INTERNATIONAL ONLINE CLASSROOM EXCHANGE NOW AVAILABLE IN ARABIC
from www.idrc.ca

Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canadian International Development Agency(CIDA) are proud to be contributing to facilitating dialogue between Canadian schoolchildren and students in Arabic-speaking nations through ePALS Classroom Exchange (www.epals.com).

The ePALS web site is an online classroom exchange that allows students and teachers to connect with other classrooms around the world and communicate via email and discussion boards in a safe environment. In the current international climate, fostering communication between North-American and Middle-Eastern countries is seen as a step towards understanding and cooperation.
“I am especially delighted with our partnership with CIDA, by far our most substantial partner year after year and who here recognized the substantial potential of ePALS and its burgeoning technology,” says IDRC President, Maureen O’Neil.
“We are proud to have been a part of this initiative with CIDA and IDRC to provide educators and students with safe, global collaboration experiences via the internet,” adds John Iving, CEO and Co-Founder of ePALS Classroom Exchange. “With the development of the Arabic language version of the ePALS site, we continue breaking language and cultural barriers between children.”
Recognizing the importance of such an exchange, CIDA contributed CAN$125,000 and IDRC CAN$50,000 to the effort of translating the ePALS web site into Arabic.
A highly successful web site generating approximately 7 million page views per month, ePALS is also available in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese. Using their native languages, children can communicate with their online pen-pals about their cultures, countries and school projects. Currently, 4.5 million students and teachers from 191 countries are subscribed to ePALS including more than 120 classrooms in Arab countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Kuwait.
Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is one of the world's leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges of international development. For more than 30 years, IDRC has worked in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous society.

About ePALS Classroom Exchange:
ePALS Classroom Exchange, Inc. (www.epals.com), a leader in safe K-12 email and collaborative classroom solutions, connects over 4.5 million students and educators in 191 countries. ePALS was the first Internet site to offer teacher monitored email with built-in instant language translation. The epals.com site also offers, safe moderated discussion boards, private chat rooms and interactive educational content and resources. ePALS is now licensing this technology, ePALS SchoolMailTM, to schools as a safe, cost effective, customizable email solution. ePALS SchoolMailTM is an ASP-based safe email solution with educator monitoring, comprehensive administrative controls and a multilingual interface.