oracle Academy was launched via a virtual video conference. In attendance were: NOUN Vice Chancellor Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu The Federal Ministry of Education, represented by Director Abubakar Isah, Head, Department of Computer Science Dr. Vivian Nwaocha Also in attendance were other directorates of the University from Academic Planning, Learner Support Services, Learning Content Management Systems, Management Information Systems, plus 717 students. NOUN and Oracle Academy will continue to develop the adoption of Oracle Academy’s full computing curriculum, Oracle Academy Education Bytes, and other resources and tools into their curricula. The university also will develop short courses adapted from Oracle Academy’s resources. These courses also will be extended to non-computing students, with the sole aim of graduating career-ready students. Being an open and distance learning institution gives NOUN an experienced edge as it continues to develop and enhance its teaching resources, which always have been virtual. These short courses will be rolled out to students in May, starting with the introduction of Oracle Academy’s ‘Java Fundamentals’ course. The students will have the excellent support of the NOUN faculty, who previously were trained by Oracle Academy in 2019. NOUN Vice-Chancellor Uba Adamu urged all the directorates to mandate every educator to convert fully to online facilitation and embrace the virtual classroom as they also adopt Oracle Academy curriculum to engage students across multiple disciplines in the university. Educators and students who attended the launch shared their enthusiasm and interest about this new development. All parties are now working diligently to execute set goals.

The National Open University of Nigeria is a federal open and distance learning institution, the first of its kind in the West African sub-Sahara region. It is Nigeria's largest tertiary institution in...

Oracle Academy in the MENA region remains actively engaged with key universities and their faculty members who are taking advantage of our hosted educator resources while university campuses are closed and students are learning online. We were pleased to run a series of webinars for Institutional members with the support of our Oracle colleagues and technical experts from the Oracle Presales Teams managing the Gulf region.   Elias Bou Hanna, Senior Solutions Consultant, Core Tech Presales, for EMEA was the keynote speaker in the first virtual Oracle Academy Knowledge Builder event. This session was the first in a series of events dedicated to supporting faculty from member universities: Higher Colleges of Technology – Oman Sultan Qabous University – Oman Higher Colleges Technology and Abu Dhabi University – UAE Qatar University-Qatar Kuwait University – Kuwait Oracle Academy members remain keen to update their technical knowledge on subjects such as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and APEX (Oracle Application Express), for example, and to learn how to integrate technologies and solutions into their curricula using the free hosted online and accessible resources available through Oracle Academy. Two virtual sessions ran on April 28 and 30 covering the topics: Cloud Computing—Getting Started with OCI Oracle Academy Cloud Program   Creating a Database Application with Oracle APEX Oracle Academy Curriculum, Database Pathway—Oracle Application Express – Application Development Foundations Members also learned more about the advantages of using Oracle Academy Education Bytes, which provide students access to short, flexible learning modules that teach new concepts and enhance existing knowledge and skills, problem solving, creativity, and learning retention. More than 30 Education Bytes provide self-directed, diverse learning experiences at all skill levels in programming, database, data science, big data, Java, SQL, PL/SQL, Map/Reduce, R, Hadoop, and much more. All Education Bytes include a content synopsis, recommended prerequisite knowledge and skills, level of difficulty, target age group, and any required software or equipment. Thank you to Elias Bou Hanna and to Waleed Hosny, Solutions Engineering Director, for their valuable help and support. We greatly appreciate them sharing their knowledge and expertise to engage Oracle Academy member educators and to Ola Ramadan the Oracle Academy Program manager for MENA for organizing the events.  

Oracle Academy in the MENA region remains actively engaged with key universities and their faculty members who are taking advantage of our hosted educator resources while university campuses are...

Teachers need robust virtual learning assets to keep students moving forward and engaged in their courses. To meet this need, Oracle Academy supports member institutions and educators by offering free, proven expert computer science curriculum, cloud access, computing teaching and learning resources, software, and more—all free and available using only a browser. Michelle Gao, Oracle Academy country manager for Australia/New Zealand and Oceania, together with Danny Tomic, Oracle Academy program manager, recently delivered a virtual event on the new Oracle Academy Cloud Program to more than 100 educators from Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, and Nepal. The faculty were shown how to sign up and register themselves and their students to use the always free cloud services offered through Oracle Academy, making it easy for them to teach their students database, Java and other technologies without relying on install-based software in the classroom. Jian Li, Oracle Academy principal instructor, then went on to describe and demonstrate the range of online learning resources, including Oracle Academy Education Bytes big data and data science hands-on labs via the online resource center. The Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides Oracle Academy Institutional members with always-free access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute Virtual Machines (VM), object storage, data egress, and other essential building blocks and developer tools needed to create applications so educators and students can learn, build, and explore in the cloud. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across the diverse and vibrant APAC region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership as they build the best computing education courses for students using Oracle Academy resources.  

Teachers need robust virtual learning assets to keep students moving forward and engaged in their courses. To meet this need, Oracle Academy supports member institutions and educators by offering...

The new Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides Oracle Academy Institutional members with always-free access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute Virtual Machines (VM), object storage, data egress, and other essential building blocks and developer tools needed to create applications so educators and students can learn, build, and explore in the cloud. Professor Simona Benigno, computer science teacher at ITIS Enrico Fermi High School, Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, Rome, Italy, details how she is using the cloud program in her virtual classroom.  Professor Benigno  noted that, “My motto has always been ‘lifelong learning.’ Smart working, video lessons, study, updating, and continuous professional learning are the best weapons to combat this period of uncertainty as we work from home, and allow us to move forward with confidence,” she notes. “As a ‘practitioner’ teacher and active member of Oracle Academy, I carefully follow the Oracle Academy training and news. For some months now, we teachers have been able to request accounts for the Oracle Academy Cloud Platform,” she says. “I have undertaken self-training, and I can say that the platform is technically very interesting for me and my students. Having started immediately by testing the different features, I am now sure that the platform will help teachers to face the world of cloud with their students.” Students the age of legal majority and older also have access to Oracle cloud through the program. Educators easily can provision student accounts, and classes are up and running in a cloud environment without the need to download, install or maintain software or databases. Access to Oracle Academy database curriculum also is available in multiple languages. Through the program, teachers and students enjoy always free access to developer tools including Oracle Application Express (APEX) for low code Web application development, SQL Developer Web for working with Oracle Autonomous Databases, SQL Notebooks for Machine Learning, Oracle REST Data Services for web interfaces, and Oracle Instant Client for the most popular programming languages. For teaching and learning, they can learn new technologies including Autonomous Database, Compute VM, Linux, AI/ML, and digital assistants, and develop in SQL, NoSQL, APEX, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP, and Ruby.  

The new Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides Oracle Academy Institutional members with always-free access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute Virtual Machines (VM), object...

The Oracle Academy Club in Romania provides a link between students from key universities and their future careers by providing them with an environment for learning valuable skills and giving them a taste of what it’s like to work at a large technology leader. Over the past five years, this ambitious cross-Oracle project took place in the Oracle Bucharest office, with more than 60 students having completed it successfully to date. Watch a video on the program here. This years’ club started in November 2019 and is due to complete in May 2020. Twenty students were selected to participate from Oracle Academy member universities in Bucharest: Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Politehnica University of Bucharest, University of Bucharest, Romanian-American University, Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest. The students attended workshops every week on various topics such as operating systems, database, WebLogic, Java, and soft skills related to careers. Each workshop is delivered by Oracle staff who are experts in their field. For this year’s club, the Oracle team who volunteered to train the students were: Marius Busuioc, Can Tepebag, Diana Ferreyra, Razvan Neacsu, Cosmin Petre, Octavian Arsene, Alexandra Patrascu, Victor Maghiari, and Bogdan Petcu, who also coordinates the project. The students take part in a weekly scrum meeting with Bogdan to simulate a real work environment and talk about the progress of their projects.  Now, with university campuses closed and Oracle staff working from home, the clubs have transitioned to a virtual environment. “The students this year are focused and determined; they take projects seriously and have shown excellent work even in a remote setting, and even working during the university Easter holiday, which never happened before. I was unsure how feasible it was to run the program remotely, but today I am happy I continued. I think that more than at any time in the past five years, our Oracle Academy Club members value our efforts,” said Petcu. “We have a very good mix of students who soon will be seeking permanent employment in the industry. In most years their success is a given due to high demand in the local job market coupled with their talent and education. Usually our program makes the difference in enabling students to find good jobs that they love and want rather than just any jobs available, Petcu said. “In 2020, however, we are making another kind of difference, a much less subtle and much more important one. With doubling unemployment in the last 30 days and youth unemployment over 10 percent in March, this year I estimate the difference we will make is students finding a job as they graduate, as opposed to when the global economy will recover,” he noted. Oracle Academy is grateful to our colleagues at Oracle for volunteering to work with these students and making the Oracle Academy Club a success in a challenging and changing environment—supporting the idea that the best investment we can make for the future is in education. Good luck to all the students including Darii Valeria (pictured)        

The Oracle Academy Club in Romania provides a link between students from key universities and their future careers by providing them with an environment for learning valuable skills and giving them a...

Now more than ever, virtual learning options developed by expert educators are critical resources that teachers need to keep learners engaged. Oracle Academy continues to support its member institutions and educators with essential 21st century curriculum, teaching and learning resources, software, and tools—all free and available using only a browser. Institutional membership in Oracle Academy is free, and offers institutions and educators a wealth of benefits, including robust and engaging curriculum centered on Java and database, developed by educators and mapped to international standards—plus Oracle Academy Education Bytes, workshops, and much more. In addition to curriculum and teaching resources, all easily accessible online in our learning management system, Oracle Academy offers free professional education and training, so educators can keep up on the latest technology and share their knowledge with students. Moving institutions to the cloud for virtual learning Oracle Academy is proud to collaborate with educators worldwide to provide virtual professional education and training on the free Oracle Academy program and the latest technology. In turn, many attendees take part in “train the trainer” programs in which they share their knowledge with other educators. For example, the new Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides Oracle Academy Institutional members with always-free access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier, Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute Virtual Machines (VM), object storage, data egress, and other essential building blocks and developer tools needed to create applications so educators and students can learn, build, and explore in the cloud. The University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji joined a virtual workshop on how to use the new Cloud program to enhance its educator and student experience in classrooms across the Pacific. USP is the first Oracle Academy Institutional member in Fiji, and offers programs through distance and flexible learning throughout its 14 campuses across the Pacific Islands. Oracle Academy is working with the university to provide the foundational computer science courses that impart relevant computing knowledge and industry skills. Michelle Gao, Oracle Academy country manager, and Jian Li, Oracle Academy principal instructor, provided educators with an online demonstration on how to sign up and register themselves and their students to use the cloud for classroom learning. In the same way, in Chile, Duoc UC, a non-profit, private higher education institution and a long-time member of Oracle Academy, is using the cloud program to provide teaching continuity to 6,000 computer science students. The program is supporting and training faculty to teach database modeling, database programming and other courses, helping them to deliver the courses remotely and using the cloud as a lab for students to practice, complete projects, and work on other tasks. At the University of Kansas Business School of Business, Analytics and Information Systems, academic areas are leveraging the new cloud program to teach students in new and interesting ways. Faculty use the Oracle Cloud Autonomous Database, Oracle Analytics Cloud, and Oracle R Studio to teach students how to manage, analyze, and visualize data. To learn about these technologies, students watch asynchronous short mini lectures with videos from faculty, Oracle experts, and other partners. They then access these Oracle products via the Oracle Academy Cloud Program from anywhere to complete their assignments. This has allowed students to make the required shift to the temporary online delivery of classes much more rapidly while minimizing the effect on the quality of their education. Providing online professional education to teachers worldwide The Ministry of National Education in Turkey (MoNE) recently launched a “distance education” program for teachers to support their professional and personal development. The ministry will open 17 virtual professional development training programs on various computing topics aligned with the country’s 2023 Education Vision. The training programs are accredited by UNESCO National Commission of Turkey. As part of this program, Oracle Academy is delivering Java Foundations and Database Foundations virtual training to 53 teachers across Turkey through May 2020, coordinated by Oracle Academy country manager Sena Aydogan. In Serbia, educators from numerous institutions successfully completed online Database Foundations training in March 2020 with Oracle Academy instructor Dusa Vukovic. These teachers are now prepared to teach courses in the subject and earned continuing professional development hours. Also in March, in Italy Oracle Academy held a virtual Programming with PL/SQL course for 23 educators, organized by Oracle Academy program manager Roberta Battagli. In Indonesia, Oracle Academy held a two-week long virtual training in database for 45 educators from top private and government universities in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and IT as part of its Fresh Graduate Academy, Digital Talent Scholarship. Additionally, 250 teachers in the country attended a live virtual interactive tour of the upcoming Oracle Academy Member Hub, which will offer members and students a cloud-based, sophisticated technology platform for teaching and virtual learning. The presentation was conducted in the local language by Nurul Huda, Oracle Academy country manager. Both educators and students had the opportunity to attend Knowledge Builder seminars in Latin America presented in Spanish and Portuguese by Oracle experts on topics including cloud, big data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, machine learning, and more. For students, Oracle Academy celebrated the global Girls in ICT event in April by holding a virtual Girls in ICT week event all across Latin America. The event, which welcomed young women students from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico, featured Oracle and Oracle Academy women leaders as inspiring speakers who shared personal stories about their career paths and working in tech. On a continuous basis, Oracle Academy collaborates with our valued institutional members and educators around the globe. We thank you for joining us in our mission to advance computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. Learn more at academy.oracle.com.

Now more than ever, virtual learning options developed by expert educators are critical resources that teachers need to keep learners engaged. Oracle Academy continues to support its member...

As a member of Oracle Academy’s philanthropic program, the University of the South Pacific (USP), based in Fiji, recently joined a virtual workshop on how to use the Oracle Academy Cloud Program to enhance their educator and student experience in classrooms across the Pacific.   USP is the first Oracle Academy Institutional member in Fiji, and offers programs through distance and flexible learning in a variety of modes and technologies throughout its 14 campuses across the Pacific Islands. It offers a wide range of academic programs and courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Oracle Academy is working with the university to provide the foundational computer science courses that impart relevant computing knowledge, industry skills, and confidence students need to take the next step into the workplace. Michelle Gao, Oracle Academy manager for Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, and Jian Li, Oracle Academy principal instructor, provided educators from the School of Computing, Information, and Mathematical Sciences with an online demonstration on how to sign up and register themselves and their students to use the cloud for classroom learning. The Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides access to Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute Virtual Machines (VM), object storage, data egress, and other essential building blocks and developer tools needed to create applications on top of Oracle Autonomous Databases. Gao and Li also provided the faculty with expert guidance on how to best use the teaching resources available to them from Oracle Academy. Dr. Vani Vasudevan, a Lecturer and Program Leader at the School of Computing, Information, and Mathematical Sciences, was particularly interested in the new Oracle Academy Cloud Program. “This is a great opportunity to increase our knowledge base with practical exposure to various services offered by the Oracle Academy Cloud Program. We are indeed proud to be a pioneer in exploring and using this program. We appreciate Oracle Academy for lending their constant support to academia, and in particular, the USP,” she said. The Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides Institutional members with access to the new Oracle Cloud Free Tier. The program provides Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as ‘Always Free’ services for educators and students to learn, build, and explore in the cloud free of charge and tailored to the unique requirements of educational institutions and educators. Educators receive training to teach students about Oracle Autonomous Database, which delivers unprecedented availability, performance, and security to drive innovation. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across the diverse and vibrant APAC region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership as it builds the best computing education courses for students.

As a member of Oracle Academy’s philanthropic program, the University of the South Pacific (USP), based in Fiji, recently joined a virtual workshop on how to use the Oracle Academy Cloud Program to...

The Ministry of National Education in Turkey (MoNE) recently launched a “distance education” program for teachers to support their professional and personal development while in-person education in all schools has been suspended for the remainder of the year. Within the scope of the program, the ministry will open 17 virtual professional development training programs for teachers on various topics in informatics in alignment with the 2023 Education Vision in Turkey. The training programs are accredited by UNESCO National Commission of Turkey and were created in collaboration with different international organizations and institutions, universities, academics and civil society organizations. As part of this program, Oracle Academy, in collaboration with MoNE, General Directorate of Teacher Training and Education, is delivering its Java Foundations and Database Foundations virtual trainings to 53 teachers across Turkey. The courses will support improving their knowledge and skills on Java programming and database concepts. The trainings began on April 6, 2020, and will be completed by May 7, 2020. Upon successful completion of the course trainings, the teachers will receive course completion certificates. Oracle Academy is proud to continue to provide robust virtual online computing education resources for the professional development of teachers across Turkey and to support the Ministry of National Education in Turkey’s strategic objectives.    

The Ministry of National Education in Turkey (MoNE) recently launched a “distance education” program for teachers to support their professional and personal development while in-person education in...

Serbian educators from numerous institutions within the country successfully attended and completed their Database Foundations training online with Oracle Academy on March 14 and 15, 2020.  Experienced Oracle Academy instructor Dusa Vukovic is busy working from home, ensuring Serbian and Montenegrin teachers can successfully complete their training in Java and database from home so they’re prepared to teach courses in these subjects.  The educators successfully attended the final part of their Database Foundations training, despite the short notice in a change of format from an in-class to virtual training event.  Thanks to Dusa (pictured) for her extraordinary engagement and hard work to ensure that each of the 21 teachers who connected to the online session successfully finished all the projects and exams. The educators not only earned their certificates of completion, but also valuable continuing professional development hours. They now are fully equipped to teach Database Foundations content to their students—also online. The schools involved in the program included: High schools: Sesta beogradska gimnazija Ekonomsko trgovinska skola Beograd Ekonomsko trgovinska skola Pristina ETS “Stari grad“ ETS “Mija Stanimirovic“ Gimnazija “Milos Savakovic“ Gimnazija Smederevo Knjazevacka gimnazija Matematicka gimnazija Politehnik skola za nove tehnologije Prva tehnicka skola Skolski centar Nikola Tesla STS Mihajlo Pupim Tehnicka skola “9. maj“ Tehnicka skola Beograd Primary schools: OS “Sveti Sava“ OS Trajko Stamenkovic Osnovna skola Sestre Pavlovic Osnovna skola Vladislav Ribnikar Working together in challenging times, educators can continue learning and teaching, as the Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides access to the Oracle Cloud Free Tier and offers educators and students the "anytime, anywhere" classroom in the cloud, meaning they can access teaching, learning and development materials using just an internet browser. We are proud of our Oracle Academy educators for their flexibility and dedication to teaching computing to help students succeed in achieving their dreams.

Serbian educators from numerous institutions within the country successfully attended and completed their Database Foundations training online with Oracle Academy on March 14 and 15, 2020.  Experienced...

We are facing unprecedented times, and educators across the globe are needing to adapt rapidly to new teaching challenges. Virtual learning has become the new norm and is necessary for the well-being of educators and students. Distance learning options and robust online learning resources play a critical role in educational institutions providing ongoing support for both educators and students. Oracle Academy continues to support its member institutions and educators through our 21st century curriculum and learning materials and tools, all available using only a browser. Institutional membership in Oracle Academy is free, and offers institutions and educators a wealth of benefits, including robust curriculum developed by educators and mapped to standards, software, and free learning materials. Learning assets include the following. Workshops  Oracle Academy hands-on workshops make computing fun and engaging, and offer a sample of Java- and database-centered computing to students. They include: Java workshops Java workshops introduce beginning learners to object-oriented programming using drag and drop interfaces to create 3D animations and 2D games and interact with the Finch Robot. Getting Started with Java Using Alice is designed for students with little or no programming experience and teaches basic Java programming concepts through developing 3-D animations in Alice 3.1.  8 Hours Creating Java Programs with Greenfoot engages students who understand basic programming concepts to create 2-D games using Java.  16 Hours Programming the Finch Robot in Greenfoot encourages students who have completed Creating Java Programs with Greenfoot to program an interface that makes the Finch Robot interactive using its light, proximity, and temperature sensors using Java in Greenfoot.  8 Hours Programming the Finch Robot in Java encourages students who have completed the Creating Java Programs with Greenfoot and Programming the Finch Robot in Greenfoot to program an interface that makes the Finch Robot interactive using its light, proximity, and temperature sensors using Java.  8 Hours Database workshop Solve It with SQL introduces databases to beginners, challenging students to play the role of a superhero and solve a series of crimes using a cloud-based database development environment.  8 Hours Curriculum To engage students in computer science, educators need rigorous, robust academic curriculum that sparks curiosity while teaching critical knowledge and skills. Educators can use our modular curriculum and learning resources to help learners expand knowledge, develop skills, and innovate. Our free curriculum and learning resources focus on database and Java, and are available in multiple languages, with exams, quizzes, and answer keys to show evidence of learning, plus How To Guides. All courses are available to Institutional members through the Oracle Academy learning management system platform. Courses include: Java Fundamentals | Java Foundations | Java Programming | Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning in Java | Database Foundations | Database Design and Programming with SQL | Programming with PL/SQL | APEX – Application Development Foundations Additionally, the Oracle Academy Cloud Program provides access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier to Oracle Academy Institutional members and their students. Member educators and their students can use the cloud for classroom learning, with access to always-free Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute Virtual Machines (VM), object storage, data egress, and other essential building blocks needed to create applications on top of Oracle Autonomous Databases. Plus, numerous Oracle Academy Education Bytes offer diverse learning experiences that reinforce key concepts and include hands-on labs, projects and challenges, and videos and presentations. Freely Accessible Resources For students, whether or not their institution is a member of Oracle Academy, a free online resource library is available, offering a variety of forums, sites, and learning materials. Plus, we collaborate with the Oracle Dev Gym, which offers fun individual workouts, quizzes and classes focused on Java and database that help students keep knowledge fresh.  The mission of Oracle Academy is to advance computing education globally to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. As part of Oracle corporate social responsibility efforts, we support communities around the world by making available free education resources to help educators make students college and career ready and to become digital innovators and leaders. Please join us.

We are facing unprecedented times, and educators across the globe are needing to adapt rapidly to new teaching challenges. Virtual learning has become the new norm and is necessary for the well-being...

To continue to serve member educators, Oracle Academy in Italy recently held a virtual online course, Programming with PL/SQL, for 23 educators and professors in March 2020. To support our members in Italy, where all schools and universities have been closed, the training course was delivered online with support from Oracle Academy instructors, as opposed to an online and in-class format. Attendees then were able to participate safely from the comfort of their own homes. The course was organized by Roberta Battagli, the local Oracle Academy program manager,(pictured)  who just celebrated 30 years with Oracle. Roberta has dedicated herself to ensuring smooth continuation of activities in Italy with the help of the Oracle Academy Cloud Program. Always showing innovation as well as responsibility, she has encouraged educators to sign up to Oracle Academy, which provides educators and their students direct access to Oracle Cloud technologies, curriculum, software, support, professional certification resources, and more. We thank Roberta for her continued support and all she does for Oracle Academy in Italy!  

To continue to serve member educators, Oracle Academy in Italy recently held a virtual online course, Programming with PL/SQL, for 23 educators and professors in March 2020. To support our members in...

On February 9, 2020, a “Digital Girls” event supported by Oracle Academy took place in the Junior Achievement StartUp Hambar in Sofia Tech Park. The event was attended by 30 young women ages 18 to 29 who are interested in IT, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.  Our thanks to our Oracle Bulgaria colleagues (pictured) who gave inspiring presentations during the event: Velina Topalova - Public Sector Account Manager Daniela Milanova - Cloud Technology Customer Advisor Nadia Lazarova - Principal CX Consultant Our Oracle colleagues shared their experience and explained the personal and professional skills and traits they needed to succeed in business. The event offered a collaborative and friendly atmosphere, with the presenters from Oracle adopting an open approach to invite audience participation while providing valuable guidance and advice based on their personal experience, which was really appreciated by the girls attending the event. Following these great presentations, there was an hour of questions and answers where these girls, living in today’s digital world, shared their common challenges, ideas, experience and knowledge. In Bulgaria, activities and events where students have the opportunity to meet with working professionals and practitioners are rare, and the students were eager to attend and discuss their futures with experienced practitioners and obtain relevant advice from industry professionals. “Digital girls” is a very special and valuable event, and our “Oracle digital girls” and the Oracle Academy team agreed that this is a first but not last event of this kind. We thank our Oracle volunteers for sharing their valuable time and knowledge.    

On February 9, 2020, a “Digital Girls” event supported by Oracle Academy took place in the Junior Achievement StartUp Hambar in Sofia Tech Park. The event was attended by 30 young women ages 18 to...

  Oracle Academy in Saudi Arabia is a proud supporter of the King Saud University (KSU) Skills Development Department (in Arabic), which educates students and assists them in becoming “job ready” using the latest technology skills development programs available. The university has invested time and effort forming the “Jahez” program, which means “Ready.” This program has more than 14 faculty, administrators, and staff to deliver and manage it. It runs every year and includes an Oracle technology track, which offers Oracle Academy curriculum, including the Programming with PL/SQL course. This course enables students to gain the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to pass the professional certification exam and become Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associates (OCA). Recently, 40 students graduated from the Jahez program, the majority of whom were senior Bachelor of Computer Science students, alongside some Master Degree students. As an Oracle Academy institutional member, King Saud University is eligible for discounts of 50 percent on Oracle certification practice exams through Kaplan IT Training, and receives discounts of 25 percent on Oracle certification exam vouchers. Members can access these benefits in the Member site under “Discounts” on the home page. Congratulations to these students, and thank you to all the dedicated university educators and staff who support their students’ future career development, and to Najla Alkebsi for supporting  Oracle Academy in Saudi Arabia.    

  Oracle Academy in Saudi Arabia is a proud supporter of the King Saud University (KSU) Skills Development Department (in Arabic), which educates students and assists them in becoming “job ready” using...

At the most recent Oracle Academy Day, on February 11, 2020, Oracle Academy staff welcomed 20 students of systems engineering from the Universidad del Valle de México (UVM). At this event, Oracle Academy staff and Oracle volunteers encouraged the students and inspired them to be disruptive, to innovate their thinking about the issues of everyday life, and to develop skills that will open doors for them in the labor market. Carlos Aguilar, Oracle Solution Engineering Director, presented students with innovation topics, emphasizing the skills that have been required to make changes in history and the products that have revolutionized the current era. He said, “we have to be prepared for change; it's the only constant.” Johan Franco, NetSuite Direct Sales Manager, explained to the UVM community the benefits of this solution, describing the large number of companies that have NetSuite. The students had the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the relevance and robustness of NetSuite, which is the world’s leading cloud-based business management software that connects business information systems, accounting and accounting information systems, sales and marketing, retail and eCommerce, and supply chain, warehouse management, and logistics. Fernanda Pazarán, a student intern, talked about how technology also solves social problems. The students carried out an activity where the purpose was to generate a project where a technological tool is applied while at the same time meets a UN Sustainable Development Goal. Subsequently, Carlos González, Associate Solution Engineer, and Alberto Álvarez, a student intern, spoke about emerging technologies: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Chatbots and Blockchain. The students learned about their applications in real and everyday cases. The final talk was given by student internOsvaldo Barrientos, who spoke about the "economy of an enterprise," where he talked about issues of technological innovations and their economic implications. The student interns are part of an exciting program, GenO, or Generation Oracle, an internship program for students interested in different careers and offering different visions. The project started in May 2019 and runs through November 2020. In Latin America, more than 70 students are participating, rotating through one career area per quarter.  “I already knew Oracle, but I did not imagine that it was more. Today I take a positive image, I loved the event,” said one student attendee. Thank you to our Oracle Academy volunteers for their participation in this event! To volunteer, send an email to: oracle-academy_mx@oracle.com.

At the most recent Oracle Academy Day, on February 11, 2020, Oracle Academy staff welcomed 20 students of systems engineering from the Universidad del Valle de México (UVM).At this event, Oracle...

On February 5, 2020, the first Oracle Academy Day of the year was held in Mexico. We were pleased to receive 18 students from the Technological University of Nezahualcóyotl and the University of the Americas of Mexico City. The GenO’s, the intern group of Oracle Mexico, delivered five talks to the students. Carlos González and Alberto Álvarez talked about emerging technologies, deepening the students’ understanding of issues around blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital assistants, and more. Levi Rodríguez carried out a demonstration of Oracle Autonomous Database, from its operation to the creation of the database, to its visualization and data analysis. Security expert Adolfo de Moure spoke about the importance of strengthening and securing databases and what this means for customers. Luis Alcántara transmitted to students and teachers concepts of programming, and later conducted an activity on executing it. To conclude the event, Fernanda Pazarán and José Clemente Orozco presented success stories where Oracle solutions have helped improve processes in various industries, and also reminded all attendees of the benefits of belonging to the Oracle Academy, discussing the free curriculum and resources we provide to educators and students. “I enjoyed giving the talk. I want to do it again and also discuss other topics,” said Levi Rodríguez, a member of GenO.  In each of the presentations, the students were encouraged to think “disruptively” to develop skills that will open doors to them in the labor market. These types of events inspire students to learn about Oracle technologies and solutions. One of the benefits that universities and other educational institutions receive by being part of Oracle Academy is that they can attend events such as this where students learn about the most important technology issues in the world today. We thank our Oracle volunteers for sharing their knowledge and expertise with the students.

On February 5, 2020, the first Oracle Academy Day of the year was held in Mexico. We were pleased to receive 18 students from the Technological University of Nezahualcóyotl and the University of the...

In February 2020, Oracle Academy Latin America signed two new partnership agreements covering more than 90,000 students in Honduras and El Salvador. These agreements will help both countries provide free industry-relevant computing education curriculum and technology resources to students and provide them with the workforces and digital capabilities they need to compete in the 21st century. In San Salvador, El Salvador, on February 6, 2020, Oracle Academy signed an agreement with the Government of El Salvador through its Secretariat of Innovation. The agreement will promote computer science as a mechanism of economic and social development, providing programming courses in educational curriculum, and will benefit 87,000 students and 3,200 teachers from seven Megatec centers and 350 schools in the FOMILENIO II project. The agreement aims to train these educators in Java and database skills. Java is a programming language used in 97% of business computers in the world and more than 3,000 million mobile devices, making it a key tool for the development of future generations.  As the program’s first phase, 200 teachers will be trained, followed by a “train the trainer” program to spread knowledge to more teachers. Over the three years of the agreement, educators also will receive information on and training in using the Oracle Academy online learning platform, curriculum, and learning resources. This agreement is part of the government strategy of President Nayib Bukele and his commitment to provide new tools to young people to face the challenges demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and help them compete for better job opportunities and a different future than they face today. The strategic plan was developed and coordinated by the Ministry of Education (MINED) and the Secretariat of Innovation of the Presidency of El Salvador.  For the Ministry of Innovation, working with education programs is one of the main axes within the recently launched Digital Agenda. The Secretary of Innovation, Vladimir Handal, notes that technological conditions must be promoted and enabled for the academic sector to develop skills that today are demanded in the labor sector and that open opportunities internationally. “Our challenge is to update the educational curriculum, and that young people from their basic education learn to program in Java,” he said. On February 4, 2020, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Oracle Academy signed an alliance with the Honduras Ministry of Education to benefit more than 3,000 students in 12 public schools, four Women's City (Cuidad Mujer) centers, and six INFOP regional offices.  The agreement will promote computer science as a mechanism of economic and social development within the country. More than 3,000 Honduran students will receive programming classes within their educational curriculum, and more than 190 teachers will be trained in teaching Java and database technologies over three years. As a first phase, 70 teachers will be trained in 2020, and those teachers will then share their knowledge gained with the rest of the educators involved in the project. Through these resources, teachers and students are expected to learn fundamental computing knowledge and skills, which is in great demand in the area. The aim is to improve the employability of the country’s youth and the competitiveness of the country. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), by 2025 each person connected in the world will have approximately 4,900 digital interactions per day. This is, on average, a digital interaction every 18 seconds, so it is essential to understand that the digital world is not only growing, but also presents a challenge of adaptation for companies, organizations, and governments around the world. Oracle Academy is pleased to be able to greatly impact the lives of the youth of these two countries with these initiatives. Learning computer programming entails the development, in a very accelerated way, of other competences that are highly valued in all fields, such as creativity and innovation, the capacity for problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, and the creation and use of technology—all of which are essential in all fields, and particularly for success in the digital world in which we live.  

In February 2020, Oracle Academy Latin America signed two new partnership agreements covering more than 90,000 students in Honduras and El Salvador. These agreements will help both countries provide...

In the first week of February 2020, Oracle in Ireland welcomed 40 Transition Year students to the annual Transitional Year (TY) program run by the Human Resources team. The participants are all family members of Oracle employees. This week-long program is jam-packed with insightful activities hosted by numerous lines of business, including Oracle Direct, Business Development Group, Oracle Academy, Human Resources & Recruitment, Finance, and Manufacturing & Distribution, to name a few. All the students were introduced to Oracle and its culture by experiencing sessions on Recruitment, Coding, Sales Storytelling, Digital Selling, Career Development, and many more. The aim of this program is to provide the students with a taste of the working world here at Oracle, support their life skills development, and help aid them in making future career decisions. As always, the students had a fun time exploring and developing their technical skills, and all staff encouraged them to take their learning further. The program gets great traction each year and is something that our employees greatly value. It is an opportunity for them to share their work life with their family members. Oracle Academy was delighted to again take part in this event by lending staff support, with Gary Miller, EMEA Training Instructor, and Willie McCabe, Senior Director, Member Education and Curriculum Development, (both pictured) on hand to teach the students the basics of data visualization and introduce them to Java programming through the Oracle Academy introductory Creating Java Programs with Greenfoot workshop. All Oracle employees have access to Oracle Academy curriculum and teaching resources, and we encourage all of our colleagues to avail themselves of these resources, which also are available free to educators to enhance computer science learning in the classroom.    Thanks also go to Iris Lanny, Oracle Academy Country Manager for the UK and Ireland, and Orlaith Lawton McCormack, Senior Marketing Manager, Oracle Academy EMEA, ( both pictured) for making possible our contribution to this event.    

In the first week of February 2020, Oracle in Ireland welcomed 40 Transition Year students to the annual Transitional Year (TY) program run by the Human Resources team. The participants are all family...

In collaboration with Oracle Women’s Leadership and Wtech—Association for Women in Technology, Oracle Academy collaborated to organize the Information Age & Emerging Technologies Conference, which brought together 60 university students, faculty, women leaders in technology and Oracle executives in Istanbul on February 4, 2020. The next wave of digital transformation is changing the traditional ways of doing business and employment in all industries. Therefore, it is important to provide students with the necessary digital skills, support them in keeping up with technological advancements, and create a gender-balanced qualified workforce. Supporting women to pursue STEM-related careers and empowering them to reach their leadership potential is at the heart of Oracle Women's Leadership (OWL)'s mission.  Recognizing the importance of creating a digitally skilled and gender balanced future, this conference aims to support university students and faculty in learning the latest developments in emerging technologies such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, DevOps and IoT. Attendees also had the opportunity to explore Oracle Academy computing education resources, including free access to the Oracle Cloud Free Tier and Autonomous Database through the new Oracle Academy Cloud Program. https://academy.oracle.com/en/solutions-cloud.html During the keynote speeches, Oracle VP of Advanced Customer Services, EECIS Leader Bircan Arslan, emphasized the importance of women's participation in technology, as it is important for creating an economically and socio-culturally more livable world, she noted. She also stated that we contribute to students’ professional development by supporting them with necessary digital skills to keep up with technological advancements in their future workplaces. Digital transformation, she said, is becoming the most important agenda of every sector, and therefore creating a qualified and gender-balanced workforce has become vital.  As part of the conference, a “Leading Women in Technology” panel presented, moderated by Board Chair of the Association for Women in Technology Zehra Oney. Inspirational women leaders in technology who participated included Oracle Cloud Solutions VP, EMEA, Pınar Rua Aksu, TUBISAD – Chairman of the Board, TFI – CTO Erman Karaca, and Garanti Bank BBVA Technology Executive Vice President Sebnem İpekci. They shared their inspirational career stories, tips for success, and the importance of adapting to change via constant personal learning and development. They also shared encouraging and motivating insights on the future of women in technology. Oracle Academy also organized a small contest on technology topics presented during the conference, which involved five students who gave the correct answers to technical questions receiving the award of mentoring support by Oracle executives. Special thanks to all participants, Oracle Women’s Leadership in Turkey, Wtech Turkey, our inspirational women panelists, and Oracle Solution Engineers who delivered extensive presentations on emerging technologies at the conference. Oracle Academy could not be a success in helping students become future technology innovators and leaders without our collaborations with like-minded partners and our dedicated volunteers willing to share their valuable knowledge and expertise.  

In collaboration with Oracle Women’s Leadership and Wtech—Association for Women in Technology, Oracle Academy collaborated to organize the Information Age & Emerging Technologies Conference,...

Students from the Computer Science Department, Ciputra University, Surabaya City, Indonesia, recently visited the Oracle Singapore office. The study tour sought to increase the students’ insight and knowledge of various world-class institutions and companies. The goal was to expose them to information and opportunities for developing successful startups, how to use information technology abroad, how to work in world-class information technology companies, and to understand various information technology implementations. With the support of Oracle Academy Country Managers in Singapore and Indonesia, the university teachers and students visited the Oracle Solution Center of Japan Asia Pacific, located in Fusionopolis, Singapore, across from the launchpad known as Singapore’s "Silicon Valley." On this visit, Francis Han, Senior Director of the Oracle Solution Center, received the students, who were briefed about Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision, as well as Cloud technology offered by Oracle. They also had the opportunity to see and 'selfie' the Cloud server space owned by Oracle in this office.   The student visit from Ciputra University later was followed by a visit from students from the Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung City, Indonesia, made possible through their membership in the Oracle Academy program. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership that are working to build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Students from the Computer Science Department, Ciputra University, Surabaya City, Indonesia, recently visited the Oracle Singapore office. The study tour sought to increase the students’ insight and...

by William McCabe, Senior Director, Member Education & Curriculum Development, Oracle Academy In your global classroom, wouldn’t it be wonderful to take advantage of Oracle Cloud technology for teaching and learning for your anytime/anywhere students? Imagine one-time classroom setup, access to the latest cloud services, and with no maintenance, patching or upgrades needed, saving hours of time. As a former teacher, that would have been my dream. Now, the new Oracle Academy Cloud Program makes this a reality for higher education teachers and their students, providing access to Oracle Cloud to Oracle Academy Institutional members for classroom teaching and learning to prepare students to become tomorrow’s technology innovators and leaders. Through the Oracle Academy Cloud Program, Oracle Academy Institutional members have access to two services: Always Free Cloud Cloud Credits 2 Oracle Autonomous Databases, each database with up to 1 OCPU and 20GB storage, and Autonomous Data Warehouse or Autonomous Transaction Processing US$300 free cloud credits for one year (expire after 365 days) 2 Compute Virtual Machines, each with 1/8 OCPU and 1GB memory Credits can be used to try a wide variety of additional cloud-based services such as Analytics, Integration, Kubernetes, Digital Assistant, Big Data, and manage always free services that consume larger capacities. See https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/ for a full list. The credits should not be used for general teaching and learning. 100 GB block storage (boot/block volumes), with up to 5 free backups for free volumes, up to a total of 500 GB free volume backup   10GB object storage, 10GB archive storage, and 50,000/month API requests   Load balancer, 10Mbps bandwidth   10TB/month outbound data transfer     Member educators and students may access always free Oracle Autonomous Database, Compute VM, object storage, data egress, and other essential building blocks developers need to create applications on top of Oracle Autonomous Databases. Plus, they receive US$300 of free credits for one year to prototype applications, run machine learning models in notebooks, or try software from Oracle Cloud Marketplace. Supported by Oracle Academy’s comprehensive curriculum and hands-on labs, educators and students can teach, build, learn, explore, and develop in the full functionality of Oracle Autonomous Database, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Compute VM and other essential building blocks in the classroom. Easy signup from the Oracle Academy member site enables Institutional members to request, sign up for, and access the Oracle Cloud console. A few key points: Educators easily can provision student accounts, and classes are up and running in a cloud environment without the need to download, install or maintain software or databases.   Access to accompanying Oracle Academy database curriculum―Database  Foundations, Database Design and Programming with SQL, Programming with PL/SQL, and APEX – Application Development Foundations―is available in multiple languages.   Teachers and students enjoy always free access to tools including Oracle Application Express (APEX) for low code Web application development, SQL Developer Web for working with Oracle Autonomous Databases, SQL Notebooks for Machine Learning, Oracle REST Data Services for web interfaces, and Oracle Instant Client for the most popular programming languages.   You can quickly start cloud services and learn new technologies including Autonomous Database, Compute VM, Linux, AI/ML, and digital assistants, and develop in SQL, NoSQL, APEX, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP, and Ruby. Best of all, access to the Oracle Cloud through the Oracle Academy Cloud Program is always available to teachers and students, in and out of the classroom, using only an Internet browser. We at Oracle Academy are pleased to be able to provide this new benefit to Oracle Academy Institutional members. We hope all higher education faculty who are not yet members of Oracle Academy join us to take advantage of this exclusive access to the Oracle Cloud Free Tier for classroom teaching and learning. We are delighted to provide our members with the latest autonomous database features and computing power available as they prepare students to become tomorrow’s technology innovators and leaders. Learn more at academy.oracle.com/cloud.

by William McCabe, Senior Director, Member Education & Curriculum Development, Oracle Academy In your global classroom, wouldn’t it be wonderful to take advantage of Oracle Cloud technology for teaching...

Oracle Academy in Saudi Arabia is building strong relationships with academia to enable young students who wish to develop a career in the technology sector, to align with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. A recent event and a great example of collaboration was with the Princess Norah in Abdulrahman University, where Oracle Academy enabled more than 800 national female students to study Oracle Database using our online curriculum. “In collaboration with Oracle Academy, we proudly have taught more than 800 students with the Oracle Academy Database Foundations course. The course is aligned with one of the college’s introductory database courses. Our goal is to upskill our female professionals, expand their capabilities, and bridge the gap between academia and industry,” said Dr. Hanan Al Mengash, dean of the Computer and Information Sciences College at the university. This initial step was followed by further collaboration when a special speaker from Oracle headquarters, Heather VanCura, Group Director, visited Saudi Arabia for the first time to meet with the new generation of developers and innovators, with a focus on females. The dean invited Heather to hear from the university’s staff and students on computer and information sciences programs. Heather’s support is much appreciated, especially in relation to the upcoming launch of the PNU Women’s initiative, which plans to host her as a guest speaker to empower women and encourage them to peruse their aspirations either in academic or professional fields. Heather also supports the Oracle Academy program, Oracle Women Leadership (OWL), and Java communities across the globe. Oracle Academy looks forward to continuing to work on this important collaboration with the university.

Oracle Academy in Saudi Arabia is building strong relationships with academia to enable young students who wish to develop a career in the technology sector, to align with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s...

Oracle Academy recently supported Taiwan’s leading education expo dedicated to educators: EDTECH TAIWAN. This event, which took place in December in Taipei, was organized by the Taipei Computer Association and Ministry of Science and Technology, and is now Taiwan’s signature education event. The Expo brought together more than 300 exhibitors and over 3,500 Taiwan educators and school leaders, providing a platform for attendees to discover the latest developments in educational resources and learning technology. This year Oracle Academy Country Manager in Taiwan, Francine Yang, delivered a session, “Think Autonomous and Find More Time to Create,” that introduced the new Oracle Academy Cloud Program. This new benefit for Oracle Academy Institutional members will be available in early 2020 for educators and students and will provide cloud for the classroom with access to Oracle Cloud Free Tier. Oracle Cloud Free Tier includes the new Always Free services―Oracle Autonomous Database and Gen 2 Cloud infrastructure―available for an unlimited time for classroom teaching and learning. Francine let educators know that as members of Oracle Academy, they would enjoy an easy, accelerated signup process and would be able to integrate the most comprehensive, robust cloud technology and the latest database features and computing power available today as they prepare students to become tomorrow’s technology innovators and leaders. Along with robust academic curriculum and resources, the new Oracle Academy Cloud Program makes Oracle Academy a global leader in computing education for educators and their students. As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. The program engages with thousands of educational institutions and educators in more than 120 countries, helping millions of students become college and career ready.  

Oracle Academy recently supported Taiwan’s leading education expo dedicated to educators: EDTECH TAIWAN. This event, which took place in December in Taipei, was organized by the Taipei Computer...

Dian Nuswantoro University (Udinus) recently hosted a conference for the Indonesian Association of Higher Education Informatics and Computers (APTIKOM) in Semarang City, Central Java. The event was attended by more than 300 tertiary institutions that have computational study programs, both private and public, from all over Indonesia, and was opened by Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo. The APTIKOM conference theme was "Strengthening Economic Communities through Creative Industrial Innovations in the Era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0", as APTIKOM continues to develop digitally literate human resources to embrace the ‘Industrial Revolution 4.0.’ Presentations from industry included a session by Oracle experts Alvin Pryana, Principal Solutions Consultant, and Gumilar Sentosa, Autonomous Database Specialist, from Oracle Indonesia, entitled “Achieving the Vision of Industry 4.0 with Oracle Autonomous Cloud.” At the conference, Oracle Academy was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the General Chair of APTIKOM, Professor Zainal A. Hasibuan, PhD. “By partnering with Oracle Academy, APTIKOM has been exposed to the core technologies used across industries around the world providing free professional development and bringing computing skills and hands-on industry-relevant experience to the students for their future. Various events both virtual and face-to-face for faculty and students broaden their insight to stay abreast of technology developments and reduce the gap between education and the needs of industry,” he noted. In awarding the certificate, he said, “All of these events make Oracle Academy an APTIKOM Strategic Partner, especially introducing state-of-the-art Oracle technology. Therefore we proudly award Oracle Academy with a Certificate of Appreciation for being an outstanding contributor as strategic partner in advancing computer science education.” Over the past three years, more than 950 faculty from 176 universities in 19 provinces in Indonesia have participated in database and Java programming training with Oracle Academy. The educators also have participated in technology-related professional development and learning events through Oracle Academy Educator Days and Knowledge Builder sessions with expert speakers from Oracle.  Students from Oracle Academy member institutions also had the opportunity to engage with Oracle through virtual webcasts and visits to the Oracle Indonesia offices, providing unique experiences as they received expert presentations on topics such as Blockchain, exploration of computer science subjects and career paths, the Internet of Things (IOT) smart devices, and most recently, on Oracle Application Express (APEX). Over the past three years, more than 10,000 students have joined these events. The Certificate of Appreciation was humbly accepted by Nurul Huda, Oracle Academy Country Manager for Indonesia and Malaysia. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Dian Nuswantoro University (Udinus) recently hosted a conference for the Indonesian Association of Higher Education Informatics and Computers (APTIKOM) in Semarang City, Central Java. The event was...

In November 2019, Kroton Educational teachers spent a week advancing their Java knowledge. They attended the Oracle Academy Java Fundamentals training at Anhanguera Vila Mariana University. These professors, who teach a variety of disciplines, were able to hone their Java skills and learn about new Java resources available to them through the Oracle Academy program, including theoretical curriculum and hands-on labs for classroom practice. Both are useful in helping them share knowledge with students and provide them with hands-on practice for practical application and experience. During the training, Oracle expert Daniel Uehara also conducted a “Frame the Challenge” session to bring clarity to challenges they will find in introducing these learning tools into the student learning experience. Kroton Educational is an Oracle Academy program member, and these teachers, who are now part of our member community, will be able to share their knowledge with all Kroton participants in Brazil.  We look forward to our ongoing partnership with Kroton Educational as we strive to promote computer science education for teachers and students throughout the country and region.

In November 2019, Kroton Educational teachers spent a week advancing their Java knowledge. They attended the Oracle Academy Java Fundamentals training at Anhanguera Vila Mariana University. These...

Oracle Academy is proud to continue its support for a key event on the national calendar in India—a nationwide hackathon for Girls in IT conducted by ACM-W. This year, more than 390 girls, comprising 130 teams, participated, mainly from southern, northern and western India. The first round of judging was conducted by 10 different judges until a shortlist of 20 teams was selected for further evaluation. Maria Choudhary, Principal Member, Technical Staff, from Oracle India, headed up the judging panel, which selected a final shortlist of 10 teams for the final hackathon held over two days at the Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research in Pune. First place was secured by ‘Team EVCA’ from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mandi. Second place was secured by ‘Team Landslide’ from Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), and third place was won by ‘Team Innovators’ from MIT Art, Design and Technology University, Pune. A Special Recognition Award was given to ‘Team DAS’ from first year Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies (SICSR), Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) in Pune. The winning teams’ topics were:   Team EVCA: Before- and after-effects of afforestation and deforestation. (Team members: Ruchika Sharan, Mehak Jain, Nishita)   Team Landslide: Building an Android application that uses AI technology for environmental protection. (Team members: Vedangi Wagh, Sarita Joshi, Nayan Sabin)   Team Innovators: Building the software application for the following parameters:   Fertility of the soil Condition of seed Amount of seed optimally produced (Team members: Suman Nimbalkar, Tanmayee Tathele, Maziya Fatima)   Team DAS: Water quality status (Team members: Shritama Sengupta, Diya Suthiv, Aditi Kanojia)   Oracle Academy is pleased to support this important national event focusing on girls in IT in India and the important work done by ACM-W supporting, celebrating, and advocating internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of computing fields. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Oracle Academy is proud to continue its support for a key event on the national calendar in India—a nationwide hackathon for Girls in IT conducted by ACM-W. This year, more than 390 girls, comprising...

On November 18-19, 2019, Oracle Academy attended for the first time the EdEX MENA  education conference in Dubai. I was delighted to see more than 1,000 educators attend the event and show a great interest in the Oracle Academy program.  I had the opportunity to present at the EdTech Leaders seminar and share the findings of the latest report on the importance of computing education for the next generation: Beyond Tech: The Rising Demand for IT Skills in Non-Tech Industries.  The report, produced by Burning Glass Technologies in collaboration with Oracle Academy, contains a data analysis of more than 150 million unique 2018 online job postings across the United States to identify the computer science skills employers’ demand in a wide range of occupations.  Discussion of the report generated much debate in the audience about the need for both K-12 schools and higher education institutions to prepare their students with skills in coding and computer science.  In addition, the importance of ensuring our educators have access to Continuing Professional Development learning (CPD) so they can keep up to date on and ahead of the latest technology was discussed. Oracle Academy provides our members with CPD accreditation when they complete training in our curriculum.

On November 18-19, 2019, Oracle Academy attended for the first time the EdEX MENA  education conference in Dubai. I was delighted to see more than 1,000 educators attend the event and show a great...

The picturesque Croatian city on the mouth of river Krka, Šibenik, is known for its beautiful Renaissance cathedral of St. James (pictured) as well as for being the oldest native Croatian city on the Adriatic coast. The city hosted from November 6-8, 2019, the 21st CARNET Users Conference, supported and sponsored again this year by Oracle Academy.  Known for two decades simply as “CUC” this event, organized by the Croatian Academic and Research Network (or CARNET), has grown into the largest national and regional conference dedicated to IT usage in education. This year’s event—themed “On the verge of possible” —hosted more than 1,150 educator participants. Many of the teachers from primary and secondary schools who attended are involved in the largest ever IT project in Croatian education, named e-Škole (e-Schools), managed by CARNET on behalf of Croatian Ministry of Education. Co-funded by the European Union for about 200.000.000 EUR, through its European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund programs, the e-Skole project aims to bring by the end of 2022 a broad range of state-of-the art technologies into all schools and classrooms in Croatia. It will create an environment in which teachers can leverage technologies to innovate teaching practices while preparing pupils to embrace technologies and prepare better for the rapidly changing labour market of the 21st century. It takes a great team to organize an event of such magnitude as the CARNET Users Conference, and congratulations go to everyone involved in the organization. Special thanks to the Programme Committee, led by Marijana Pezelj, for the opportunity to present Oracle Autonomous Database at the conference. A big thank you also goes to Morana Butković, Cloud Platform Consultant from Oracle Croatia, who presented the Oracle Cloud Autonomous Database that uses machine learning to eliminate human labour associated with database tuning, security, backups, updates and other routine management tasks traditionally performed by database administrators.

The picturesque Croatian city on the mouth of river Krka, Šibenik, is known for its beautiful Renaissance cathedral of St. James (pictured) as well as for being the oldest native Croatian city on the...

I was delighted to attend the first ever Oracle Academy Faculty Day hosted by the Higher College of Technology (HCT), Muscat, Oman, on November 21, 2019. More than 100 participants from different colleges and universities attended the event, as well as participants from the Ministry of Manpower, the Bank Dhofar, the Public Authority for Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Health, the DGHS, and the Ministry of Legal Affairs.  I had the opportunity to speak on the subject of “Advancing Computing Education” and why higher education should invest in computing education in collaboration with industry. My colleague Willie McCabe, Oracle Academy Senior Director for Member Education, spoke about the benefits of embedding Oracle Academy courses and resources into higher education curriculum and degree development programs, and other key Oracle Academy academic member benefits.  The participants were eager to discuss the rapid changes in education in an era of globalization and to debate how we can collaborate to implement new technologies to prepare our students for the Industrial Revolution 4.0.  My special thanks go to the Head of Department of HCT, Dr. Huda Al-Shuaily, and the Oracle Academy Coordinator, Ms. Ronette S. Rabanal, who not only were our most excellent hosts but also shared their experiences of being an Oracle Academy member for over 10 years.  The HCT encourages not only their staff but also their students to gain professional credentials to prove their computing skills, and motivates them to engage in a “world-class learning experience” to acquire the competencies that are aligned with the expectations of the job market, which will help them find success in their future careers. Find more details on the event on the HCT website.

I was delighted to attend the first ever Oracle Academy Faculty Day hosted by the Higher College of Technology (HCT), Muscat, Oman, on November 21, 2019. More than 100 participants from different...

Each year the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand (AMCHAM) recognises companies across Thailand that demonstrate excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To be considered, a company must meet key benchmarks of CSR practices, not just through individual projects or monetary contributions, but through an integrated approach to conducting business in a way that creates long-term economic and social value.     This year, at an event held in November 2019, Oracle Thailand proudly accepted an AMCHAM CSR Excellence (ACE) Award that recognized the contribution and impact of Oracle’s benchmark program, Oracle Academy. As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. The program engages with thousands of educational institutions and educators in more than 120 countries. In Thailand, the program supports more than 100 educational institutions and educators, helping thousands of students access world-class technology, expertly developed learning materials, and proven curriculum to help them become college and career ready. Accepting the award on behalf of Oracle was Taveesak Saengthong, Managing Director, Oracle Corporation, Thailand. “It was a great pleasure to represent Oracle at the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) CSR Excellence Awards in Thailand, and to receive the award in recognition of the great work that Oracle Academy is doing as part of their philanthropic program within the education sector,” he said. “With digital transformation as a key goal of government and private organizations alike for strong digital economy growth, we look forward to growing this presence in Thailand and supporting the country’s workforce development objectives.” Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Each year the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand (AMCHAM) recognises companies across Thailand that demonstrate excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To be considered, a company...

Faculty from Swinburne University of Technology, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Melbourne, Australia, spent a day with Oracle Academy for a refresher on how the Oracle Academy program’s free resources can support their curriculum and classroom activities. The participants were provided ‘deep dive’ sessions on the current offerings related to programming and database as well as a preview of the Oracle Academy Cloud Program that is due to be released to Institutional members in early 2020.   Swinburne University of Technology offers high-quality teaching and opportunities for students to engage with industry for real-world experience. Its information technology courses are based on the need for graduates to be technologically savvy in a world where technology is so much a part of daily life and could lead to a future in health, transport, finance, media, manufacturing, automotive and beyond. Oracle Academy is working with Swinburne faculty to provide the foundational knowledge and relevant industry skills students need to have the confidence to apply their knowledge in the workplace. Michelle Gao, Oracle Academy manager for Australia/New Zealand, and Jian Li, Oracle Academy principal instructor, gave a comprehensive session on the Oracle Academy program to help the participants understand how best to utilize the range of assets and tools that are available to them as part of the free and philanthropic program. Associate Professor Sebastian Ng, from the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, was particularly interested in the imminent availability of the Oracle Academy Cloud Program, which will provide Institutional members with access to the new Oracle Cloud Free Tier. The new program provides Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as Always Free services for educators and students to learn, build, and explore in the Cloud. Oracle Academy’s offering is free of charge and tailored to the unique requirements of educational institutions and educators. Educators will receive training to teach students about Oracle Autonomous Database, which delivers unprecedented availability, performance, and security to drive innovation. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Faculty from Swinburne University of Technology, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Melbourne, Australia, spent a day with Oracle Academy for a refresher on how the Oracle...

Oracle Academy in Brazil was pleased to recently support the Centro Paula Souza (CPS) Academic Hackathon Final event on November 5, 2019. This exciting event was attended by 10 finalist teams, among the 128 teams from 17 CPS schools that participated in the competition. The 10 teams presented their projects, which were evaluated by jury members consisting of 10 evaluators and attended by two Oracle collaborators: Patricia Teixeira (Oracle Academy) and Patricia Taniguchi (LAD Logistics Manager). The hackathon's goal was to create an education application. The Organic team was the winner of the competition, led by Professor Prof. Claudio José Silva from ETEC Machado de Assis, with the students Gabriel Victor dos Santos, Daniel Feliciano, Elisandra Trindade, Flavio Simplicio, and Vinicius Silva. This innovative team proposed an app designed to facilitate the learning of the organic chemistry discipline using artificial intelligence and augmented reality to identify chemistry’s glassware on classes.   Following the presentations, attendees had the opportunity to watch a Talk Show track, one of them led by Patricia Teixeira, which showed the impact that the Oracle Academy educational program has been having on students and teachers across the country. CPS is an Institutional member of Oracle Academy, and students are learning about Java and database using Oracle Academy curriculum and classroom resources. This knowledge certainly will help the students of the teams develop their applications. The Oracle Academy program is pleased to continuously support initiatives like this hackathon, as we believe they are a way to change students’ lives through innovation and creativity.

Oracle Academy in Brazil was pleased to recently support the Centro Paula Souza (CPS) Academic Hackathon Final event on November 5, 2019. This exciting event was attended by 10 finalist teams, among...

The Department of Information Management, Chung-Hua University (CHU), Taiwan, has been a member of Oracle Academy since 2005, utilizing the program’s free teaching and learning resources. Their students learn Oracle database management through a formal college curriculum and are subsequently qualified to take examinations for Oracle professional certificates to position them to start their careers with success. Dr. Lee Chi-Chung, chairman of the Professional Master Program of Advanced Database Management, said, “As of 2018, more than 3,000 students attending the university have taken the Oracle database management courses. Chung Hua University is a valued Academy member, and the relationship has been recognized as an outstanding example in education in Taiwan.” In addition to providing curriculum and resource support, Oracle Academy worked with Oracle Volunteers to share time and talents to support educators and students through mentoring, teaching, and coaching. These Oracle experts provided informative sessions, giving examples of how new technology is being applied to business. The AI+ Experience Centre recently inaugurated at CHU was the venue for an Educator’s Day event in Hsin-Chu City, Taiwan. Rick Chuang, Oracle Master Principal Solution Engineer, provided a session entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Service Application,” which demonstrated Oracle’s pragmatic approach to AI in business transactions.  In keeping with Chung Hua University's objective of trying to make students "job-ready," the Oracle volunteer experts provided an informative session that gave concrete examples of how new technology is being applied to business. Educators particularly liked the case study demonstration of insights derived from Oracle, and students enjoyed learning more about careers in technology and the way artificial intelligence is transforming business. Follow Oracle Volunteering on Twitter: @ORCLCitizenship

The Department of Information Management, Chung-Hua University (CHU), Taiwan, has been a member of Oracle Academy since 2005, utilizing the program’s free teaching and learning resources. Their...

The new wave of technological advancements such as cloud computing, automation and artificial intelligence continue to reshape economies and industries both domestically and around the world. As technology allow companies to hand over increasingly sophisticated tasks to machines, ensuring that students have the necessary digital skills to carry into the future workforce is much more important than in the past. While technological progress affect traditional jobs, it also creates new exciting ones. Recognizing the importance of continuing collaborations between industry and higher education institutions to prepare students for the future, Oracle Academy in Turkey held an Academic Roundtable event that brought together 15 faculty members and students from eight key universities. Participants from Koc University, Bogazici University, Yildiz Technical University, Galatasaray University, and others met in Istanbul on October 23, 2019, to discuss how to prepare for an automated future and provide graduates with the skills and technical competencies relevant to the future labor market. The participants had the opportunity to network and hear directly from Oracle Solution Engineers about the innovations and technologies triggered by digital transformation, such as cloud computing, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and discussed the challenges that they face in keeping up with this transformation. We also took a deep dive into Oracle Academy’s more tech-centric, computing education resources focused on building workforce skills. The event concluded with discussion around how teachers and students effectively utilize these resources and sharing best practices. Our thanks to all participating universities, faculty members and students.

The new wave of technological advancements such as cloud computing, automation and artificial intelligence continue to reshape economies and industries both domestically and around the world. As...

The picturesque Croatian city on the mouth of river Krka, Šibenik, is known for its beautiful Renaissance cathedral of St. James as well as for being the oldest native Croatian city on the Adriatic coast. The city hosted from November 6-8, 2019, the 21st CARNET Users Conference, supported and sponsored again this year by Oracle Academy.  Known for two decades simply as “CUC” this event, organized by the Croatian Academic and Research Network (or CARNET), has grown into the largest national and regional conference dedicated to IT usage in education. This year’s event—themed “On the verge of possible” —hosted more than 1,150 educator participants. Many of the teachers from primary and secondary schools who attended are involved in the largest ever IT project in Croatian education, named e-Škole (e-Schools), managed by CARNET on behalf of Croatian Ministry of Education. Co-funded by the European Union for about 200.000.000 EUR, through its European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund programs, the e-Skole project aims to bring by the end of 2022 a broad range of state-of-the art technologies into all schools and classrooms in Croatia. It will create an environment in which teachers can leverage technologies to innovate teaching practices while preparing pupils to embrace technologies and prepare better for the rapidly changing labour market of the 21st century. It takes a great team to organize an event of such magnitude as the CARNET Users Conference, and congratulations go to everyone involved in the organization. Special thanks to the Programme Committee, led by Marijana Pezelj, for the opportunity to present Oracle Autonomous Database at the conference. A big thank you also goes to Morana Butković, (pictured) Cloud Platform Consultant from Oracle Croatia, who presented the Oracle Cloud Autonomous Database that uses machine learning to eliminate human labour associated with database tuning, security, backups, updates and other routine management tasks traditionally performed by database administrators.

The picturesque Croatian city on the mouth of river Krka, Šibenik, is known for its beautiful Renaissance cathedral of St. James as well as for being the oldest native Croatian city on the...

As a part of their institution’s membership with Oracle Academy, 44 students from Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore recently visited the Oracle Singapore office to hear from a number of experts on topics relevant to their course of study.  Siva Ganeshanandan, Senior Director of Oracle Customer Experience (CX) in ASEAN, opened the session by sharing the Oracle strategy in Singapore before Kristin Ang, Oracle Academy Senior Operation Manager, introduced information about the Oracle Academy program and how Oracle Academy supports teachers and students in learning and understanding these in-demand technologies. The event’s keynote speaker, Julie Dura, Principal Solution Engineer, Oracle Singapore, provided the students with a technical session introducing the Oracle CX technology. Julie explained why brands care about CX, what Oracle does to help brands and consumers, and what the different CX capabilities are in the market. Julie’s session included a one-hour hands-on lab that had students role play in groups of two and use the knowledge they had just gained in the session to solve an actual customer problem. Barnabas Woon, manager of Diploma in Computer Engineering School of Engineering in Temasek Polytechnic, said, “Our students from the diploma in Computer Engineering at Temasek Polytechnic gained invaluable insight into the various roles and career prospects available in a technology company like Oracle.” Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

As a part of their institution’s membership with Oracle Academy, 44 students from Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore recently visited the Oracle Singapore office to hear from a number of experts on...

BRIDGE is a flagship conference of the ICT Academy in India that aims to bridge the industry-academia gap. BRIDGE is a confluence of educators, researchers, corporate, solution providers, NGOs and policymakers to find possible solutions and answers to some of the most challenging, critical and relevant questions being addressed in the journey towards transforming India. The conference serves as a platform in providing a strategic view on the trends that shape the educational ecosystem. Commencing in 2011, the BRIDGE conference has received an overwhelming response from all stakeholders of the knowledge ecosystem. Having reached multiple cities in India, it has emerged as the largest industry-institutional interactional event of Asia, with 40 editions completed to date. The most recent ICT Academy BRIDGE conference, with the theme of “Augmenting Skills, Accelerating Growth,” brought together government policymakers, industry experts and academic leaders to set an agenda for leaders to help people upskill and future-proof themselves. The conferences serve as a platform where visionaries lay their blueprint for the right skills mix where existing and upcoming workforce would augment rather than compete with technology. The conferences provide opportunities for the stakeholders to explore the exciting convergence of exponential technologies, connect with new people and ideas, and co-create a better India together. In 2019 so far, three events have been held in the cities of Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, with a total attendance of more than 560.  Oracle Academy is pleased to support the events as part of our long-standing and award-winning partnership with the ICT Academy in working toward the advancement of computing education across India. This support included participation by Oracle expert speakers who shared their knowledge and perspectives on key trends in education and technology: Sharath Babu, Director, Product Development, Oracle India, spoke of the challenges for academia in delivering quality education and constantly working to align itself with changing industry trends to produce industry-relevant talent. “The timely augmentation of the skills of the students will increase the industrial growth accelerators of productivity, scalability, and innovative tenacity,” he said. In Bengaluru, Lakshmi Venkatakrishnan, Software Development Director, Oracle India, presented on a similar theme, sharing that “Policymakers, academicians, institutes, and corporations should think about what can be done for the talent pool to hone up their skills accordingly. Even entrepreneurs should upgrade their technical skills, as there is a technological upgrade every 3 to 5 years.” He noted, “To acquire skills, you can avail the benefit of Oracle Academy that has been partnering with ICT Academy for a long time.” A further three conferences will be held in the coming months in Pune, Delhi, and Chennai. Details can be found via the BRIDGE website. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its Asia Pacific membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.    

BRIDGE is a flagship conference of the ICT Academy in India that aims to bridge the industry-academia gap. BRIDGE is a confluence of educators, researchers, corporate, solution providers, NGOs and...

Oracle Academy recently supported the 3rd conference of Interdisciplinary ICT and E2 Practise 2019 (IIPC 2019) in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, which provided contributions on research and sustainable ICT innovations from various disciplines including engineering, information technology, trade, finance, social science and education. The IIPC 2019 event was presented by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) with Politeknik Ungku Omar (PUO) and Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah (USAS) and PIT Synergy as co-organizers. Attendees included over 70 faculty/educators as well as deans and heads of computer science departments from key higher education institutions in Malaysia. Presentations were offered from researchers across a wide range of fields, including Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Bioinformatics & Biomedical Engineering, Computer Architecture & Technology, Computer Games, Computer Graphics & Virtual Reality, Computer Networks, and many more.   Representatives from Oracle were invited to be keynote speakers. Muhammad Shuja, Principal Cloud Solution Engineer, Oracle Malaysia, shared information on Oracle Cloud and Autonomous Database. Dr. Shazarin Binti Ahmad Zainuddin, Chairman of Technology & Communication, Politeknik Ungku Omar, Ipoh Perak, Malaysia, said, “We are pleased to have contribution from Oracle to provide a keynote speaker at this international event, to share Oracle’s expertise and experience on current technology trends and innovations, especially towards an IR4.0 environment in Malaysia.” The event was closed by YBhg Dr. Mohammad Naim Bin Yaakub, Chairperson, Education Office and Community College, Ministry of Education, Malaysia. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Oracle Academy recently supported the 3rd conference of Interdisciplinary ICT and E2 Practise 2019 (IIPC 2019) in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, which provided contributions on research and sustainable ICT...

Faculty and students from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, Ladkrabang, in Bangkok recently attended a knowledge builder event by Oracle as part of their membership with Oracle Academy. Boonchai Poonthan, Lead Solutions Architect, Oracle Thailand, provided a session entitled “Data Driven Digital Transformation” to help the students appreciate the role of data in transforming industry. Successful digital transformation builds on the modernization of the underlying data infrastructure combined with a clear strategy for data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). Data is a key asset in any organization and is the ‘rocket fuel’ for digital transformation. A solid data strategy will enable companies to modernize applications and gain insights into their data and help transform them to be the enterprise of the future, Poonthan noted. Associate Prof. Dr. Walailak Attirawong, from the institute’s Faculty of Science, said at the conclusion of the event: “I'd like to thank Oracle Academy for giving our students a very interesting topic, to show us not only Oracle in-depth but the changes that will occur in business and affect our curriculum. [The speaker] also gave us advance perspectives for better preparation to accommodate the change, especially with respect to data science and data analytics that are very important to us all.” Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its APAC membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.  

Faculty and students from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, Ladkrabang, in Bangkok recently attended a knowledge builder event by Oracle as part of their membership with Oracle Academy. Boonchai...

Oracle Academy, in collaboration with Collegiate Pathways, hosted hands-on learning workshops for high school girls in Florida by supporting the Tech Sassy Girlz conference in October 2019. This annual event, held in Central Florida, helps to bridge the learning gap for minority female high school students by providing relevant, thought-provoking, programming workshops to encourage life-long learning and future career endeavors in computer science and related technology fields. This is the sixth year Oracle Academy has sponsored the Tech Sassy Girlz conference, and this year’s event was recognized by the City of Orlando – Mayor Buddy Dyer declared October 11 “Tech Sassy Girlz Day.” The event has continued to gain popularity, this year reaching registration capacity of 400 with a waiting list of 100 prior to the day of the conference. Dr. Laine Powell, executive director of the organization, said, “The growth we are experiencing couldn't be without your support…thank you!” This year, with the help of Oracle ABLE volunteers, Raina Yancey, principal technical support engineer at Oracle, presented a hands-on workshop that guided students through various programming formats designed to engage the Finch robot through programmed commands. “ABLE volunteers taught the Tech Sassy Girlz how to program Finch robots with Greenfoot. The girls LOVED that they could use Greenfoot not only to create their own video games, but also to control a robot! It was a treat to see the smiles on their faces. Oracle Academy is helping us to inspire students in our community with enriching STEM curriculum that is completely free!” said Yancey. The Oracle ABLE team of volunteers continues to partner with Oracle Academy to support underrepresented students in learning and understanding current technologies before they graduate from high school. "Having opportunities for girls/women in particular to get into technology is a passion of mine,” said Leona Davis, Oracle principal technical support engineer. “I focused in on some of the peer to peer conversations during the day. Of the statements I heard, my favorite was from a Liberty MS student who said, ‘I never knew there were so many girls like me who liked this stuff!’ ” “Bringing Oracle Academy to young students to spark their curiosity makes my heart happy. After we finished the Greenfoot workshop for Tech Sassy Girlz, I heard the students commenting that they were going straight home to make a video game to play. That made my day! I feel we are making an impact on our community thanks to Oracle,” said Gabriella Nolivos, Oracle technical analyst. Oracle ABLE volunteers in Orlando proudly shared Oracle Academy workshop experiences with other ABLE communities at Oracle. Twitter posts from the event can be found on the @OVolunteers, @ABLEVolunteers, and @OracleAcademy accounts. Thank you to our dedicated Oracle ABLE volunteers: Raina Yancey, Funmi Ojo-Osagie, Leona Davis, Gabriella Nolivos, Edwin Wiggins, Marissa Mari Richards, Valerie Milligan, Ken Falana, Anita Bardeen, Ayana Beckford, Zyad Bawatneh, Regina Armaly, and Jasmine Walkerv, plus Dr. Laine Powell, Executive Director, Tech Sassy Girlz.

Oracle Academy, in collaboration with Collegiate Pathways, hosted hands-on learning workshops for high school girls in Florida by supporting the Tech Sassy Girlz conference in October 2019. This...

Through a recent agreement with the Unit of Higher Secondary Education Industrial Technology and Services (UEMSTIS), Oracle Academy has incorporated more than 400 institutions into its program in México to continue to advance computing education in the region. The Unit of Higher Secondary Education Industrial Technology and Services is a unit attached to the Undersecretary of Higher Secondary Education (SEMS), under the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) that offers upper middle level technology education. On August 15, 2019, Oracle Academy México and UEMSTIS signed a collaboration agreement that will benefit 456 schools throughout the country. With the signing of this agreement, 168 Centers for Industrial Technological and Services Studies (CETIS) and 288 Centers for Industrial Technological and Services Baccalaureate (CBTIS) will benefit from and will have access to the full Oracle Academy program curriculum material, classroom resources and technology, and educator training. Oracle Academy has worked with UEMSTIS since 2015 through our participation in Virtual Educa, one of the most important events about innovation in education in the region, celebrated in Guadalajara. The two organizations began collaboration work, with two campuses initially registered as a test. The response from educators to the program and its resources was so positive that more schools began to enroll, until the number reached more than 200 in two years. During this time, Oracle Academy provided more than 20 trainings in teaching Java and database to more than 400 teachers throughout the country. The signing of this agreement is the culmination of this successful collaboration and participation in various events and trainings together. Moving forward, 456 educational institutions in México will implemented Oracle Academy courses over the next three years with the objective of supporting nearly 40,000 students and 5,500 teachers. We invite you to watch our video with UEMSTIS (formerly DGETI) and learn about the experience of 60 UEMSTIS teachers who finished four Oracle Academy courses and who had the opportunity to visit the Oracle Development Center in Guadalajara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GKIoymtYZ8 Oracle Academy México continues to work with UEMSTIS to bring the Oracle Academy curriculum to teachers and students across the country, and in turn serve as a strategic ally to expand education in computer science and technology for the development and future of México.

Through a recent agreement with the Unit of Higher Secondary Education Industrial Technology and Services (UEMSTIS), Oracle Academy has incorporated more than 400 institutions into its program in...

Oracle Academy was delighted to participate in the 2019 Java Community Conference held in Taiwan in October. The event was attended by more than 450 participants, including developers, startups, tech companies and academics. The Java Community Conference is organized by the Taiwan Java User Group and centered around the Java programming language and related technologies. The conference offers a space for Java programmers to meet and discuss developments in Java, and provides a networking environment for meeting like-minded professionals. Oracle Academy delivered a session on how the Oracle Academy program is changing lives around the globe with computing education. Other presenters from Oracle included Sharat Chander, Director, Java Product Management & Developer Relations; Amitpal Dhillon, Regional Director for Oracle Labs, Asia-Pacific and Japan; and Ivan Tu, MySQL APAC Principal Sales Consultant. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Oracle Academy was delighted to participate in the 2019 Java Community Conference held in Taiwan in October. The event was attended by more than 450 participants, including developers, startups, tech...

Oracle Academy continues to add to efforts and collaborations throughout Latin America through the signing of collaborative agreements, thus enhancing the impact and scope of the program. In the Dominican Republic within the Caribbean region, the Digital Republic program has the objective of promoting inclusion of information and communication technologies in productive educational, governmental and citizen services processes. To help in these efforts, Oracle Academy signed a series of agreements benefiting and impacting more than 790 educational institutions, including more than 3,500 teachers and staff and more than 50,000 students in this country. These agreements included a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Ministry of Presidency of the Dominican Republic, Community Technology Centers (CTC) of the Dominican Republic and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT) of the Dominican Republic. Key actions already have been carried out around the execution of this agreement. During the week of July 29 to August 2, 2019, 37 facilitators of the Community Technology Centers (CTC) in the Dominican Republic met at the Training Center (CEFIJUFA) to receive training in the academic curricula of the Oracle Academy Java Foundations and Java Programming courses. For five consecutive days, the facilitators received training in Oracle Academy tools and education strategies to teach programming concepts. As of August, the CTC will incorporate the Oracle Academy program offerings in its education offerings at 42 CTC centers to impact a total of 100 participants per month. Additionally in the Dominican Republic, in the municipality of Boca Chica in the province of Santo Domingo, students learn programming concepts through the Eclipse development environment. As of March 2019, students took the Java programming course through Eclipse with the help of facilitator Yovanny Rodriguez. In this course, participants discovered that the Java programming language opens up endless opportunities for program development. The facilitator inspired them to pursue university studies in software development, so they enrolled in the Technological Institute of the Americas (ITLA) under Software Development Technician courses. In addition, in August 2019, we had the opportunity to meet Wagner Gonzalez and Josué Fontana, participants at CTC Boca Chica, who shared with us their learning experiences in Java. The goal of Wagner and Josué is to finish their studies at the ITLA and the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC), to become licensed in computer science, and then to create an application for payment transactions and market it. The Oracle Academy program continues to advance in the Dominican Republic. In November 2020, we will begin the execution of Java Fundamentals training for 18 additional institutions that are part of the MINERD. As Oracle’s global, philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computing education around the world to increase knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. The program helps millions of students become college and career ready and helps reduce the gap between available jobs and students prepared for careers in computer science.

Oracle Academy continues to add to efforts and collaborations throughout Latin America through the signing of collaborative agreements, thus enhancing the impact and scope of the program. In the...

I was delighted to attend the second EduTech Africa Conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on October 9 -10, 2019. This event brought together educators, MOE representatives, and educational NGOs from all over the African regions. The conference had the endorsement of the Department of Basic Education of South Africa. Oracle Academy was pleased to have a booth at the event to showcase our free educational classroom resources to the many attendees, who were interested in our program benefits and curriculum. We were able to demonstrate to local educators that the Oracle Academy curriculum in Java Fundamentals and Database Design and Programming with SQL are aligned to the South African Qualifications Agency. Our Oracle Academy Senior Director for Member Education and Curriculum Development Willie McCabe attended to deliver a presentation on “The Unbelievable Benefits of Cloud Computing in Education,” which was of great interest to the collective audience of educators and teachers.  Willie’s presentation also demonstrated how the Oracle Academy teaching resources can support learning and teaching in a cloud environment.  

I was delighted to attend the second EduTech Africa Conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on October 9 -10, 2019. This event brought together educators, MOE representatives, and educational...

On October 7-8, 2019, Oracle Academy supported the 2019 Utah STEMfest at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. Utah STEMfest offered students grades 6-10 the opportunity to experience fun hands-on activities in all areas of STEM, including seeing the inner workings of an electronic car, planting their own plants, and creating animations with Alice, a block-based, object-oriented programming environment based on Alice in Wonderland. Nearly 800 students visited the Oracle Academy booth to learn the basics of coding using Alice. Volunteers from the Oracle Lehi, Utah, office assisted students with Alice tutorials available through the new Oracle Academy Education Bytes. After students completed the tutorials, they received cards with a QR code that gave them instructions on how to download Alice at home for hands-on practice. Oracle Volunteers loved the opportunity to help students in their local community.  According to Judy Pierce, Senior Technical Support Engineer, “STEMFest is so much fun and such an awesome event for Oracle to support.  I know the kids were really excited about learning the Alice program, especially being able to download and practice at home! I hope to continue to see Oracle at these type of events; they really do make a difference!” Parents also appreciated the real-world, practical learning that students experienced at the Oracle Academy booth. A parent relayed the following: “This STEMFest is really great, but not a lot would impact my kids in the long term,” she said. “Except for Oracle’s booth: You guys are giving my kids something that they can take home with them and that really will help them prepare for their futures.” Oracle Academy is proud and honored to support STEM events for youth to help get them interested and engaged in computer science.    

On October 7-8, 2019, Oracle Academy supported the 2019 Utah STEMfest at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. Utah STEMfest offered students grades 6-10 the opportunity to experience fun...

On October 10, 2019, Oracle Academy closed the SEMINFO (Computer Week) and Sempescom (Research and Computing Week) events at Tiradentes University, in Aracaju, Southeast Brazil, with an engaging Oracle Academy Day event. The Oracle Academy Day had an extensive and activity-packed schedule. In the afternoon, a Robotics and Java Programming Workshop was led by Fabiana Valente, Oracle Academy Country Manager, and Patricia Villa Nova, Oracle Brazil, followed by a Hands-On with Oracle Cloud, led by Caio Bizaroli, Oracle Cloud Solutions Architect. Bizaroli noted of the event, “We want to bring some technology knowledge to the Northeast region and show the vast territory of opportunities that the IT industry can generate for new professionals’ future." In the evening, about 250 students had the opportunity to attend a series of lectures on "The Future of Work", which covered different aspects of how technology can help students obtain professional qualifications. The opening session was led by Richard Delgado, Director, Oracle Academy Latin America, followed by a lecture on “How to Potentiate Your Career” by Fabiana Valente. Victor Armbrust, Oracle Cloud Adoption and Consumption Manager, closed the event with a spectacular talk on “Emerging Technologies and IT Career Management.” Tiradentes University is an Institutional member of the Oracle Academy program. At the end of the event, students who had passed the Oracle Academy Java Foundations course were awarded certificates as the first class at the institution to have taken the course. I’d like to thank the university for the opportunity to hold this Oracle Academy Day. Events like this one, where we have the opportunity to be close to the students, make us very happy, because they meet Oracle’s mission of “change the world by empowering people through innovation.”  

On October 10, 2019, Oracle Academy closed the SEMINFO (Computer Week) and Sempescom (Research and Computing Week) events at Tiradentes University, in Aracaju, Southeast Brazil, with an engaging...

  For the fifth year running, Oracle Academy supported Oracle Code 4 Kids, hosted by Oracle Code One, which this year took place September 15, 2019, at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, just prior to Oracle Code One for developers and Oracle Open World. Designed to inspire the next generation of developers, Oracle Code 4 Kids offers youth ages 10 to 16 a day of unmatched technological fun. Kids animated with Alice, learned the language of Python, created Minecraft mods with Forge, built and programmed an mBot with Scratch, and more. They also had the opportunity to hear from keynote speaker Eric Brown, Executive Director of the Alice Project at Carnegie Mellon University. Fun, hands-on breakout sessions from which kids could choose included: Super Secret Spy Messages – A fun Python programming workshop in which kids built a simple cipher based on Caesar cipher concepts. Build Simple Games with JavaScript and HTML – Participants learned how to build web-browser-based games with JavaScript and HTML in an interactive session that covered the basics. Minecraft Modding with Forge – Kids learned to build Minecraft mods with Forge, spawn ender dragons from an egg, get an alert when a creeper is spawned, make explosive snowballs, and much more. Coding and Concepts with Java Puzzle Ball – Using Java Puzzle Ball, kids learned how to write object-oriented code, a staple of computer science education and the foundation of key programming concepts. Learning Programming with George – In this session, participants learned George Andante, a framework for learning programming. Kids created games, art, robotic instructions, or digital tools in a session oriented toward math, physics, chemistry, and language. Squishy Circuits – This beginner-level session let kids who had no previous experience in circuitry learn the basics of circuits through Play-Doh and clay, including the differences between insulative and conductive, parallel and series circuits, and different electrical components. Gotta Catch ‘Em All! Raspberry Pi and Java Pokémon Training – In this session, the Pokémon have escaped the laboratory and are running amok. Using a miniature Raspberry Pi computer, a 3D printed pokeball, and Java, kids could catch all the escaped Pokémon. Building and Programming a Robot with Scratch – This session involved building an mBot robot and constructing fun programs with Scratch, an easy-to-learn visual programming language, to make the robot flash lights, play sounds, and move. Exploring Java with BlueJ – Kids were introduced to Java and its implementation of object-oriented programming concepts through BlueJ, which offers visualization and the ability to create objects and interact with them. Solving Math with Java – Attendees learned certain variable types, including integers, doubles, and more, plus basic operations in Java, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and modulus—coming away with basic Java programming knowledge and an understanding of how a computer interprets code. Kids Coding Minecraft with ScraM – Kids used ScraM to make their own minigames, stories, and more in Minecraft. ScraM is built with Java and works like Java, so kids learn real skills while having fun, easily dragging and dropping code blocks in the graphical designer to control program flow or modify the Minecraft world. Animating with Alice – Kids had fun using Alice, an innovative, block-based, object-oriented programming environment that makes it easy to create animations, build interactive narratives, or program simple games in 3D to build immersive stories and worlds based on Alice in Wonderland. Introduction to Python – Participants got started learning Python, one of the easiest high-level programming languages to learn, with basic syntax, control statements, and the standard library. Introduction to Arduino – The Arduino Starter Kit gave beginners the opportunity to learn both the software and hardware aspects of Arduino: electronics such as LEDs and sensors, and programming in C++ language. Quantum Computing Workshop for Kids: Exploring Quantum Concepts While Playing a Game – This session offered an intro to quantum computing using a modified open source block-mining game, Minetest, with students using the web-based IBM Q Experience to create quantum circuits and applications. Programming the BBC micro:bit – Students got experience using the BBC micro:bit, a handheld programmable microcomputer that can be used for all sorts of cool creations, from robots to musical instruments. “The energy of the venue before the big Oracle Code One event was dwarfed by the excitement and impressive skills displayed by all of the students who attended the Oracle Code 4 Kids event,” said keynote speaker Eric Brown, Director of The Alice Project at Carnegie Mellon University. “It was fitting that the students were working in the same rooms as the upcoming professional workshops, because they definitely showed they are the future engineers who will one day be running the show.” To increase diversity and technology opportunities in computing, free registration codes were provided to many attendees, and all paid registration proceeds were donated to SBE and the Greene Scholars Program. Oracle Academy is proud to help inspire the next generation of tech innovators through programs like Oracle Code 4 Kids. Interested in holding a fun coding program in your area? Teachers, parents, and others can access free Oracle Academy Workshop in a Box materials.  

  For the fifth year running, Oracle Academy supported Oracle Code 4 Kids, hosted by Oracle Code One, which this year took place September 15, 2019, at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, just prior to...

SPŠE Ječná was founded in the 19th century as the first vocational school in the territory of the Bohemian part of Austrian-Hungarian Empire. In 1949, the school was renamed to the Secondary School of Electrical Engineering in Prague  (SPŠE Ječná). Seventy years later, more than 550 students ages 15-21 are enrolled in four-year courses in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. Some 250 of the students attend Oracle Academy technology courses, taught by nine of SPŠE Ječná’s teachers. The school was the first Czech school to join Oracle Academy and today it delivers the full range of database and programming courses. “Right from the first day, all IT and Electrical Engineering students learn Oracle Academy Java Fundamentals, and in year two they take Java Programming,” says Mr. Ondrej Mandik, the school principal. “To move to the third year, they must have passed the Oracle Academy Java Programming exam.”  Mandik learned how to teach Oracle Academy courses in 2005, starting with Database Design and Programming with SQL. Today, he and eight other faculty continue to teach that course, the Java curriculum mentioned above, and the recently introduced course Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning in Java. Now, he is responsible not only for implementing Oracle Academy courses at SPŠE Ječná, but in schools throughout the Czech Republic. In 2019, Mandik became an official Oracle Academy instructor for the country, and he has created a program to train staff at 30 other vocational schools. But, before doing so, there was a need to map the Oracle Academy curriculum offerings to the structure of Czech secondary school teaching. Mapping Curriculum to Fit the National Framework It took Mandik and his colleagues two years to get to the point where they could train other teachers in Oracle Academy courses. The challenge was that in Czech Republic, unlike in many other countries, there is no national curriculum to which Oracle Academy courses could be mapped. There is, instead, a national educational framework. What this meant is that to introduce new teaching methods and courses, a school’s principal would need to rebuild the curriculum within national framework guidelines. With a strong belief in the value of Oracle Academy courses, Mandik and two other teachers spent many months studying the issue, working closely with Oracle Academy and the Ministry of Education. In 2017, they issued a 30-page guide for integrating Oracle Academy courses into education plans for vocational schools in Czech Republic. That proposal was presented during Oracle Days in Oracle’s Prague and Brno offices. The result: 30 schools enthusiastically signed up to join Oracle Academy. Onboarding as Oracle Academy Instructors To train several hundred teachers across the country, Mandik and Mrs. Alena Reichlova were onboarded as official Oracle Academy instructors. They then liaised with school principals, advising them on reworking the curricula to accommodate the new technology courses. Those courses will be delivered through an online virtual room with individual sessions for those with advanced skills. “We find out what they are currently teaching and how best to help them improve,” says Mandik. “We deliver Oracle Academy best practice slides, explaining why they have been placed in that particular sequence, and why they are invaluable to effective computer science instruction.” He firmly believes that using Oracle Academy curricula to teach database systems and programming saves teachers time, keeps them always up to date, and motivates students with relevance to the real world of work. Leaving Improvements to the Experts “One of the greatest benefits of Oracle Academy is that somebody else—not us—regularly updates and improves the course materials. That saves us so much time and means that the courses always reflect the latest innovations,” comments Reichlova. She also notes that, as with medicine, change is so frequent in computer science that it’s not always easy to find updated information. “As an Oracle Academy member, I can access the latest announcements and developments through the virtual learning environment and never feel left behind,” she states. “This is one of the great advantages of being an Oracle Academy member institution.” Mandik also is delighted that all the materials come in English. “We don’t want a local language version, because although we teach in the Czech language, once students start work there’s no chance of anyone translating materials, so we don’t do it either,” he points out. “We are a secondary technical vocational school preparing people for real life, where knowledge of English is necessary for communication and work within the global labor market.” College and Career Ready Mandik believes that the Czech Republic needs more scientists and engineers, people who innovate and create opportunities for future generations. Five years ago, 70% of SPŠE Ječná graduates went on to university; today it is 50%. In Central Europe, there is an annual shortfall of 3,000 developers, which translates to rapid employment for young people with Oracle Academy courses on their CVs. The school principal is happy when his students find jobs, but he cautions against the lure of a good salary as opposed to continuing education that can yield longer-term benefits. “We are happy to fill the skills gap with graduates, but also are keen on seeing them go to university and help improve the level of computer science overall,” he says. “Luckily for us, Oracle Academy courses allow us to meet both requirements.”    

SPŠE Ječná was founded in the 19th century as the first vocational school in the territory of the Bohemian part of Austrian-Hungarian Empire. In 1949, the school was renamed to the Secondary School of...

The <Code with WIE> coding competition organized by IEEE (Institute of Electronic & Electrical Engineering) Women in Engineering (WIE) Group in Sri Lanka recently concluded, with the grand finale conducted on August 31, 2019, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. IEEE WIE collaborated with Oracle Academy to execute the <Code with WIE> program, with the objectives of empowering females to thrive in the technology field, encourage them to take part in coding projects, and to provide opportunities for them to lead technology projects, gain experience, and increase diversity in groups. The competition took place over three months. 100 university students from around the country were invited to form teams of 2-5 members and develop an idea to a level of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Each team was offered a professional industry mentor to interact with and with whom to share ideas. The competition organising team was comprised of  Dilrukshi Gamage, Vice Chair WIE; Abarna Kirupananda, Students Activities Chair; and volunteers from Open University, IIT, Sabaragamuwa University, and the University of Moratuwa.  Over the three-month period of the competition, 15 teams from over seven universities presented their innovations to the judges. At the grand finale, team “TreatMe,” a four-member team from the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Malabe, was awarded the winner of the competition. The team created an application for kids diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD) with the aim of being able to identify and control ADHD in children at a young age. The initial test run of this application was done at the University of Ragama, Sri Lanka, with the guidance of doctors who treat patients diagnosed with ADHD. “Being part of IEEE is a nice experience as we work on empowering girls to aspire to an IT or engineering career in order to have a diverse workforce. This year’s <Code with WIE> created a good platform for them to boost their passion for coding and kick-start product development,” said Kirupananda. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.  

The <Code with WIE> coding competition organized by IEEE (Institute of Electronic & Electrical Engineering) Women in Engineering (WIE) Group in Sri Lanka recently concluded, with the grand finale...

In July 2019, the Oracle office in São Paulo, Brazil, welcomed a small crowd of about 50 high school students and 10 teachers at an awards ceremony for the winners of the 5th Programming Marathon at the Paula Souza Center. ETEC Guaianazes, led by Professor Prof. Érico de Souza Veriscimo, was the winner of the competition, with three winning teams: Deus_Seja_Louvado (1st Place), NoisYTech (2nd) and Neverland (3rd). Oracle Academy provided awards and the support for the marathon for the second year, and Oracle provided the cloud access to host student projects in real time. The programming marathon drew the participation of 33 schools, bringing together a total of 806 students divided into 285 teams. The projects were supervised by 53 teachers and were evaluated by 6 judges. On the Award day, the top 15 school winners were welcomed to the Oracle office and had the opportunity to hear from Oracle employees: Fabiana Valente, Oracle Academy program manager, Lucas Corsi, consultant, startups & ISVs, and cloud specialist Diogo Shibata talked about the Oracle Academy educational program and the interest Oracle takes in helping students learn tech skills Marco Righetti, director of technology and innovation, discussed Industry 4.0 Renato Eric Miranda, business strategy leader, spoke about cloud careers Leonardo de Barros, senior engineer, talked about gains in artificial intelligence Elder Moraes, evangelist, explained why Java has been fantastic for his career Tiago de Souza, coordinator of the computer training projects at CPS, spoke about the marathon and the partnership with Oracle Academy. After the awards ceremony, the students were able to talk informally with company executives. Award winners were:   1st place: Deus_Seja_Louvado team Prof. Érico de Souza Veriscimo Alexandre Henrique Gabino de Souza Giulia Ventura Ratti Igor Silva Nascimento   2nd place: NoisYTech team Prof. Érico de Souza Veriscimo Gabriel Lopes Ferreira Ramos Gabriel Oliveira Aguiar e Silva Rafael Lopes Ferreira Ramos   3rd place: Neverland team Prof. Érico de Souza Veriscimo Alexandre Ferreira de Lima Lucas Del Puerto Garcia Rafaela Bezerra Martins

In July 2019, the Oracle office in São Paulo, Brazil, welcomed a small crowd of about 50 high school students and 10 teachers at an awards ceremony for the winners of the 5th Programming Marathon at...

Oracle Academy, in collaboration with Indonesian Association of Higher Education in Informatics and Computing (APTIKOM), recently held an event for educators in Bandung City, West Java, Indonesia: Bridging Industry-Academia Gap in Achieving Industry 4.0 Vision. Members of Oracle Academy were provided updates on the Oracle Academy program and an overview of technology trends so they could stay current with industry advances and growth. The engaging event was attended by university educators including deans and heads of computer science departments from 60 institutions in the region. One of Oracle’s Principal Solutions Consultant, Mohamad Rizal Arryadi, was the keynote speaker of this event. He discussed how imperative it is for technology educators to keep up with emerging technologies and to encourage their students to explore not only technology foundations, but also use cases of how technology is applied in life. The session also discussed how disruptive technologies may revolutionize the education sector, as lifelong learning is now a fundamental approach in the digital era. Mr. Solikin, Executive Director of Central APTIKOM, spoke of the importance of educators having human resource skills and competencies and a preparedness to adapt to the demands of higher education. He noted that informatics and computer education curricula must be in accordance with current and future industrial needs. For this reason, tertiary institutions must embrace partnerships with industry; these partnerships are currently an element of the accreditation assessment of APT 3.0 and APS 4.0 in Indonesia. Dr. Ayi Purbasari, Secretary General of APTIKOM, West Java region, said, “We are delighted that Oracle Academy held this event, giving opportunities to universities in West Java to take part in learning computer science through Oracle Academy. In our outcome-based curriculum, or Outcome Based Education (OBE), the focus is on achieving for our students. For this reason, it is very necessary that there is collaboration between universities and vendors such as Oracle so students get knowledge that refers to international standards. We encourage universities of APTIKOM in West Java to take advantage of the benefit offered by Oracle Academy. There will be a lot of added value and benefits for the institutions, especially for students.” The event closed with a presentation by Oracle Academy Country Manager for Indonesia and Malaysia, Nurul Huda, who shared how Oracle Academy supports students with learning and understanding of current technologies via Oracle Academy learning pathways through to Oracle certification to help students get hands-on practice in the latest technology and become career ready. Mira Suryani, a computer science educator at Padjadjaran University (UNPAD), said, “Oracle Academy Faculty Day 2019 is an incredible event. Shared experiences from great speakers about the importance of lifelong learning by using new technology for both educators and students, opened our eyes about the need to face up to industry 4.0. We need an effort that is equally flexible to keep up with technology, so the goal of narrowing or eliminating the gap between academia and industry can be achieved. UNPAD has been a member of Oracle Academy for four years, and is ready to add more curriculum, especially related to machine learning, into computer science and other study programs.”  Not yet a member of Oracle Academy? To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Oracle Academy, in collaboration with Indonesian Association of Higher Education in Informatics and Computing (APTIKOM), recently held an event for educators in Bandung City, West Java, Indonesia: Brid...

The Sixth Annual ACM-W Conference in Rome, WomENcourage, was formally opened by the Minister for Equal Opportunities and Families, Elena Bonetti, and over September 16-18, 2019, Oracle Academy was pleased to support women in computing through our sponsorship of and participation in this event. Oracle Academy Program Manager Roberta Battagli, (pictured) was there to share information on our educational resources in Java, database, artificial intelligence and machine learning. WomENcourage brings together women in the computing profession and related technical fields to exchange knowledge and experience and provide special support for women who are pursuing their academic degrees and starting their careers in computing. Through a program packed with insightful topics and engaging educational and networking activities, womENcourage provides a unique experience of the collective energy, drive, and excellence that professional women share to support each other. The international audience of more than 400 students and educators were excited to hear not only about Oracle Academy free resources, but also to hear an inspiring keynote speech   delivered by Oracle Innovation Business Solution Team Leader Gabriele Provinciali on Proxima IoT and Microservices in a programmable Smart City. The Proxima City project is a cloud-connected and intelligent city model, based on Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Oracle Cloud resources and LEGO bricks, which provides an integrated experience to citizens, administrations and industries. Proxima City includes a number of Edge Services components coded in different languages and environments (C, Java, JavaScript, Python) such as Smart Trash, Smart Lighting, Energy Monitoring, Smart Parking, and Smart Safety. The Edge Services are connected, via IoT and a serverless architecture, to Cloud Services (Chatbot, Dashboards, Stream Analytics) allowing data-at-rest and data-in-motion analysis and value-added services provided to citizens. The Proxima City model can be used as a Software Development Kit to generate events from the physical world and process events both in the Edge environment and the Cloud environment, allowing design and testing of a new generation of user-centric services. Students were keen to put their Smart skills to work learning and understanding where to apply for Oracle internships as well as graduate roles, and understanding the benefits of their institution’s membership in Oracle Academy.

The Sixth Annual ACM-W Conference in Rome, WomENcourage, was formally opened by the Minister for Equal Opportunities and Families, Elena Bonetti, and over September 16-18, 2019, Oracle Academy was pleased...

Oracle Academy Sponsors Enterface’19 Summer Workshop in Ankara To encourage collaboration in research and development, this summer Oracle Academy took part in eNTERFACE’19 summer workshop, hosted by the Computer Engineering Department of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, from July 8 - August 2, 2019.  The eNTERFACE summer workshops, organized by the SIMILAR European Network of Excellence, are a new type of workshop that aims at establishing a tradition of collaborative, localized research and development work by gathering, in a single place, a group of senior project leaders, researchers, and undergraduate students, working together on a pre-specified list of challenges for four weeks. At this event, participants were organized into teams to address specific projects related to multimodal interfaces, working on free software. The eNTERFACE’19 15th Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces brought together around 50 researchers and PhD and Master’s degree candidate students from universities all around the world, including Middle East Technical University (Turkey), Université de Mons (Belgium), the University of Edinburgh (UK), and Utrecht University, University of Amsterdam, and University of Twente (all in the Netherlands). As part of the event, Oracle Academy held an informative session, “Oracle Academy: Resources for Education and Research” to provide participants with a deep dive into Oracle Academy’s innovation-focused education resources for teaching and non-profit academic research. This included information on our technology resources, curriculum, courseware, student workshops, educator training, and Oracle industry certification and exam preparation materials for higher education institutions and their educators and students. This was an exciting opportunity for us to connect with academics, researchers, and graduate level students from different countries in Europe. Knowledge Builder Events Support Teachers in Istanbul To help teachers in Turkey prepare for the school year, this summer Oracle Academy delivered Knowledge Builder events on emerging technologies. Recognizing the importance of supporting teachers in keeping up to date on the latest technology trends and developments, Oracle Solution Engineering Director Nuri Comert volunteered to deliver an Oracle Academy Knowledge Builder event on “Emerging Technologies: IoT, Cloud Computing, Big Data and AI” for 20 STEM teachers at Tink – Technology & Humanity Colleges – on June 25, 2019, in Istanbul. The teachers also had the opportunity to attend an online session driven by Oracle Academy Program Manager for Turkey, Sena Aydogan, to explore Oracle Academy program resources and benefits. Technology & Humanity Colleges is Turkey’s first technology college aiming to train technologically literate entrepreneurs to effectively integrate technology into their lives and their future business. As an Institutional member of Oracle Academy, Technology & Humanity Colleges is utilizing our wealth of free resources, including technology, curriculum and courseware, student workshops, educator training, and Oracle industry certification and exam preparation materials.  

Oracle Academy Sponsors Enterface’19 Summer Workshop in Ankara To encourage collaboration in research and development, this summer Oracle Academy took part in eNTERFACE’19 summer workshop, hosted by...

During July 2019, Oracle Academy supported Oracle Groundbreakers and Oracle User Group (OUG) evangelists in India who organized a roadshow called the ‘Oracle Groundbreakers Yatra’. The Yatra (which means tour) travelled across the country, hosting 10 events across 10 major cities over 16 days. The tour brought together the broader Oracle community within the country, providing attendees with information and awareness of the latest Oracle technologies and improving their level of knowledge. Oracle Academy joined the Yatra as an opportunity to create a platform for students and faculty to meet industry experts and helped the OUG to find the venues at our member colleges. Around 30 students from three to four Oracle Academy member institutions in each city where the Yatra traveled were able to join the sessions by international experts on such varied topics such as Oracle Cloud, DevOps, Oracle Autonomous Database, Data Warehousing, and Oracle APEX. They were able to acquire knowledge direct from Oracle experts and get a deep dive into different skills areas. Feedback from the attending students was positive, and included the following comments: “The whole program was well-managed by the members. Everything happened in perfect time. I really gained good knowledge.” “A good environment which polished my skills. Overall, a good event.” “I learned so many new things about Oracle services and tools which I wasn’t aware of. I’d like to attend more such programs.” “It was a good experience to explore different services provided by Oracle. Skills development will add value to my knowledge.”  

During July 2019, Oracle Academy supported Oracle Groundbreakers and Oracle User Group (OUG) evangelists in India who organized a roadshow called the ‘Oracle Groundbreakers Yatra’. The Yatra (which...

To help support computer science educators and provide them with access to inspiring, hands-on resources to teach computer science, Oracle Academy was pleased to be a Gold Sponsor of the 2019 Computer Science Teachers Association Annual Conference. The conference took place in Phoenix, July 8-10. As we have for the past several years, Oracle Academy provided 29 teacher scholarships to first-time CSTA conference attendees so they had the opportunity to attend this exciting premier conference for computer science teachers. Scholarship winners were: Anthony Am, Loren Ayresman, Krista Baker, John Burdick, Kirstina Frazier, Rebecca Gutosky, Evonne Hackett, Mary Catherine Hastie, Brandy Hicks (Justice), Thomas Klett, Ginger LaCross, Kevin Micks, Jenny Miles, Jessica Rodriguez, Jayashree Ravi, Steven Stoffregen, Batavia Sumlin, Regina Ward, Amy White “The Oracle Academy scholarship provided me the opportunity to attend the CSTA conference, which blew my mind!” says Loren Ayresman. “As a new computer science teacher, I now see that the future is wide open for my students!” At the conference, Oracle Academy conducted a workshop led by Lisa Palombo, Oracle Academy Senior Curriculum Developer, on Oracle Academy Education Bytes―short, flexible learning modules that teach new concepts and enhance existing knowledge and skills, problem solving, creativity, and learning retention. The workshop gave attendees the chance to explore the wide range of Education Bytes, which can be used alone or to enhance Oracle Academy curriculum, and provide self-directed, diverse learning experiences at all skill levels in database, Java, data science and much more. The Oracle Academy booth in the exhibit hall offered the opportunity to meet and speak with the Oracle Academy team experts, plus representatives from the Carnegie Mellon Alice team. The Oracle Academy team also sponsored a fun photo booth so teachers could get together and capture their time at the conference. We look forward to seeing you next year at CSTA 2020!

To help support computer science educators and provide them with access to inspiring, hands-on resources to teach computer science, Oracle Academy was pleased to be a Gold Sponsor of the 2019 Computer...

This year Oracle Academy was one of the sponsors of the event InfoEducatie, Galaciuc, Vrancea, which took place August 2-8, 2019. At the event, the students met the Finch robot and could participate in a three-hour contest that involved teams of two-three students collaborating to write code to activate the robot. Students had two hours available to blind code, and at the end they presented to a jury what they intended to do with the code written for the robot, and what actually happened! The demonstrated their results by showing the Finch robot in action based on their code. More than 40 students took part in this fun, hands-on event. Here are some comments from the students and their teachers: “Finch robot has reached InfoEducatie event at Galaciuc! It was a great pleasure to introduce him and to play with the students participating in the competition. It was really a challenge and an adventure at the same time,” said Mrs. Miana Arisanu, teacher at Colegiul National Mircea cel Batran, Rm. Valcea. “We all learned by playing in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We had fun when Finch danced, or when he drew some curved lines like he drew a flower. Thank you for giving me an outstanding memory. I hope many of the participants will continue the adventure!” “We took part in a wonderful experience, filled with curiosity, dedication and joy. We believe that the Finch robot is a fascinating helpful ‘instrument’ when it comes to active learning, creativity and team spirit,” said Angelina Panescu, a student who participated in the event. “We cannot wait to complete a new challenge with the amazing robot, Finch!” “A unique experience was the workshop with five students from the Republic of Moldova who were also present at the camp for a math competition. Although they were not programming at school, they were receptive and were happy to see their first lines of code translate into the movements of a robot,” said Mrs. Antonia Haller, teacher at Colegiul National Mircea Cel Batran, Rm. Valcea. “I did not intend to spend almost three hours in the company of children from the Republic of Moldova, curious to find out what Finch can do, so I had proposed an hour-long workshop!” “I joined my colleagues Miana Arisanu and Antonia Haller, to present to the participants at the InfoEducatie event, as I had successfully participated with my students. We have participated in the Adoptabot contest organized by Brunel University London since 2015, a team competition which involves the realization and implementation of a beautiful story in which the Finch robot is the main character. The technologies that can be used in robot programming are different; students can choose the one that is easier, depending on their age or personal experience,” said Mrs. Adriana Cheres, teacher at Liceul Teoretic “Nicolae Balcescu”, Cluj-Napoca. Oracle Academy was pleased to be a sponsor of this fun, exciting event that introduced students to hands-on coding. Learn more about our workshops available in many languages, including Programming the Finch Robot.  

This year Oracle Academy was one of the sponsors of the event InfoEducatie, Galaciuc, Vrancea, which took place August 2-8, 2019. At the event, the students met the Finch robot and could participate in...

Building educator content knowledge is a key component to advancing computing technology education today. Summer 2019 found the Oracle Academy North America team working with local and state Computer Science Teacher Association chapter partners to systemically bring free educator professional development for the purpose of helping educators to reach their computing technology education goals. Below are just a few examples of our joint collaboration: New Mexico Computer Science Educators Professional Development Week (NM) The week of June 3, 2019, Oracle Academy provided its Database Design and Programming with SQL course to New Mexico educators from all over the state. The five-day event was part of the NM Computer Science Educators Professional Development week held at the College of Engineering, University of New Mexico. Paige Prescott, Co-Founder of Computer Science Alliance NM, says, “There is a critical need for professional development for teachers in CS, and there are too few opportunities for this type of learning in NM. Our goal was to offer high-quality professional development that showcases the best practices and curriculum resources available.” The Oracle Academy curriculum is aligned to the New Mexico Public Education Department College and Career Readiness Bureau CTE Information Technology Pathway. Oracle Academy instructor Christine Campbell notes, “Training the teachers enrolled in the Oracle Academy Database Design and Programming with SQL course was a great experience. Because the teachers plan to use the Oracle Academy curriculum in their own classrooms to teach students, they were very engaged and excited to learn the topic. It was a rewarding experience all the way around.” CSTA Arizona (CSTA AZ) Computer Science Educators Profession Development Week The week of June 17, 2019, Oracle Academy provided a Java Fundamentals course to Arizona teachers from all over the state. The five-day event was part of the CSTA AZ Computer Science Educators Professional Development week held at the College of Engineering, Arizona State University. “With the AZ K12 CS Standards released in October 2018 and a new K12 CS endorsement for teachers launched just a month earlier in May, the timing was perfect to offer a week of high-quality CS professional development for our K12 teachers,” says Janice Mak, CSTA AZ President. Oracle Academy resources are aligned to the Arizona Department of Education Career Technical Education Software and App Design program. We value our relationships with our local and state Computer Science Teacher Association chapter partners and welcome opportunities to continue to bring our free courses and training to educators.

Building educator content knowledge is a key component to advancing computing technology education today. Summer 2019 found the Oracle Academy North America team working with local and state Computer...

In July 2019, Houston Independent School District (HISD) teachers gathered at Worthington High School prepared to spend a week advancing their Java knowledge! With varying degrees of experience with Java content, the teachers were able to come together to elevate their knowledge and enjoy learning about new Java resources, including classroom curriculum and hands-on labs, they could use the in the classroom to teach students. HISD has been a member of the Oracle Academy program since 2017; effectively utilizing the classroom teaching and learning resources aligned to computer science education. We look forward to our continued partnership with HISD as we strive together to advance computer science education for faculty and students.

In July 2019, Houston Independent School District (HISD) teachers gathered at Worthington High School prepared to spend a week advancing their Java knowledge! With varying degrees of experience with...

As part of Oracle Academy’s support for the Malaysian government initiative ‘Premiere Pride Challenge 2019,’ Oracle Academy recently delivered Train the Trainer events for senior educators/PhDs and associate professors in computer science from various selected universities and polytechnic schools in Malaysia. This initiative to connect industry with educational institutions was jointly established by the Malaysian Ministry of Education and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the government agency under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia. The Train the Trainer classes from Oracle Academy included Database Design and Programming with SQL, Java Programming, and Java Fundamentals, and provided the educators with skills and knowledge to teach the Oracle Academy curriculum to students in their respective institutions. The training was led by Rizqy Ardiansyah, a professional trainer from Oracle Academy. According to feedback, the course was well received by attendees. Dr. Adamu Abubakar Ibrahim, a Nigerian educator who teaches at Islamic International University Malaysia (IIUM), said, “MDEC and Oracle Academy did a tremendous job in providing academic staff of Malaysia institutions of higher learning the opportunity to engage with Oracle Academy resources for teaching and learning. It was my best training ever. Using Oracle Academy iLearning is incredible; it is the platform that combines a group of courses into one learning event. The provision of student-teacher integrated learning curriculum and materials makes it easier for preparation and assessment of teaching and learning. Another interesting part of iLearning is the interactive learning tools,” he said. “The instructor, Rizqi, is excellent. He made me truly enjoy learning more about Java and database, and motivated me to upgrade to Oracle Certification from OCP to OCM. Definitely I will enroll my students in Oracle Academy iLearning, and prepare them for Oracle certification.” “I attended Database Design and Programming with SQL training,” said Dr. Norhazaliana Binti Affendi from Politeknik Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah, Jitra, Kedah. “It was good and interesting, and increased my knowledge. It provided me with hands-on experience in drawing an ERD diagram using software, converting it into a physical diagram, running a query statement and much more. Thank you to MDEC and Oracle Academy for organizing such wonderful event.” Satrya Fajri Pratama, PhD, Senior Lecturer from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), said, “The Java Fundamentals and Java Programming training is really beneficial and insightful, to say the least. It covers the necessary materials for those who are just recently introduced to Java Programming language, and is even a decent refreshment for those working in Java, industry practitioners and academia alike. The instructor Rizqi was very knowledgeable, and it is very evident that Java is his cup of tea/coffee.” Dr. Ramesh Kumar Ayyasamy, Assistant Professor from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), said, “I attended Database Design and Programming with SQL for five days. This training was very informative. It really made me work out with several examples and come to know new data analysing functions and techniques, the best of SQL practices. I will conduct training to enrich my student knowledge by transferring the skills and tips I learned.” To engage students in computer science, educators need rigorous, robust academic curriculum that sparks curiosity and imagination while teaching critical knowledge and skills. These dedicated teachers now are prepared to bring their Java and Database skills and knowledge to their institutions and create classes for their students using the Oracle Academy iLearning tool.   Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

As part of Oracle Academy’s support for the Malaysian government initiative ‘Premiere Pride Challenge 2019,’ Oracle Academy recently delivered Train the Trainer events for senior educators/PhDs and...

IT Students from Institut Teknologi Kalimantan in Indonesia recently visited the Oracle office in Jakarta, Indonesia, to obtain a deeper insight into the IT industry, the latest technologies, and tech career options. The students flew from Kalimantan Island to Jakarta to visit the Oracle office and meet directly with the Oracle experts. The event’s keynote speaker, Mohamad Rizal Arryadi, CPIM, CSCP, a Principal Consultant of Oracle ASEAN, provided a presentation focused on the latest technology trends and innovations entering the market. These disruptive technologies are bringing new challenges to industry, and the education sector must be able to adapt with curriculum that meets these demands. Rizal shared steps that students need to take to embrace technological developments and advancements in the industry, such as quickly learning the essential technologies, getting career certified, learning through experience to contextualize their student learning, and employing their creativity. Nurul Huda, Country Manager for Oracle Academy Indonesia and Malaysia, shared how Oracle Academy supports students in learning and understanding current technologies, and how they can attain professional certificates on Database and Java before they graduate from school to prepare for further education or careers. This engaging event was closed with a lively question and answer discussion on topics raised by the students, and honed their interest in working in the IT industry. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

IT Students from Institut Teknologi Kalimantan in Indonesia recently visited the Oracle office in Jakarta, Indonesia, to obtain a deeper insight into the IT industry, the latest technologies, and tech...

In June 2019, students from the Vienna International School (VIS) attended a Java workshop at the Oracle office in Vienna, Austria. These grade 10 students are part of a coding class at VIS that combines the Oracle Academy Java Foundations course with the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme Design subject. Max Jerg and Michael Lessiak of Oracle organized the student activities, starting out with an introduction to Oracle and its collaboration with CERN. The students then split into groups to work on various Java coding challenges that had been prepared for them.  The students had short breaks throughout the morning to take part in a table football tournament (locally known as “Wuzzler”). The table was modified as an example of physical computing for the students, with two iPads and sensors set up and programmed to keep score for the tournament. Students were awarded prizes for their individual group’s performances in the coding challenges, and the results of the Wuzzler competition! The main prize was a Sphero SPRK+ STEAM Educational Robot. Once again, this was a well put-together workshop for the VIS students: Fun, challenging and reinforcing the programming concepts the students learned over the year with Oracle Academy curriculum. A few days after the trip, the students completed their Java Foundations year, and VIS Director Peter Murphy presented them with Oracle Academy course completion certificates. We congratulate the students and thank the Oracle office for hosting them.

In June 2019, students from the Vienna International School (VIS) attended a Java workshop at the Oracle office in Vienna, Austria. These grade 10 students are part of a coding class at VIS that...

Oracle Academy proudly sponsored the Fifth Machine Learning in High Energy Physics Summer School. This year it took place at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, from July 1-10, 2019. It was organized by The Yandex School of Data Analysis, Laboratory of Methods for Big Data Analysis, of National Research University Higher School of Economics, Hamburg University and DESY. The summer school covered the emerging hot topic of data analysis and research emerging from high energy physics (HEP), also known as “neural networks” or “multivariate analysis” “classisification/clusterization” techniques, among other names. These techniques in turn are part of the machine learning field. Machine learning is used to tackle issues such as online data filtering and reconstruction to data analysis offline. This renowned program is aimed at PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, but also open to Masters students. The students were introduced both in a practical and theoretical manner to the new field of HEP.  Topics discussed included hyperparameters and decision trees as well as deep learning. In parallel, a data science competition was held to provide the students with real-life applications of machine learning. As part of the Oracle Academy support of the summer school, speaker Sanjay Basu, Oracle Principal Solution Architect, OCI Development, who has been working in the machine learning field since 2013, delivered a fascinating lecture on “Using Bayesian Framework to Identify Risks in Project Management.” We were delighted he took time out of his schedule to represent Oracle Academy and inspire these enthusiastic students.   

Oracle Academy proudly sponsored the Fifth Machine Learning in High Energy Physics Summer School. This year it took place at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, from July 1-10, 2019. It was organized by The...

Oracle Academy recently facilitated Oracle Certification Exams for students at a public vocational secondary school, SMKN 4 Padalarang, in West Java Province, Indonesia. Twenty-eight students from the school sat the Oracle Certified Junior Associate (OCJA) Java Foundations exam at the computer lab in SMKN 4 Padalarang, which was proctored by Oracle University representatives. As a member of Oracle Academy since 2012, the SMKN 4 Padalarang vocational school has been implementing Oracle Academy course curriculum over the past three years, with teachers using the free Oracle Academy content to teach Java Fundamentals, Java Foundations, Database Foundations, and Java Programming, especially for students majoring in Software Engineering. The school plans to continue to teach the Oracle Academy curriculum, as it is aligned to the Oracle Certifications offered through Oracle University. It also plans to hold Oracle Certification Exams yearly just prior to student graduation to provide students with a useful credential when applying for internships, summer jobs, and their first job after leaving post-secondary education. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Oracle Academy recently facilitated Oracle Certification Exams for students at a public vocational secondary school, SMKN 4 Padalarang, in West Java Province, Indonesia. Twenty-eight students from the...

In an Executive Order released earlier this year, the State of Florida committed to focusing efforts on CTE and computer science education. The order dedicates the funding necessary to up-skill teachers and to help schools meet the state requirements for computer science offerings in its schools. In response to this, districts across the state are actively seeking professional development and curriculum resources for their schools. Broward County Public Schools is currently on-boarding their 80+ middle and high school institutions to Oracle Academy. Broward County is the second largest county in the state and the sixth largest in the country. In July, Oracle Academy Marketing Manager Danielle Ferretti traveled to Fort Lauderdale to help Bruce Regittko, Oracle Academy Instructor, deliver a Java Foundations training to 21 of the district’s K12 teachers. The district plans this to be the first of many efforts in up-skilling its educators. Ultimately, the goal is not only to increase the number of students that take part in CS courses, but to increase the number that follow through to and pass the AP CS A exam. The district is excited to utilize Oracle Academy’s free resources as a large part of that effort. During the training, three Oracle employees from the local office stopped by to talk to the teachers about how their efforts are so important to the future workforce. Oracle Regional VP of Sales, Paulo Manzato, credited his own grade school teacher with inspiring him to learn more about technology and believes that he is where he is today because of it. His colleagues, Ericka Silvestri and Perside Foster, are both from different functional areas within the company but both utilize their CS skills in their day-to-day career lives. It was a great demonstration to teachers that a foundation in computer science can pave so many different career pathways for students. It was a fun and engaging conversation and a great way to remind teachers why they are such an important part of the mission to prepare students for future career success. Content submitted by Danielle Ferretti.

In an Executive Order released earlier this year, the State of Florida committed to focusing efforts on CTE and computer science education. The order dedicates the funding necessary to...

As Oracle Academy Regional Director for Asia Pacific, I recently had the opportunity to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ‘Closing the Digital Skills Gap’ Forum in Singapore. This two-day event gathered representatives from 16 APEC economies to explore policy options that can strengthen digital skills and the digital economy within the region. In response to APEC’s policy goals on human capital development, Project DARE – Data Analytics Raising Employment – was created to address the current shortage of employees skilled in data science and analytics. This lack of skilled employees has resulted in billions of dollars in lost revenue annually for the region. Many companies and organizations across various sectors, from healthcare to financial services and retail, are unable to fill positions requiring these skills. While the digital economy is rapidly evolving, education systems are not adapting at the same pace. A recent survey conducted by APEC showed that more than 50% of respondents admit that curricula at many academic institutions do not sufficiently bring digital skills into classrooms. At the forum, participants progressed a roadmap to support upskilling and reskilling programs carried out by employers, governments, and educational institutions across APEC. The roadmap details a set of industry-driven recommended actions to strengthen data science and analytics competencies, or DSA. The Project DARE framework seeks to inform the work of universities, companies and associations across the region, including how to better enable educators to incorporate DSA into classrooms. Sixty-two percent of a Digital Skills Gap Survey respondents indicated that one of the barriers to students and future employees developing career-relevant digital skills is that educators are not empowered to incorporate DSA into classrooms, including at elementary and secondary levels. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. We are very pleased to be able to participate in this forum and contribute to the ongoing discussion of educator empowerment with the right industry-relevant computing curriculum, and to the development of the roadmap that APEC economies can use to better advance and enable their digital economies and workforce. To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

As Oracle Academy Regional Director for Asia Pacific, I recently had the opportunity to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ‘Closing the Digital Skills Gap’ Forum in Singapore....

Even though nearly 55,000 students per year enroll in information technology studies in Vietnam, the government acknowledges a shortage of skilled IT professionals in the workforce. To help address this issue, the BUILD-IT Alliance is public-private ecosystem in Vietnam that supports educational quality and development at six Vietnamese engineering and technology universities. Along with USAID and Arizona State University, Oracle Academy is a partner in the BUILD-IT Alliance and supports these Vietnamese universities in the ongoing development of industry-relevant computing courses that prepare students for careers. On July 19, 2019, Oracle Academy worked with the BUILD-IT team to organize a Faculty Day in Ho Chi Minh City. The event was attended by 18 faculty members from eight universities in and around the area, and most of attendees were new to the Oracle Academy program. Oracle Academy Country Manager for Vietnam, Michelle Gao, along with principal instructor Jian Li, facilitated this event. They introduced Oracle Academy’s new offerings and led the educators through a ‘drill down’ so they could fully understand the Oracle Academy learning environment and free teaching resources. The highlight of Faculty Day was a presentation by a pioneering educator at Can Tho University, Ms. Bui Dang Ha Phuong. She shared in detail how she implemented Oracle Academy’s iLearning resources into her coursework, and how the tools fit into her existing course structure and rejuvenated the learning experience for students. Ms. Phuong exemplifies the energy that ambitious faculty can bring to curriculum innovation.  Not yet a member of Oracle Academy? To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member. If you’d like to learn more about the BUILD-IT Alliance, watch our video.

Even though nearly 55,000 students per year enroll in information technology studies in Vietnam, the government acknowledges a shortage of skilled IT professionals in the workforce. To help address...

To help educators better teach computer science and position students for the future, Oracle Academy held a Faculty Day event in Makassar City, Indonesia, on July 18, 2019. The event was attended by 100 computer science educators, including deans and heads of computer science departments from 50 institutions in South Sulawesi Province. Many current and new Oracle Academy members came to the event to hear about the newest Oracle Academy offerings and the latest technological developments in the industry.  Oracle Academy assists these institutions and faculty by providing computing education curriculum to support industry-relevant skills for their students prior to entering the workplace. These frontline educators play a key role in inspiring the next generation to become career ready and the tech leaders of the future within their country. The keynote speaker of this event was Mohamad Rizal Arryadi, a principal consultant of Oracle ASEAN SCM, APAC-APPS. He spoke about the fourth industry revolution that “Industry 4.0” is enabling ― and how the education sector must be able to adapt with a curriculum framework that teacher students career-relevant skills to meet future industry needs. Oracle Academy Country Manager for Indonesia and Malaysia, Nurul Huda, who facilitated the event, was in attendance to help faculty understand how the Oracle Academy program can support them and their students to keep up with technology advances. “The curriculum framework presented at the Oracle Academy Faculty Day in Makassar city has helped us to understand comprehensive computer science curriculum that is in line with current and future industrial needs. We as computer science educators are certainly very grateful and helped by this event. Hopefully, we can implement the Oracle Academy curriculum to help our students prepare for their successful futures,” said Muh. Sakir, Technology Community Activist, Makassar, and Informatics Engineering Lecturer at Fajar Makassar University. “Oracle Academy provides opportunities, especially for our students, to learn according to the latest technological trends that I believe will become their capital in the future after graduating from school,” said Achlis Djafar, Head of Software Engineering Study Program of SMK/Secondary Vocational School Kartika XX-1, Makassar. Oracle Academy has been growing its reach across this diverse and vibrant region for over a decade, and now includes more than 5,000 regional education institutions in its membership. These institutions, and their educators, gain access to industry-leading software and tools, as well as proven academic curriculum and resources at no cost, to help build the best computing education courses for their students. Not yet a member of Oracle Academy? To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

To help educators better teach computer science and position students for the future, Oracle Academy held a Faculty Day event in Makassar City, Indonesia, on July 18, 2019. The event was attended by...

Oracle Academy was pleased to present 14 young innovators with awards of US$5,000 at the recent 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) event, May 16-17, 2019, in Phoenix. The award winners embedded computer science into their projects in the system software category. The Intel ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. Through a global network of local, regional, and national science fairs, millions of students are encouraged to explore their passion for developing innovations that improve the way we work and live. Award finalists were selected by expert Oracle volunteer judges: Lead judge: Bruce Regittko Judges: Bernard Schober, Heather Foidart, Jason Midkiff, Julia Hull, Kate Fisher, Ravi Sharma, Sid Prasad, Syed Huda, Zeke Bishop, Mike Waddoups We thank these experts for sharing their time. Sharma noted, “The brilliance of these young students in crafting solutions for the anticipated problems and opportunities of their generation lies in the simplicity of their innovations. It is simply a mind blowing experience to see how these youth are able to utilize the technologies at hand to craft amazing solutions to the most crucial challenges of their generation.” Oracle Academy Winners: Award of $5,000 each for 9 outstanding projects in the systems software category.   Cary Xiao Tuscaloosa, AL School: Alabama School of Mathematics and Science Teacher: Grey Gaillard   Harshal Bharatia Plano, TX School: Vines High School Teacher: Emily Sharma   Brandon Fan Blacksburg, VA School: Blacksburg High School Teacher: Katharine Davis   Gianni Plaza-Pizarro San Juan, PR School: The San Juan Math, Science and Technology Center Teacher: Ivangs Rivera-Aponte   Ian Langleben, Dawson College, and Liana Martins-Medina, Marianopolis College Montreal, Quebec, Canada Teacher: Wilson Wong   Raymond Suo, Louisville, KY, and Allen Wu, Fargo, ND School: DuPont Manual High School Naomi Kenyatta, New York, NY School: Horace Mann School Teacher: Glenn Zwanzig   Sama Ayoub and Khadija Elmagarmid Doha, Qatar School: Qatar Academy Senior School Teacher: Jason Maraku   Tinotenda Zimhunga and Rufaro Mutogo Harare, Zimbabwe School: Chisipite Senior School Teacher: Paul Grotto   Saad Mankarious Assuit, Egypt School: Assuit Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics High School Teacher: Ramadan Hussien Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public and Publisher of Science News, said, “The more than 1,800 finalists at Intel ISEF 2019 are the stewards of our future. Their innovations are poised to solve our world’s most intractable challenges.” Each year, approximately 1,800 high school students from more 80 countries, regions, and territories are awarded the opportunity to showcase their independent research and compete for more than US$5 million in awards and scholarships at the Intel ISEF. Congratulations to our outstanding Oracle Academy award winners!

Oracle Academy was pleased to present 14 young innovators with awards of US$5,000 at the recent 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) event, May 16-17, 2019, in Phoenix....

Recently, Oracle Academy was recognized with its fourteenth award for outstanding contributions to the Greek educational system and corporate citizenship. The most recent awards included: Gold Education Leaders Award 2019 – Digital Education Gold Impact Business IT Excellence (BITE) Award 2019 – Social Contribution/Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) With these two awards, Oracle Academy in Greece has earned a total of 14 awards over three years in four different award contests. It also marks the third year in a row that Oracle Academy has been awarded the Gold Impact BITE Award for CSR, and the third year in a row that it was recognized at the Education Leaders Awards in the Digital Education Category, winning Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. The Gold Impact BITE (Business IT Excellence) Award for Corporate Citizenship Initiatives recognized Oracle Academy as the leader in CSR activities in the ICT sector in Greece. The Impact BITE Awards are the most prestigious awards of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in Greece, and are organized by leading B2B publishing company Boussias Communications in cooperation with the E-Business Research Center of Athens University of Economics and Business. The annual awards have been held for the past eight years and are acknowledged by all major ICT organizations in the country. The Education Leaders Award recognized Oracle Academy’s contributions to the Greek educational system. These awards honor educational organizations that systematically invest and innovate so the human capital of Greece may bring to society wisdom, knowledge, skills, talent, and inspiration, leading to innovation and progress. More than 350 educational organizations and companies from Greece and Cyprus participated in the awards. On behalf of Oracle Academy, both awards were accepted by and made possible by the hard work of Eleni Tsipa, Oracle Academy Program Manager for Greece, Cyprus, Malta, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo. Thank you, Eleni! Watch videos from the two awards ceremonies.    

Recently, Oracle Academy was recognized with its fourteenth award for outstanding contributions to the Greek educational system and corporate citizenship. The most recent awards included: Gold Education...

BRG Schoren/Dornbirn Secondary School in Austria has been an active member of Oracle Academy for many years, offering programming classes at both lower secondary level and advanced programming skills at upper secondary level. Every school year, the BRG Schoren 6ITM class, which focuses on software development, completes the Oracle Academy Java Foundations course and offers each student the opportunity to sit for the final exam for the course to achieve the Oracle Academy Course Certificate in Java Foundations. In 2019, a number of the school’s students were successful in passing the Oracle Academy exam. Visit this link to see more details of this year’s students who each proudly earned a Java Foundations certificate. The course used a blended learning model: a mix of original Oracle Academy online curriculum and resources aligned with hands-on and face-to-face learning modules in computer science education. The online training resources were in English, as well as the midterm and final exams. This special IT branch of the school optimally combines the advantages of general education topics with a strong IT focus, including eLearning, a notebook class, and freely selected individual instruction in software development or media design. For many of the IT Schoren graduates, this focus prepares them optimally for easy entry into their chosen career paths or for further university level study of information technology. Well done and congratulations to all 6ITM students, as well as to their teacher, Mr. Wüschner (Media educator and Computer Science teacher, Federal Coordinator Vorarlberg for eEducation and eLearning). We look forward to further success stories from this institution and these students!

BRG Schoren/Dornbirn Secondary School in Austria has been an active member of Oracle Academy for many years, offering programming classes at both lower secondary level and advanced programming skills...

As part of our mission to promote diversity in computing, Oracle Academy hosted for the fourth consecutive year the Girls in ICT Day across Latin America. This year the event was held simultaneously in several countries in Latin America, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, and Puerto Rico. The events each featured Oracle and Oracle Women Lead speakers to inspire girls to learn more about and consider careers in information technology and related computing fields. More than 560 young women participated in inspiring Oracle tech leader talks, design thinking workshops, coding exercises, and programming a Finch robot, all organized by Oracle Academy. On behalf of Oracle Academy, I would like to thank each of the more than 60 volunteers who, with dedication, commitment and an inspiring spirit of excellence and service, supported this important event around all corners of Latin America. A huge thank you to our Oracle volunteers! Watch our new videos celebrating the events and see how Oracle Academy courses and educators have helped young women become tech experts who now are sharing their knowledge with other young women: English: https://youtu.be/DPIgEADS6b0 Spanish: https://youtu.be/K4W7k7YjBc8 Portuguese: https://youtu.be/CIMQk8Wa0F8 Some event country highlights: Brazil Oracle Brazil hosted 90 girls from several institutions, including Senac, PUC-SP, CPS schools of Lins, Guaianazes, Praia Grande, Band-Tec, and Projeto Meninas Negras, for a day full of inspiration and technology. The event started with a panel on leadership featuring Oracle experts Elisa Kobayashi, Architecture Technology Director; Mara Carvalho, Alliances and Channels Manager; Marcelle Paiva, Marketing Director; and Daniele Botaro, LAD Diversity and Inclusion leader, as session mediator. Additionally, Isabelle Christina, Leader, Cloud and Digital, and Vitoria Silva, Video Developer and Designer, led a panel on how to succeed in the industry. The students also had the opportunity to participate in a programming workshop using Finch, a robot specifically designed to teach young students the basics of computer programming and robotics. Oracle Brazil Managing Director Rodrigo Galvõ closed the event by delivering a motivational message on Oracle vision and values. Mexico With the aim of inspiring and motivating more young women to consider computing careers and join the tech industry, Oracle Academy invited 30 female students from the Technological University of Nezahualcoyotl and the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico to the Oracle Mexico office to participate in Girls in ICT Day events. With several inspiring talks from Oracle leaders, the participants enjoyed a day full of knowledge and new experiences. Samantha Moguel, Senior Account Manager; Olga Patiño, Senior Sales Director; Liliana Vargas, Oracle Academy LAD Business Manager; Elena de la Torre, Corporate Citizenship Manager; and Julieta Arias, LAD Endomarketing, volunteered their expertise to help make the event a success. Colombia On April 23 in Colombia, Oracle Academy hosted 35 girls from Hernando Durán Dussan School.  The event included a panel of Oracle leaders and representatives of the education industry discussing technology topics. During the afternoon, the girls learned more about life at Oracle with a group of 37 volunteer mentors. Finally, the participants had the opportunity to experience the recently opened Oracle Innovation Labs, where they participated in a workshop on creating technology solutions for environmental problems in the City of Bogota. The teams worked on issues related to water, clean energy, waste, mobility, and air quality, and were supported by a group of 16 volunteer facilitators. On May 3 in Medellin, the second largest city in Colombia, 170 girls from public schools of the ITM University attended the Girls in ICT celebration. The activities were supported by Sapiencia, Ruta N, and the San Bata Group, with the support of Oracle Academy Country Manager Marcela Escobar. Peru Oracle Academy in Peru celebrated Girls in ICT Day on April 25 with 80 students from USIL. Oracle volunteers Chiarella Bencan, Solution Engineering Senior Manager, opened the event with a talk on the role of women in technology, and then Juan Pablo Guizado, Enterprise Architect for Public Sector, took the girls on a journey exploring the latest emerging technologies. Finally, the students participated in a design thinking workshop led by Luzmila Toledo, Staff Solution Engineer; Veronica Rosas, Oracle Academy Country Manager; Andrea Alvarez, Senior Solution Engineer; and Maria Gabriela Casado, Marketing Specialist. Costa Rica In Costa Rica, the Girls in ICT event took place at the Miravalle School in Cartago, with young women from five additional schools around the country also participating there. The agenda included a Java programming workshop facilitated by master teacher Evelyn Ramirez, and a design thinking activity lead by Miravalle’s Principal, Ihosvanny Seguí. In this workshop, the girls had the opportunity to identify and propose solutions to increase the participation of women in tech and the IT industry. Oracle volunteer Ana Laura Medrano, Chief Solution Engineer, delivered a motivational talk on her life as an computer science engineer, including her challenges and her accomplishments as a successful professional. “Women must empower themselves to exceed their expectations and have a positive attitude to the challenges that arise,” she said as one of her closing remarks to the more than 100 young women attending the event. Puerto Rico In Puerto Rico, Oracle Academy organized activities around the role of women and challenges in technology. The event was hosted at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo and the Maria Cadilla de Martínez School. During the event, Oracle Academy volunteers spoke about women in technology, and a panel of Oracle employees shared their experiences in the industry and on the job, covering their time as students as well as the challenges they have faced as women in the technology industry. Oracle volunteer Manoletts Morales, Principal Solution Engineer, shared a demo and presentation of the evolution of applications through the years, and closed the event with a Java programming workshop using Alice. Support from volunteers Aurora Roque, Customer Care Representative; Carolina Rivera, Customer Success Manager; and Johana Bohorquez, Sales Representative, was key to the success of the event on the island. Again, thank you to all our Oracle volunteers who dedicated their time and expertise to help make our Oracle Academy Girls in ICT events across Latin America such as success! We appreciate you supporting the Oracle Academy mission to increase diversity in technology fields by sharing your knowledge and experience with these young women.

As part of our mission to promote diversity in computing, Oracle Academy hosted for the fourth consecutive year the Girls in ICT Day across Latin America. This year the event was held...

In June 2019, more than 80 students from Mapúa University in Makati City, Philippines, attended an Oracle Academy Technology Talk to learn more about data warehouse and business intelligence. Listening to the talk by Oracle Solution Engineer Jase Tiojanco, who works in the Oracle Cloud Platform Group and specializes in analytics and data management, Mapúans learned how the challenges of data growth and complexity are driving businesses to embrace digital transformation and data science as key determinants in their ability to innovate. The students also learned about autonomous innovation and data analytics and were provided a demonstration of the Oracle Autonomous Database. “I learned so much about Oracle products in data warehousing that will greatly help not just businesses, but also my students in their future professions. At this stage, they are well aware of the innovations from Oracle that can help them land a career as an IT professional,” said Julio Macrohon, a faculty member at Mapúa University. “With Oracle Academy's help, academia and industry link to create a harmonious transition for students to be better prepared for the needs of businesses.” Oracle Academy organizes special learning sessions for its member institutions. Also joining the students in the Oracle Academy Technology Talk was Dr. William Torres, one of the fathers of the Philippine Internet and a full-time faculty member of Mapúa’s School of Information Technology. Mapúa University is a top Asian university with a three-star overall rating by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). It fosters its tradition of excellence in engineering and sciences, architecture and design, information technology, business and management, media studies, and social sciences education. The university is the first school in Southeast Asia to obtain accreditation from the United States-based ABET (www.abet.org) and has the most number (14) of accredited engineering and computing programs in a single campus in the Philippines. Not yet a member of Oracle Academy? To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

In June 2019, more than 80 students from Mapúa University in Makati City, Philippines, attended an Oracle Academy Technology Talk to learn more about data warehouse and business...

On June 17, 2019, Oracle Academy joined with other key tech industry partners to formally kick off the Malaysian government’s ‘MY Digital Tech Talent’ initiative. The initiative was jointly established by the Ministry of Education and MDEC, the government agency under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, entrusted to lead the nation's digital economy forward. The event recognized 11 universities and five polytechnic institutions that have been awarded Premier Digital Tech University status for 2019 - 2021. ‘MY Digital Tech Talent’ was established to connect industry with educational institutions. Under the initiative, participating industry partners provide the selected institutions with a range of services, including curriculum assets and training for teachers on a range of technology subjects that they then can incorporate into their respective courses and programs. This will help their students acquire key knowledge and relevant skills to be ready for industry jobs upon graduation. As part of the initiative, Oracle Academy is delivering Train the Trainer events for educators in Java Programming and Database Design and Programming with SQL, plus self-learning study on Big Data and Machine Learning with Artificial Intelligence in Java. Each educator who completes the training will then be able to teach Oracle Academy course curriculum to students at their institutions. “MDEC is a strong proponent of public-private partnerships, and this premier digital tech initiative is a great example of how such alliances can powerfully impact the growth of Malaysia’s digital economy,” said Surina Shukri, Chief Executive Officer of MDEC. The launch event was held on June 17 at the Auditorium Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Oracle Academy was represented by Oracle Malaysia Managing Director Mohamed Fitri Abdullah, who was invited to join the stage with Dr. Maszlee Malik, Minister of Education, to formally acknowledge our participation in the initiative. Other tech industry partners include Microsoft, Cisco, AWS, Intel, JobStreet, SaS and Runcloud. Not yet a member of Oracle Academy? To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

On June 17, 2019, Oracle Academy joined with other key tech industry partners to formally kick off the Malaysian government’s ‘MY Digital Tech Talent’ initiative. The initiative was...

Students from the North Metropolitan Technical & Further Education (TAFE) college in Perth, Western Australia, were treated to an afternoon with two Oracle guest presenters who shared insights into key technologies that students are covering in their various information technology courses at North Metropolitan TAFE. Mike Drok, Cloud Platform Architect, and Peter Winn, Cloud Platform Strategist, both from the Oracle team in Perth, volunteered their time to share their knowledge and experience with the students and lecturers. The Oracle guest speakers covered a range of current technology topics, including machine learning, cloud architecture and blockchain. Following the industry talk, the consultants gave valuable feedback for lecturers to help shape the direction of their courses.  “In keeping with North Metro TAFE's objective of trying to make students "job-ready", the consultants provided a very informative session, giving examples of how new technology is being applied to business. Students particularly liked the case study demonstration of insights derived from HR data using the Oracle Analytics Cloud tool,” said Ivone Bennett, Programming Lecturer at North Metro TAFE Northbridge Campus. “They also discussed transitions in their own careers, and the types of roles available in IT. Thank you to Oracle Academy for supporting this kind of initiative.” North Metropolitan TAFE offers campus locations in the heart of Perth’s cultural district, where students learn through practical training from industry experts, in state-of-the-art facilities. The college has strong partnerships with industry that ensure courses remain current to provide their students with job-ready skills. Not yet a member of Oracle Academy? To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.

Students from the North Metropolitan Technical & Further Education (TAFE) college in Perth, Western Australia, were treated to an afternoon with two Oracle guest presenters who shared insights into...

April was a busy time for Oracle Iasi, in particular for one department where Gabriel Amarandei is the Manager, Customer Support, Database Administration. Why? Our Oracle colleagues took the time to share their experience and expertise by presenting to 250 students at two different events sponsored by Oracle Academy, discussing with them the importance of what they can learn from the Oracle Academy program and how this can help them for future IT careers. The two events, Zilele Studentului Electronist, Iasi, and IT Marathon, both took place in early April 2019. The events were organized by the student association from the Technical University Gheorghe Asachi, Iasi. Oracle experts Amarandei, Daniel Hurmuz, and Gabriel Ungureanu generously delivered presentations about Oracle as a company and the varied career opportunities in Romania for experts in Oracle Database architecture, performance and optimization. On April 16, Oracle Iasi hosted 30 high school students from Colegiul National Iasi at the request of their teacher, Gabriela Conea, an Oracle Academy member. We were delighted to have newly hired Oracle engineer Ciprian Ghimici speak to the students about why he choose a job at Oracle. Our Oracle Volunteers shared with students their passion for performance, intense study, and technology. “I want to thank you on behalf of my students and myself for the openness and friendship with which you hosted us for almost two hours yesterday. I know how important every minute is for you and that's why we appreciate so much time you have allotted to us so generously,” said Gabriela Conea. “Most of the students entered for the first time an IT company and were very impressed by the friendly atmosphere that you created, but especially about the messages regarding the performance, the intense study, the possibility of professional and personal growth in our country. All of us understood that growing yourselves enables growing others.” Following these events, the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering Technical University, Gheorghe Asachi, Iasi, invited our colleagues to present to the students at their Sesiunea de Comunicari Stiintifice Studentesti (SCSS) 2019 on May 17, 2019. Additionally, the team presented at the Universitatea A.I. Cuza, Iasi, where they completed the official course by mentoring at a workshop for the students covering Oracle index usage and optimization. We give heartfelt thanks to our Oracle Volunteers who took considerable time to share their expertise with these students to continue to grow the future of technology in Romania. The students had the opportunity to learn from the best as they continue on their paths of becoming the tech innovators and leaders of tomorrow.    

April was a busy time for Oracle Iasi, in particular for one department where Gabriel Amarandei is the Manager, Customer Support, Database Administration. Why? Our Oracle colleagues took the time to...

Founded in 1993 as a non-profit private university in Istanbul, Koc University is one of the leading universities in Turkey today, distinguished by notable contributions to education, knowledge, and service both domestically and beyond. Recently, Oracle Academy supported passionate volunteer students of the IEEE Koc University Student Branch to initiate a social project for disadvantaged students (aged 12-14) from Anafartalar Secondary School in Istanbul. The project aimed to support younger students in learning basic concepts behind coding and empower them with tech skills so they can be more than just consumers of technology. IEEE Koc University students delivered 80 minutes of Java Coding workshops to 40 young students as a club activity using Oracle Academy’s Workshop in a Box resources. They used Alice, an innovative block-based programming environment. The sessions continued for 10 weeks, from February through May 2019. During the sessions, university students mentored younger students to create animations, build interactive narratives, and program simple games in 3D using Alice. The university students volunteered their time to organize a campus visit to Koc University on May 16 for young students who completed these workshops, to inspire them to pursue a career in a STEM field. We are proud that these students have taken the initiative on their own to teach their younger colleagues using Oracle Academy resources. We were delighted to support the IEEE Koc University Student Branch, whose mission is to strengthen the research, creation, development, sharing and application processes of engineering in electricity, electronics, information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and related professions. If you are interested in conducting a similar workshop, please check out our five Workshops in a Box. They’re fun for students and easy to conduct!  

Founded in 1993 as a non-profit private university in Istanbul, Koc University is one of the leading universities in Turkey today, distinguished by notable contributions to education, knowledge,...

To help educators teach industry-relevant STEM skills, on May 7, Oracle Academy partnered with the NGO Initiative for Information Technology Capacity Building (I4ITCB) and the Nigeria Computer Society to hold a one-day program for 72 educators from 18 tertiary institutions. The I4ITCB works to improve pedagogy among science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators in the Southeastern part of Nigeria.  Oracle Academy had an opportunity to let the teachers know about the free Oracle Academy program benefits available to them, including classroom teaching resources, Java and database curriculum, and software licenses for teaching and research use―all at no cost. The educators were engaged in a curriculum mapping exercise to identify the gaps in their academic curriculum where Oracle Academy courses could be used as a bridge. This valuable exercise also identified new topics that should be introduced into the national curriculum using Oracle Academy resources. Oracle Academy is pleased to be a part of this first stage of this laudable project to embed industry-led curriculum into the teaching of computer science to ensure students gain valuable technology skills that help them become career ready. Learn more: https://techeconomy.ng/2019/05/13/i4itcb-oracle-academy-and-ncs-host-seminar-for-stem-lecturers-in-south-east-nigeria/ In early April, Oracle Academy hosted an Oracle Academy Day in Oyo State to highlight curriculum and help improve the teaching of STEM subjects, including computer science. Oracle Academy in partnership with Lead City University created an insightful session for educators, “Exploring Oracle Academy's Free Learning and Teaching Resources on Computer Science and Industry-Relevant Technologies.” The audience comprised 51 faculty members from the all the institutions of higher learning and select secondary schools in Oyo State, 12 institutions in all. The session provided an opportunity for participants to hear from the Oracle Academy program manager for Africa, Sefunmi Fadahunsi, about the free benefits, curriculum and resources the Oracle Academy program offers to institutions and educators. The discussions gave participants an understanding of how Oracle Academy continues to develop programs to meet the evolving needs of students and faculty. Discussions centered on how Oracle Academy can work with members to map out their curriculum to facilitate the delivery of learning and Oracle Academy curriculum content in the academic sector. Technical experts from Oracle also delivered sessions to the teachers on current industry trends, and how to touch on these in the classroom. The day ended with a buzzing energy in the room as the educators were excited about the teaching possibilities, and some schools immediately joined and registered as Institutional members of Oracle Academy. Not yet an Institutional member of Oracle Academy? Learn more and join.

To help educators teach industry-relevant STEM skills, on May 7, Oracle Academy partnered with the NGO Initiative for Information Technology Capacity Building (I4ITCB) and the Nigeria Computer Society...

To provide students with information on career paths using computing as well as the latest technology, on April 5 and 25, 2019, in Lagos, Nigeria, Oracle Academy hosted Knowledge Builder sessions with STEM university students. Oracle employees generously volunteered their time and expertise to provide the students with quality discussions on technology career paths and industry relevant skills, and practical sessions on artificial intelligence, data analytics, machine learning, and learning and Data Visualization Cloud Services. At the April 5 session, Oracle Technology Consultants Bukola Ogunleye and Martins Elugbaju held a session with more than 30 students and 10 educators on artificial intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning, using Oracle Academy’s curriculum on Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning in Java. On April 25, computer science students of Oracle Academy Institutional member Bowen University visited the Oracle Lagos Office. It was a great opportunity to expose students to the Oracle Academy program student offerings, presented by Sefunmi Fadahunsi, Oracle Academy Program Manager. Tunde Senowo of the Oracle Technology team presented a demonstration on Data Visualization Cloud Services, using the 2019 Nigerian presidential election results as a case study, to 40 students and their teacher. The Oracle Nigeria Country Manager, Adebayo Sanni, also dropped by to offer advice to the students. He emphasized that technology is the future and the students should embrace computer science education fully. The visit featured discussions around innovation, collaboration, and the gateway into new Oracle technologies. On May 11-13, as part of its commitment to supporting computer science education, Oracle Academy sponsored the participated in the Annual International Education EXPO: Back to School Ethiopia, hosted in Addis Ababa. Oracle Academy staff presented its free program benefits to participants and engaged with many participating schools. At the conference, a student hackathon promoted the practical use of technology and encouraged development of the innovative and technical skills of participating students. Around 50 students from 10 universities in Ethiopia took part in the hackathon, which challenged participants to use Java programming to build web and mobile applications. (pictured below) Following the event, faculty members had the opportunity to join Oracle Academy as members so they would be able to access free curriculum and other Oracle Academy no-cost learning resources and tools.      

To provide students with information on career paths using computing as well as the latest technology, on April 5 and 25, 2019, in Lagos, Nigeria, Oracle Academy hosted Knowledge Builder sessions with...

Oracle Academy recently facilitated a student-focused event at FAST (Foundation for Advanced Science & Technology) National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), Karachi campus, in Pakistan. Students and faculty from the computer science and management sciences departments attended the event. NUCES is a premiere university of Pakistan, renowned for its quality and impact of its students on local industries, including software development. Experts from Oracle Pakistan presented to the students, including Shariq Rehman, Managing Director of Oracle Pakistan, who is an alumnus of FAST-NUCES. Shariq commenced his session by discussing the rapid pace at which the world is evolving and explaining how Oracle is successfully adapting to all of these innovations. He discussed some important emerging technologies, namely: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IOT), and Blockchain. He also highlighted how Oracle supports learning initiatives by providing free access to educational materials and Oracle technologies through the Oracle Academy program. The later part of the session was devoted to career counseling. Shariq imparted useful career advice, sharing his experiences and observations from the time he was a student to his current career. The event received an overwhelming positive response from the students. “Mr. Rehman’s session was very informational and interesting for the students. They were especially interested in the introduction of how Oracle platforms support cutting-edge technologies, and the case studies, and they were excited by the fact that some of those platforms were accessible to them through Oracle Academy membership,” said Dr. M. Rafi, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science. “Mr. Rehman’s status as an alumnus of FAST allowed him to create a good rapport with the students. His career counseling advice and tips on how they can prepare themselves were very popular. We are hopeful such sessions will continue in a regular manner and allow students and faculty alike to keep up with the cutting-edge tools made available by Oracle.” Not yet a member of Oracle Academy? To learn more about Oracle Academy’s free computing education curriculum and resources, explore joining Oracle Academy as an Institutional member.  

Oracle Academy recently facilitated a student-focused event at FAST (Foundation for Advanced Science & Technology) National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), Karachi campus, in...