ePals and L.E.A.P. Global Learning Systems Deliver Collaborative Learning Environment to Educators and Students Throughout Thailand

Released on: August 27, 2010, 12:01 pm
Author: L.E.A.P. Global P.R. Department
Industry: Education

Safe online workspace and global community facilitates authentic learning opportunities for students

Herndon, Va. (Aug. 27, 2010) – ePals, Inc., and L.E.A.P Global Learning Systems have partnered to provide students and educators across Thailand with access to a safe online workspace and the largest online community of K-12 learners to facilitate collaboration in a controlled environment.

L.E.A.P.™ has established a community of more than 40,000 private, public, international, and government schools throughout Asia and Africa. Through this partnership with ePals, L.E.A.P. offers its members access to millions of students and educators in the ePals Global Learning Community. In addition, Learning Tools 4 Schools from L.E.A.P. – a blended suite of proprietary and third party tools designed to enhance and support authentic education – requires a valid e-mail account to activate membership. ePals allows L.E.A.P. to provide members secure school e-mail as well as the latest Web 2.0 learning tools with ePals SchoolMail and ePals LearningSpace, making it even easier for its members to learn and collaborate.

“By partnering with ePals, we are immediately able to access the safe and collaborative learning platform we have been looking for to offer an affordable, yet high-quality, suite of Web 2.0 education products to even the most rural schools and organizations,” said Craig Hovendove, president and founder of L.E.A.P. Global Learning Systems. “ePals LearningSpace and ePals SchoolMail allow our students to participate in truly authentic learning opportunities regardless of their socio-economic background or digital prowess.”

Thailand has more than 16 million students and 45,000 schools throughout its 76 provinces, and without a national communications network, many schools in rural areas are cut off from the rest of the country and the world. “Since the introduction of ePals, students across Thailand now have direct access to their peers not only in larger Thai cities like Bangkok, but also with millions of others throughout the world. This gives them a strong incentive to learn English and other critical skills necessary to succeed academically and in life after school,” said Ed Fish, president of ePals, Inc. “Partnering with L.E.A.P. Global Learning Systems allows our community to grow, providing learning opportunities to schools and students in some of the most remote parts of our world.”

After studying in the United States, Chanarong Luckshaniyanayin, president and founder of Pasanusorn Bangkae Private School in Bangkok, wanted to improve the educational system in his native country. “My requirements were to find a safe, affordable, engaging, user-friendly, and bi-lingual solution that would offer my students the ability to connect and collaborate with schools in America and around the world. The L.E.A.P. system powered by ePals has everything I was looking for and much more.”

Through ePals LearningSpace, educators can conduct project-based learning opportunities, differentiate instruction and design curriculum in real-time. Bringing together a complete suite of Web 2.0 tools – blogs, wikis, digital lockers, forums, and more – the platform helps educators effectively prepare students for the 21st century workforce. Additionally, L.E.A.P. members can access the ePals Global Community, the largest online community of K-12 learners, enabling more than half a million educators and millions of students across 200 countries and territories to safely connect, exchange ideas and work together.

For more information about L.E.A.P., visit http://www.leapingsmart.com/leapsmart/.

For more information about ePals, visit www.epals.com.

About ePals, Inc.
ePals, Inc., offers students and educators around the world a safe environment for building and exchanging knowledge through protected connectivity tools, evidence-based curricula and authentic, collaborative learning experiences. The ePals Global Community™ (www.epals.com) is the largest online community of K-12 learners, enabling more than half a million educators and millions of students across 200 countries and territories to safely connect, exchange ideas and work together. The global community and a host of partner products are built on the ePals Distributed Learning Platform™, an online collaborative environment optimized for the education market. The company’s mission is to support lifelong learning through collaborative experiences that empower and inspire. For more information, visit www.epals.com.

About L.E.A.P.
L.E.A.P.™ is a duo acronym for “Learn Earn And Play”™ and “Learn English And Prosper”™. From within their safe and secure, private global learning environment, K-12 L.E.A.P. members learn from real-world information, and knowledge-rich and engaging e-learning modules, which focus on reading, spelling, math, ESL, online and offline safety, career development and life-skills. L.E.A.P. members must take a minimum of one e-learning module weekly, and perform one community service act or activity once a month, to maintain their valid membership status. L.E.A.P. members earn cyber-cash, which has a “real-world” monetary value, every time they take an e-learning module from L.E.A.P.’s Knowledge Bank or perform a community service act. Then, L.E.A.P. members can use their cyber-cash online at the L.E.A.P. online store, or offline at malls, school stores and other community-based retail locations that accept regular Visa and Master cards.

About L.E.A.P. Global Learning Systems
L.E.A.P. Global Learning System’s mission is to develop, create and distribute real-world multicultural, localized and relevant e-learning content in conjunction with celebrity and community-based partnerships to create a global network of “learning without limits or limitations” for all children, youth and teens. The company strives to make its content universally available within its safe custom-branded network of cutting-edge technology and global distribution channels. The company’s core product offering is the L.E.A.P. SMART™ e-Learning Network, which revolutionizes the way the world educates, motivates, empowers, and inspires children, youth and teens.

NOTE: For media inquiries in Thailand, please contact Khun Chanarong at info@thegoodnetworkhq.com or 66-8-1908-1188.

# # #

For further U.S. and International media enquiries outside of Thailand please contact:

Kevin Pichon at
kevin@leapinsmart.com
Tel: (817) 360-8640

Rebecca Kilduff
ePals, Inc.
(703) 885-3400
rkilduff@corp.epals.com

Sandy Fash
C. Blohm & Associates, Inc.
(608) 839-9800
sandy@cblohm.com

or Thai Contact:
Khun Chanarong at
craig@leapingsmart.com
Tel: 66-8-1908-1188

Company’s Websites:
www.leapingsmart.com
www.iwish2learn.com
www.leaptoenglish.com

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