ePals To Provide Education Software for Classmate PCs
Ed tech developer ePals this week announced that it's developing education tool's for the Classmate PC, Intel's low-cost, ruggedized laptops designed for elementary and middle school students. It's also part of Intel's World Ahead Program for bringing technology to students around the world, particularly students in "emerging" cultures.
ePals said its software will be the first education-specific tools for the Classmate PC. It's bringing its Global Learning Community, SchoolMail, and SchoolBlog to the platform.
SchoolMail is an integrated, teacher-monitored e-mail system that includes 72 language-translation pairs, spell checking, virus and spam filters, and file-sharing capabilities. SchoolBlog is a literacy education tool tat offers teacher-supervised message boards that encourage students "to express their ideas, collaborate with other students and teachers, and involve parents in a secure online environment." The Global Learning Community provides collaborative tools for teachers and students in a secure environment. According to ePals., it's used by more than 350,000 teachers from 200 countries and territories around the world.
"The collaboration between Intel and ePals will take students' learning experience beyond the walls of the classrooms to different corners of the world. ePals' applications complement the collaboration features on the Intel-powered classmate PC - enabling students and teachers to collaborate and learn together in a secure environment to develop skills for the global economy," said Lila Ibrahim, general manager of the Emerging Markets Platform Group of Intel, in a statement released this week. "Bringing technology to children in emerging markets is a huge task. We are excited to work with leading service providers such as ePals in delivering opportunities for students."
ePals has also signed an agreement with the New Partnership for Africa's Development Council to provide its Global Community to African students and educators.
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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
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