Pope Francis partners with Google for Scholas education platform

Regardless of your opinions on religion or beliefs, you cannot deny that the Pope is a powerful man who can enact change. In other words, even though he is a mortal man like the rest of us, when he speaks, people listen.

Pope Francis has been revered by the world's poor, as he has largely shunned riches, in exchange for a more modest lifestyle. Now, the Pope is working with Google services to communicate with young people and bring them together for educational purposes. You see, Pope Francis is in charge of a new learning platform, called Scholas.

"What if students and teachers from around the world could work on projects together in real-time without ever leaving their classrooms? Pope Francis recently joined students in Australia, Cameron, Israel, Turkey and South Africa for a Hangout on Air to celebrate the launch of Scholas -- a new education initiative sponsored by the Vatican that aims to connect 500,000 schools across the world to enable e-learning and remote teaching using Google tools", says Ego Obi, Global Lead of Access for Education in Emerging Markets, Google.

Obi Further explains, "a social component of the platform uses Google Hangouts to connect students and teachers globally, so if students at a middle school in Ghana want to learn what it’s like to be a student their age in Peru, they can teach each other through an open and collaborative environment. Schools can also post shared projects on the platform, like the '40 Days of Hope' project by Seton Catholic High School, which aims to raise $3,000 to provide parasite medication and feed 40 people for a year in Nicaragua".

Clearly, the work being done by Pope Francis and Google should have a positive global impact. By empowering students to interact and collaborate on subjects regardless of geographic location or financial status, they should benefit mightily. Hopefully this project proves to be a success and schools embrace it.