With what I am sure is more than a full-time job at Deloitte, what prompted you to found the eLearning for Kids foundation?

Nick van Dam: The more I traveled around the world, the more I continued to see a void in respect to the education for children - both in developed and developing countries. For example, according to UNICEF, more than 150 million children do not attend school.

I believe the Internet is a fantastic platform to provide children with education at any time and any place. Unfortunately, the cost of commercial-quality courses is out of reach for many parents and schools. EFK was founded with the vision to provide high-quality online learning for children worldwide - at absolutely no cost.


In order to do this, we are staffed by volunteers who are professionals in the learning and training fields and who share our mission to give back and invest in the future of our children around the globe. We also make a large percentage of our courses available via CD-ROM where Internet connections are not available. We've come a long way since late 2004 when our organization was established, and we continue to make progress towards our vision every day.

Tell us about the courses and curriculum that eLearning for Kids currently offers.

Nick van Dam: We have more than eighty courses specifically designed to build and improve basic skills for children ages 5-12. All of our courses have been developed by leading eLearning vendors and other volunteer professionals throughout the world who have dedicated their time and resources. Our subject areas include Math, Language Arts, Science, English Language, Computer Skills, Health, and Life Skills.

Many of our courses come from our partners. For example, we have recently launched 43 courses via our partnership with Liquid Animations for a Health and Life Skills curriculum comprised of five categories: Body Parts, Keeping Healthy, Growing and Developing, Feelings and Worries and Conditions and Diseases. As another example of partnering, a large part of our science curriculum is provided via TryScience, a collaboration of the New York Hall of Science, IBM, and more than 500 member institutions of the Association of Science-Technology Centers.


The program offers interactive exhibits, multimedia adventures, and live camera "field trips", as well as hands-on science projects that children, parents, and teachers can do at home or in school. A third example is two courses about Coaching and Managing Time which were donated by Harvard Business School Publishing, another of our partners, for parents and teachers.

We are always looking for new partners as well as eLearning suppliers with the interest and capability to develop custom courses for our audience.

What are some examples of how schools and countries have implemented your courseware?

Nick van Dam: Here are three very different examples. Ghana is a country that is very interesting demographically as nearly one third of the population of 22 million is under the age of fourteen, is spread across ten regions. Theresa and George Sackey, who own the company Etoys&More in the capital, Accra, and who represent EFK in Ghana, have donated computers and computer support to various schools and have organized learning workshops and conferences for heads of schools. They work very closely with the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education, and they recently hosted an event attended by over 200 heads of schools, where EFK activities were showcased.

In Latin America, our EFK Director is Veronica Inoue. With a TV cable company called Promision in Colombia, she coordinated a learning project for parents and children up to the age of ten years. They allow access to our courses from their site and help us promote EFK to their members.

Another very successful example is our partnership with the leaders of Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning, Swati Chaudhari and Sarika Swarup. They have created an EFK Country Chapter in India and have been marketing the EFK web site to schools in Pune. They've also promoted EFK at the Nanyang Technology University in Singapore. We receive a majority of our web course "hits" from the Symbiosis Centre.

Our global outreach has come a long way, but of course, there is still much to be done. Many parts of the world remain unexploited, and there is also great need in the developed world. In summary, our courses can be used as both basic education, as well as for supplementary/re-enforcement material for children anytime, anywhere.

What do you suggest to our readers as the best way to learn more and about ways they can get involved with eLearning for Kids?


Nick van Dam: Our website has a lot of information and is definitely the best place to start for learning more about us and about our numerous offerings and activities; our home page will guide you to all its sections. Note that you do not need to sign in or register for any course - just clicking on the desired icon will allow you to begin.

As for getting involved, there are many ways each of you can contribute, but let me mention some specific ideas where we have high priority needs. If you are a corporation, we invite you to explore sponsorships and funding with us. If you are a non-governmental organization, we ask that you partner with us to reach children globally. ELearning providers can assist us by donating courseware or development resources. Associations and universities can help us reach your members, students, and alumni with publicity and by using our curriculum. We also would love to have any of your organizations or institutions post our logo on your site and link to EFK to allow us additional visibility (and we would be happy to do the same for you on ours).

And of course, everyone can help us by spreading the word about eLearning for Kids and by making a direct, and much needed, donation of any amount securely on our site via PayPal.

Lastly, if you have not taken a course yet, why not try one today? That way you can experience our offerings first hand and determine other ways you, or your organization can help us to open more educational doors for children around the world.