Herndon, Va. (Nov. 8, 2007) – Giving African governments and ministries of education an opportunity for their students to connect online with classrooms worldwide, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Council has partnered with ePals, Inc., the leading internet learning community. This collaboration will provide African students and educators with the ability to create cross-cultural pen pal and project sharing programs in a safe, protected context using ePals.com and its rich set of communication tools.

“In this ever-shrinking global community, it is important that African schools enable their students to interact with the rest of the world. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides the most realistic and cost effective opportunity for African school children to interact with students from all parts of the world,” said Dr. Jabulani Dhliwayo, PhD and Senior VP/Science & Technology Commission Chair of the NEPAD Council. “ePals offers some of the most unique and effective tools for African classrooms to make safe and meaningful connections with other classrooms all over the world. The NEPAD Council is proud to have ePals as a partner to allow Kenyan schools to embrace this cultural and 21st century learning opportunity.”

“The Internet is helping schools create meaningful and effective project-based learning environments for students to connect globally as they learn about other countries and cultures,” said Tim DiScipio, co-founder and CMO of ePals. “These classroom exchanges encourage greater global awareness as participating students and teachers, regardless of their geography, cultural background or economic status become important contributors to the ePals global experience, and ultimately, the global economy.”

ePals’ safe learning community, connectivity tools and digital literacy curricula give educators, like those affiliated with the NEPAD council, the opportunity to help their students enhance 21st century literacy skills.

This includes critical thinking, global awareness, and project collaboration. ePals is specifically developed so that schools and districts can implement their Internet use policies and provide deep learning value for all their students.

More Information

To learn about the NEPAD Council, visit www.nepadcouncil.org.

For more information on ePals and its tools, please visit www.epals.com or the corporate site www.epalscorp.com.

About NEPAD Council

NEPAD Council is a non-political and independent Non-Profit Organization (NGO) comprised of African professionals worldwide which supports the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The organization’s mission is to creatively mobilize, accelerate and utilize global resources and expertise in the area of poverty and education to support Africa’s development and help achieve a sustainable improvement. NEPAD Council is made up of representatives of all African countries and recognized and endorsed by the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC).

About ePals

Founded in 1996 and merged with In2Books in 2006, ePals offers K-12 students and teachers around the world a safe environment for building and exchanging knowledge based on protected connectivity tools, evidence-based curricula and authentic, collaborative learning experiences. The ePals Global Learning Community™ (www.ePals.com) is the largest online community of K-12 learners, enabling more than 325,000 educators and 129,000 classrooms across 200 countries and territories to safely connect, exchange ideas, and work together. The company’s mission is to support lifelong learning through collaborative experiences that empower and inspire.

Contacts

ePals, Inc.
Rebecca Kilduff
703-885-3400
rkilduff at corp.epals dot com
www.epalscorp.com

C. Blohm & Associates, Inc.
Sandy Fash
608-839-9800
sandy at cblohm dot com
www.cblohm.com

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