eZedia Signs Agreement, Partnering with Francis Marion University In Multimedia Education

WINNIPEG, CANADA – May 21, 2001 – eZedia Inc., a leader in digital media software technology, today announced a research partnership agreement with Francis Marion University (FMU) in connection with FMU's PT3 Capacity Building and Implementation Grants. The PT3 grants are part of a federal program administered by the US Department of Education to provide future teachers, nationwide, with experience in how digital technology is transforming education. Under the agreement, eZedia will supply its digital media integration software, eZediaMX, for use on workstations throughout the School of Education, as well as to faculty members across campus. Also as part of the agreement, core faculty in the School of Education will research and develop curricular applications that use eZediaMX to enhance thinking, learning, and communication. As well, the faculty will be enrolled in eZedia's Zoom-ed program allowing students and community members to purchase eZediaMX at special educational prices.
A powerful, yet easy-to-learn software program for digital media integration, eZediaMX enables any computer user to receive, generate, modify, edit, recreate, reformat and re-present any and all digital media. eZediaMX has little or no learning curve, works with Windows and Mac OS and is so intuitive, teachers and students can use it to communicate ideas in visual form in every area of curriculum.
"In an era where we see the convergence of media, print and the Internet, strong skills in reading, writing, speaking and thinking are critical. It is not enough to know how to "click" on something, individuals have to know when and why they will use different technological tools," said Dr. Michael Madden, Principal Investigator for the PT3 Grant.
Art Monk, CEO of eZedia Inc. stated, "We are very pleased to have established this agreement and working rapport with a group that is taking a leadership role in exploring how multimedia authorship can support, extend, and enhance learning at all ages. By pioneering the use of multimedia in their institution, the faculty and staff at Francis Marion University are developing new paradigms for learning at the nexus of digital media and education technology."


About eZediaMX

eZediaMX is far more than typical presentation software. It is a new way to integrate digital media to communicate knowledge, information, and ideas. It enables users to create multimedia reports, interactive training programs, electronic image archives, voice and audio overlays, and complex media sequences that branch and flow based on user input. All of this is easily accomplished within an environment where users can drag and drop media objects and connect them with various control objects to create sophisticated digital media productions.

About Francis Marion University

Francis Marion University was founded in 1970 and named in honor of Revolutionary War hero, General Francis Marion. However, the university can trace its history to 1957 when the University of South Carolina established a freshman center at the Florence County Library. In 1961, a permanent campus for USC-Florence was established seven miles east of Florence on land donated by the Wallace family, the current location of FMU. Following a Commission on Higher Education recommendation, Gov. Robert E. McNair signed into law an act creating Francis Marion College, effective July 1, 1970. The institution gained university status in 1992. The School of Education places special emphasis on providing a broad based education where the development of critical thinking skills, reflective thought, and the integration of learned concepts into the student's daily interplay of skills, collaborative techniques and attitudes is central to the school's mission. The programs within the school encompass the traditional liberal arts education and the preparation of professional teachers at the undergraduate and graduate level.

About eZedia Inc.

Founded in 1994 by Stefan Embleton, eZedia Inc. has grown from an interactive digital media development company to a leader in digital media software technology. The company derives its name from the phrase "easy media," which emphasizes its corporate focus on the delivery of easy-to-learn and easy-to-use, digital media integration products. The management team includes industry veterans from Hewlett-Packard, PointBase, Saba, Rolls Royce, Bristol Aerospace, Boeing, and the music publishing division of Oxford University Press.

The release of eZediaMX in November of 2000 launched eZedia into a leading position based on its cross-platform Java implementation and advanced use of object oriented constructs for the development and delivery of digital media productions. The software enables users at work, at home and at school to take full advantage of all the forms of digital media they come in contact with every day. . Continuing in its efforts to drive the use of multimedia in education, eZedia has established partnerships with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) and the Faculties of Education at Queen's University and University of Manitoba. For more information about eZedia Inc., please call 204-984-9214 or visit the Company's web site at http://www.ezedia.com.
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Note to Editors: Zoom-ed, eZedia, the eZedia logo, and eZediaMX are registered trademarks or trademarks of eZedia Inc.




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