Ardmore, PA (USA), November 2009 - E-Learning for Kids (EFK) was launched in 2005 by a small, all-volunteer and virtual team of business and education professionals with a dozen courses and a few hundred online users. In 2009 alone, EFK has reached more than 1.5 million children in 192 countries, who have taken more than 5 million courses.
EFK courseware, co-developed by leading eLearning vendors, independent eLearning specialists, and professional educators, teaches children aged five-twelve math, reading and languages, science, computers, health, and life skills.
Today, there are more than 175 courses available, ranging from the food pyramid to the solar system, body parts to disease prevention, measurements and fractions, keyboarding, and Internet safety. All are available in English, and many are also available in French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
A quarter million children in the United States have used EFK courseware, where EFK is used both in the classroom and for home schooling. "e-Learning for Kids is not just another website with games for children, but has true interactive courses to teach concepts and reinforce classroom learning in all subject areas", says Laurie Patsalides, Managing Editor of Bright Hub and a certified teacher in the USA. Bright Hub gave the EFK site a 5 out of 5 rating in its review.
Of the 1.5 million children who have taken EFK eLearning courses, one million were actually "offline." EFK has also distributed its courseware through download links or CD-ROMs to almost 3,900 schools, orphanages, and community centers in developing countries - places where direct Internet connections are difficult and the need for high-quality education is acute.
Partnerships with other non-governmental organizations such as "Close the Gap" and "Digital Links", which refurbishes computers retired from corporations, enable bundled delivery of much-needed educational content along with hardware, primarily throughout Africa.
e-Learning for Kids has recently developed an application in collaboration with its Swiss partner, Avallain Education 4D, to run courseware on the "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) XO PC. This has been tested successfully at a school in Nairobi and will further expand the availability of quality educational material to thousands of children.
EFK's astonishing reach in such a short time is a testament to the passion of its founder and the power of individual, community, and business networks.
EFK was established in 2004 by Nick van Dam, Ph.D., Global Director Learning, eLearning Solutions and Technologies for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. An internationally recognized thought leader in learning and development and the author of "The eLearning Fieldbook" (2004, McGraw Hill), van Dam's international fieldwork showed him the tremendous gaps in educational access around the world.
"We started EFK as a network of business friends who came together to support children's education in whatever way we could, never imagining such adoption so quickly", says van Dam. "In today's hyper-connected, viral, and global environment, our goal to double our reach to three million children by Universal Children's Day 2010 and twenty million by 2015 is no longer outrageous."
