ePals Connects African Classrooms with Schools Worldwide

ePals Co-Founder Presenting at eLearning Africa on Global Classroom Connections
through the Use of Safe, Protected Tools

Accra, Ghana (May 30, 2008) – African schools and ministries of education have an opportunity for their students and teachers to safely connect online with classrooms worldwide, at no cost, with ePals (www.epals.com), the largest and fastest growing global social network for meaningful learning. During eLearning Africa 2008 on May 29th, Tim DiScipio, co-founder of ePals, demonstrated how the ePals Global Learning Community, SchoolM@il, SchoolBlog, and other collaborative technologies help ePals schools make global project connections to improve critical digital literacy and 21st century skills.

“The Internet is helping schools create meaningful and effective project-based learning environments for students and teachers to connect and collaborate globally, to learn about other countries and cultures, to practice language skills, and to develop global awareness,” said DiScipio. “These classroom exchanges enable 21st century shared learning regardless of geography, cultural background or economic status, and helps students to become important contributors to the global experience, and ultimately, the global economy.”

The company’s ongoing efforts provide African students and educators with the ability to create free cross-cultural penpal and project sharing programs in a safe, protected context using ePals.com and its rich set of communication tools. ePals has partnered with National Geographic to bring rich digital content to the ePals site, providing in-depth projects and enhancing global perspective. In addition, ePals’ safe learning community, connectivity tools and digital literacy curricula give educators the opportunity to help their students enhance 21st century literacy skills. The company recently partnered with Intel to offer access to its safe and connected Global Learning Community to users of the Intel-powered classmate PC worldwide, including Africa.

eLearning Africa is a pan-African conference that focuses on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in development, education and training. Taking place each year in a different African country, the conference aims to link decision-makers in governments and administrations with universities, schools, governmental and private training providers, and industry and other important partners in development.

During the conference on Thursday, May 29, DiScipio highlighted the company’s Global Learning Community, SchoolM@il and SchoolBlog.

More Information

For more information on Tim DiScipio’s presentation, ePals and its tools, please visit www.epals.com.

To learn more about the eLearning Africa 2008 conference, visit www.elearning-africa.com.

About ePals

Founded in 1996 and merged with In2Books in 2006, ePals offers K-12 students and educators 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 126,000 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. ePals is especially committed to providing educational opportunities in under resourced environments worldwide through the ePals Foundation – developer of In2Books, the company’s flagship literacy mentoring program.

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