Our Approach

The ePals® approach provides an effective way to instruct and reach today's technology savvy students and teachers. ePals provides digital content designed for collaboration and self-paced, self-directed learning as well as a safe platform to share work globally. Authentic ePals projects are centered around meaningful content and experiences that require teamwork, digital literacy skills, higher-level thinking and communication. By engaging in authentic learning experiences about relevant issues, students, teachers and mentors learn and work together, strengthening core learning while motivating learners and building self-confidence and skills necessary for future careers. At the same time, ePals helps teachers learn to use technology effectively in their classrooms, providing professional development, curriculum, contests and other resources.

ePals is a platform designed to promote meaningful teaching and learning, showing teachers and students how to use technology strategically to promote the fundamental learning principles essential for academic achievement. This involves creating a safe and secure content-rich environment that challenges students and educators to research smartly, collaborate with other learners of all ages, think critically, problem-solve, and communicate their learning using various web 2.0 tools. It is this way that technology serves deep learning and is not simply an add-on in the classroom.

The reach of the ePals Global Community™, including 200 countries and territories, provides a powerful network effect that brings together students and educators based on areas of learning interests and geography. Unlike traditional social networks, where a person usually connects solely with people he or she knows in the "real world," the ePals network connects students both "down the block" and literally around the globe with people they may not know, but with whom they share a common interest. For example, a high school class studying Chinese may use ePals to connect with a class in China that is studying English. These interactions help students in both countries learn the language and experience some of the culture through this real-world connection.

At the heart of the ePals Distributed Learning Platform is an innovative set of patent-pending role-based permissions and policy management technologies that empower schools and educators with the ability to create multiple learning experiences and manage (not just control) what students see and with whom they engage through the platform. ePals' industry-leading policy management technology fully implements regulatory frameworks, such as COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), while enabling collaboration for real-world learning.

ePals' mission is to support lifelong learning through collaborative experiences that empower and inspire. ePals is especially committed to enabling academically rigorous educational opportunities in economically disadvantaged environments worldwide through the ePals Foundation – provider of In2Books®, the company's flagship literacy e-mentoring program. The In2Books program has helped participating children raise standardized test scores and improve writing and critical-thinking skills.