ePals Inc., an Internet learning community, and National Geographic Ventures, which creates and distributes digital content for the National Geographic Society, have announced a partnership that will enhance the ePals site with National Geographic content to create unique learning experiences for classrooms, students and families around the globe.
As part of the agreement, National Geographic has made a strategic investment in ePals. A representative of National Geographic Ventures and ePals will join the boards of the other, and the organizations have entered into a multi-year alliance and content agreement. Designed to enhance the way the Internet is used to foster safe and effective multicultural learning exchanges across media platforms, the first focus is to thread high-quality digital content from nationalgeographic.com throughout ePals.com to create unique learning experiences.
Initial topic areas of focus for the new alliance include maps and geography, habitats, global warming, natural disasters, people and culture, great leaders, water and weather. In each area, classrooms and teachers will be able to choose among projects that emphasize collaboration, 21st-century skill building and the use of school-safe communication tools to seamlessly work with learners around the world or down the block.
Users will be encouraged to get into the act by building and sharing their own projects for use broadly within the community. ePals will also enable users in teacher and student forums, blogs and other community areas to 'Explore More,' delivering quality information in highly contextual.
