Myngle offers a solution by providing students and teachers in different locations with a complete online language instruction platform, containing all the tools needed for synchronous e-learning.

Maybe you’re not very surprised by the fact that Myngle was founded by former eBay employees? Since December 2007 Myngle generated 18.000 users registered for teaching or taking language lessons. Myngle closed a first financing round raising 800.000 euro from both professional as private investors.

On the Benelux Venture 50 conference Myngle was elected one of the most promising ICT start ups in the Benelux. That ex eBay people are behind Myngle can also be distracted by the embracement of VoIP (Skype is an eBay company) and by these gift vouchers, which can be paid with PayPal (PayPal is an eBay company). More about Myngle can be seen here on Dutch TV (with UK subtitles).

How do teacher and student communicate? Myngle offers a toolkit for synchronous learning, which consists of VoIP (Skype) own integrated whiteboard, payment systems (PayPal), feedback and a community environment.

Myngle’s feedback system made up of comments and ratings left by students who were taught by the relevant teacher. These comments and rating will be available in the public Feedback Profile of each member. Extra features will be gradually added to enrich the learning experience, such as podcasts, homework, 3D virtual reality classroom / role plays etc.

‘We conveniently eliminate the need for face-to-face interaction between students and teachers and, with it, the requirement for physical displacement’, says Marina Tognetti, founder and CEO of Myngle.

Why now? The time is ripe for the expansion of the language teaching market from offline to online for a number of different reasons: free of charge high quality VoIP (Skype), high international broadband penetration and whiteboard technology are now available at mass prices.

Also, the increasing success of community websites like Facebook and MySpace (or Hyves in the Netherlands) has expanded communication and social interaction beyond the restricted circle of geographical reach. Last, but most important, the internet generation is reaching now spending power and interest in language learning.

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