This week, I explored the learning site, ePals.
If you aren't familiar with ePals, I found this video extremely helpful.
What is ePals?
The tagline of this website reads, "Where Learners Connect." And that's just it - ePals is a website that creates a global community and a global classroom. Students in different towns, different states, different countries AND on different continents are able to connect, collaborate and become classmates. The site is set up so that teachers, students and even families can work together and share with people from anywhere around the world in a safe technological environment to create amazing pieces of work and new understandings.
Which features of ePals are most useful?
If you aren't familiar with ePals, I found this video extremely helpful.
What is ePals?
The tagline of this website reads, "Where Learners Connect." And that's just it - ePals is a website that creates a global community and a global classroom. Students in different towns, different states, different countries AND on different continents are able to connect, collaborate and become classmates. The site is set up so that teachers, students and even families can work together and share with people from anywhere around the world in a safe technological environment to create amazing pieces of work and new understandings.
Which features of ePals are most useful?
-One of the best features of this website is the possibilities it allows for students to collaborate with students from all over the world. Students can become familiar with different cultures, "visit" different places and "meet" different people just by clicking around on this website. This relationship with different cultures helps to make them seem less foreign to students and in doing so, makes the world a smaller place for them. I would hope that this would lead students to adopt a more global attitude in that they would be more accepting of others, rather than isolating themselves in their own culture and experiencing culture shock later on in life. It also makes for great opportunities to learn languages, or at the very least, play with the languages as they interact with one another.
-Another feature of this website that I think is awesome for teachers is the endless opportunities it provides for teacher collaboration! Since the advent of the internet, teachers have been able to do this more and more, but with the ePals website, teachers can begin to reach out to an exponential number of educators - and parents and students! Teachers can search for new lesson plans on this site, and I especially loved the feedback feature where teachers can post handouts, tests, or ideas to the website and receive critiques and comments from other teacher users. Teachers can also find inspiration from the many projects that they can get involved in or see other teachers doing, and through these, create totally unique learning opportunities for their students! Plus, the website is oober-organized and has so much information!! You can find forums, resources, libraries, teacher galleries - everything a teacher could need, all in one, easy to navigate website! It's a definite must-use teacher tool!
-More great features and ideas below...
-Another feature of this website that I think is awesome for teachers is the endless opportunities it provides for teacher collaboration! Since the advent of the internet, teachers have been able to do this more and more, but with the ePals website, teachers can begin to reach out to an exponential number of educators - and parents and students! Teachers can search for new lesson plans on this site, and I especially loved the feedback feature where teachers can post handouts, tests, or ideas to the website and receive critiques and comments from other teacher users. Teachers can also find inspiration from the many projects that they can get involved in or see other teachers doing, and through these, create totally unique learning opportunities for their students! Plus, the website is oober-organized and has so much information!! You can find forums, resources, libraries, teacher galleries - everything a teacher could need, all in one, easy to navigate website! It's a definite must-use teacher tool!
-More great features and ideas below...
How could I use this website in my teaching?
-One thing that I feel very passionate about in my future as an English educator is the use of multicultural texts. I am dedicated to introducing my students to different perspectives, different lifestyles and different cultures so that they can become familiar with them and be comfortable in the very diverse world in which we live! I want my students to be exposed to all of these so that even if they don't live in a diverse area, or interact with people different from themselves on a daily basis, they can learn to have respect for all walks of life and all different people. I was excited to see how useful ePals will be to help reach these goals and to supplement my multicultural texts that we read. If we read a text based on a character who lives in China, Africa, India, or anyplace for that matter, we can set up a connection with a classroom full of students the same age who live everyday in that culture and place! This would give my students great insight into the experiences of the characters and the cultures that are involved in the text. This would add so much wealth to the students' experiences and really make the story and setting come alive! Students could interview their "classmates" or collaborate on a project with one another, during which they can teach each other about their lives!
-I would love to use the Projects feature on ePals in my classroom one day! The types of projects we can get involved with are so diverse, creative and unique! I love the endless possibilities this creates for learning experiences for my students - that many other students are already participating in! Not only would this keep my teaching creative and changing from year to year, but it would engage my students in meaningful, long-lasting learning. To be able to extend the walls of our classroom to reach around the world, and to learn from and work with people from all over the globe is a really exciting and powerful experience for students to have. I could check back frequently to check for projects that are relevant to what we're doing or would just be awesome to be involved in - we can participate in whatever might be useful and/or enjoyable!
-Along the same vein of my goals for introducing students to different cultures, many of the ePals projects aim to create understandings of and experiences with different cultures. One that I came across that would do both of these things, and is extremely appropriate for this time of year is the "Holidays and Festivals Around the World" - where students for all over the world share their traditions (how awesome!) - and another called "The Way We Are" - in which students about the way they live. I would definitely like to get my students involved in these types of projects to become more familiar with different people, lifestyles and cultures. To engage learning that brings to light differences in cultures, in which students are actually learning from the members of that culture, is totally unique in today's classrooms, and is an experience that I would love to offer for my students.
-My favorite project that I feel is particularly relevant for the English classroom was the storytelling project. Getting my students active in something like this would encourage them to read and write for a purpose. I've seen many teachers try to engage their students in writing workshops - this project does just that, and in a much more effective way! I love the use of "digital storytelling" in this project versus regular storytelling because students are so in tune with images and visual pieces these days - it would be awesome to add another creative aspect to their writing pieces, and that's the digital piece in these stories do just that. I also think that the publication of their stories to a global audience adds a great deal of incentive for students to work harder on their pieces. An added layer to the positives of this project is the opportunity to learn the role of stories in different cultures, and how different cultures tell them. It would be really cool to look at the elements of stories that are valued in some cultures and not in others. This would be a really interesting study to conduct!
-A final thing I would really like to get my students working on is social action projects, in which students research a current issue that is relevant to their lives, their communities or their world, and then do something about it - take action. In these projects, students investigate whatever they'd like, and then make a change or get involved in some capacity - publishing a report on it, volunteering for a cause, writing to a politician, and so on. As I browsed through the projects and forums, I noticed that many of the titles - such as global warming - suggested that students would be discussing global issues. I would encourage my students to connect with others who are already active in those projects or discussion boards to create a plan to make an impact. In the case of global warming, students could each write a piece of how the climate change/global warming has begun to affect their area, and then compile these into giant image of the worldwide effects of global warming! Students could then talk about maybe sending this in to major leaders in the movement, like Al Gore, publishing their pieces in local papers, or thinking up ways to promote environmentally friendly practices. How amazing would this be? Then, students could continue the project to talk about what change has come about in relation to or as a result of their work.
-Lastly, I will definitely take advantage of all of the awesome teacher resources this website offers, especially the lesson plan forums, teacher gallery, and feedback tool. One of my greatest worries is that after grad school, I will not be able to get the feedback my classmates have given me, or the great ideas that I take away from each class. This website gives me an in to continue doing all of these things, and keep my instruction fresh, current, and relevant to my students, as well as network, get teacher tips, and stay involved in the education conversation.
-I would love to use the Projects feature on ePals in my classroom one day! The types of projects we can get involved with are so diverse, creative and unique! I love the endless possibilities this creates for learning experiences for my students - that many other students are already participating in! Not only would this keep my teaching creative and changing from year to year, but it would engage my students in meaningful, long-lasting learning. To be able to extend the walls of our classroom to reach around the world, and to learn from and work with people from all over the globe is a really exciting and powerful experience for students to have. I could check back frequently to check for projects that are relevant to what we're doing or would just be awesome to be involved in - we can participate in whatever might be useful and/or enjoyable!
-Along the same vein of my goals for introducing students to different cultures, many of the ePals projects aim to create understandings of and experiences with different cultures. One that I came across that would do both of these things, and is extremely appropriate for this time of year is the "Holidays and Festivals Around the World" - where students for all over the world share their traditions (how awesome!) - and another called "The Way We Are" - in which students about the way they live. I would definitely like to get my students involved in these types of projects to become more familiar with different people, lifestyles and cultures. To engage learning that brings to light differences in cultures, in which students are actually learning from the members of that culture, is totally unique in today's classrooms, and is an experience that I would love to offer for my students.
-My favorite project that I feel is particularly relevant for the English classroom was the storytelling project. Getting my students active in something like this would encourage them to read and write for a purpose. I've seen many teachers try to engage their students in writing workshops - this project does just that, and in a much more effective way! I love the use of "digital storytelling" in this project versus regular storytelling because students are so in tune with images and visual pieces these days - it would be awesome to add another creative aspect to their writing pieces, and that's the digital piece in these stories do just that. I also think that the publication of their stories to a global audience adds a great deal of incentive for students to work harder on their pieces. An added layer to the positives of this project is the opportunity to learn the role of stories in different cultures, and how different cultures tell them. It would be really cool to look at the elements of stories that are valued in some cultures and not in others. This would be a really interesting study to conduct!
-A final thing I would really like to get my students working on is social action projects, in which students research a current issue that is relevant to their lives, their communities or their world, and then do something about it - take action. In these projects, students investigate whatever they'd like, and then make a change or get involved in some capacity - publishing a report on it, volunteering for a cause, writing to a politician, and so on. As I browsed through the projects and forums, I noticed that many of the titles - such as global warming - suggested that students would be discussing global issues. I would encourage my students to connect with others who are already active in those projects or discussion boards to create a plan to make an impact. In the case of global warming, students could each write a piece of how the climate change/global warming has begun to affect their area, and then compile these into giant image of the worldwide effects of global warming! Students could then talk about maybe sending this in to major leaders in the movement, like Al Gore, publishing their pieces in local papers, or thinking up ways to promote environmentally friendly practices. How amazing would this be? Then, students could continue the project to talk about what change has come about in relation to or as a result of their work.
-Lastly, I will definitely take advantage of all of the awesome teacher resources this website offers, especially the lesson plan forums, teacher gallery, and feedback tool. One of my greatest worries is that after grad school, I will not be able to get the feedback my classmates have given me, or the great ideas that I take away from each class. This website gives me an in to continue doing all of these things, and keep my instruction fresh, current, and relevant to my students, as well as network, get teacher tips, and stay involved in the education conversation.
I am really excited about ePals - check it out!
Your ideas and your reasons for using ePals in the classroom with your students are excellent!
ReplyDeleteDr. Burgos