integrate authentic global collaboration and communication in student learning

Let’s Connect: Integrate Authentic Global Collaboration and Communication

in Student LearningRita Oates, PhD www.epals.com

What collaborations do you have now?

• Within school?• Within district?• Within state?• Within U.S.?• Outside U.S. borders?

• How do you find partners?• How do you communicate?• Any ePals users here?

Hill City Elementary

Bringing the world to rural Kansas through social networking

Statewide projects with ePalsMaine: 150,000

studentsWisconsin: 800,000Pennsylvania: 1.8

million students,Classroom For the Future

Kansas: 400,000 students, on the state’s KanEd portal

Colorado: 800,000 students through eNet Colorado

Example profile: Students learning to speak English

190+ Turkish teachers have submitted profiles in 2011! (All seek English speakers.)

ePals user since 2002

Goals

• What is ePals?

• Stories of collaboration

• Finding a global partner

• How to use ePals SchoolMail

• What are my first steps?

• More resources and what’s new!

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Learners Connect, Communicate and Collaborate

Largest K-12 social learning network globally, reaching more than 25 million students, teachers and parents in 200 countries

Leading provider of cloud-based, policy-managed email and social learning solutions for schools and districts

CONNECT COMMUNICATE COLLABORATE

25 Million Students & Teachers Worldwide

Next Generation Email and Communications

Social Learning Environment for

Collaboration and Community

Largest Community of Connected, Global

Classrooms

• Connecting 700,000 classrooms in 200 countries & territories

• 2,500+ new schools/month

• Policy managed and Teacher supervised

• Trusted pipeline to the world’s classrooms

• TRUSTe certification

ePals Brings Next-Generation Solutions to Schools

free -- students and their teachers locate, connect with and work collaboratively with another class

free -- secure online communication for students, parents, teachers and administrators, instant translation in 58 languages. “Problem word” filter and ability to control how widely students can send/receive email.

ePals Brings Next-Generation Solutions to Schools

NEW in Feb. 2011! Safe, secure online communication for students, teachers, administrators, parents. ICT administrator can establish school-safe usage policies. Used by New York City Schools. $4/student + setup fee. No ads.

A virtual workspace optimized for creating, sharing, managing and collaborating on educational content. Integrated web 2.0 tools: SchoolBlog, wikis, forums, digital portfolios, cloud-based storage and ePals SchoolMail, all with industry-leading safety and security for K-12 schools.

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World Class Partners and Customers

Example Customers

> 900K students

140 countries

1.1MM students

1,700 schools

Integrated with state-wide portal

Opportunity of 460k students

63,000 students

94 schools

Provides state-wide portal

Opportunity of 850k students

Content and Technology Partners

Partners

• One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) (on all desktops, third world countries)

• Intel Classmate PC (designed for K-6 students, widely used in Portugal and other countries)

* Ministry of Education, Kenya

* LEAP, Thailand* Eduteka, Latin America, 75,000 teachers and Spanish-language content

Goals

• What is ePals?

• Stories of collaboration

• Finding a global partner

• How to use ePals SchoolMail

• What are my first steps?

• More resources and what’s new!

Waterloo Junior High School in Waterloo, IL, USA is part of the Globally Connected World!Your school can be also. It is just a Snap!

Bill TheobaldWaterloo Junior High, Waterloo, IL

Bill Theobald

• 32 Years at Waterloo Junior High School in Waterloo, IL, USA

• 6th Grade Social Studies

• Boys’ Basketball (24 years)

• Girls’ Volleyball (30 years)

• “Old Dog who learned some New Tricks!”

• I’m not a techie!

“Travels with Mr. T”• A nine-week

Geography Travelogue for students in grades 6, 7, and 8.

• Grade 6 concentrates on Western Hemisphere

• Grade 7 on Eastern Hemisphere

• Grade 8 focuses on Current Events

6th Grade “Keypals”

• 6th Grade Encore students have “Keypals” in Canada

• Ms. Pat Cone, Hafford School, Hafford, Saskatchewan, Canada

7th Grade “Keypals”

• 7th grade students have “Keypals” in Trieste, Italy.

• Professori Fabiana Degrassi, teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) atInstituto Comprensivo,Trieste, Italy

My wife and I visited the Degrassi family in Italy after several years of collaborating through ePals!

8th Grade “Keypals”

• 8th grade students have “Keypals” in Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies.

• Professors Lucienne Zecler and Lena Racon teach English as a Second Language, College Front de Mer, Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies

For Fall 2008 collaboration, I posted in Teacher Forum

on July 28

Two days later—offer to connect with a school in Bangladesh

Teacher Forum: Post looking for more partners for Bangladesh

schools

Relief International-SOL Bangladesh

• January 7, 2009 - Email from Relief International in Washington, D.C.

“Would you be interested in submitting an application to travel all-expenses-paid to Bangladesh as part of Teacher Exchange 2009? You would be one of two teachers from the U.S. leaving February 14 and returning February 28.”

Where We Are in 2009-2010

• 40 Pairs of Waterloo, IL, USA - Comilla, Bangladesh “Keypals” have completed the ePals Project “The Way We Are”

• Each pair of Waterloo, IL, USA - Comilla, Bangladesh “Keypals” collaborated while 12,000 miles apart.

Continuing Friendship: Fundraising for a 2nd computer in

Comilla school• Student “Hat Day”

as Waterloo students conduct a fundraiser, “Bucks for Bangladesh,” to purchase a second computer station for their “Keypals” in Comilla.

We use Skype to talk with International “Keypals”

• www.skype.com• Used by organizations and people worldwide, free.• For cost of a $50 webcam you can talk to students,

classrooms, or family members “Face to Face” anywhere in the world.

• Meet my great teaching partner, Professori Fabiana Degrassi, Instituto Comprensivo, Trieste, Italy.• Projected on wall in gym so all can participate!

We'd like you to meet our ePals from BrazilMrs. Russell's First Grade

Glenwood ElementaryVestal, NY

School: EMEIF "Terezinha do Menino Jesus Porto Wuó"Town: Santa BrancaState: Sao PaoloCountry: Brazil

Hello From Sao Paolo, Brazil

The School in Brazil-How does it look like ours?-How does it look different?

Our square is being rebuilt. See how our town is a hilly place!

Collaboration across the Digital Divide: New York Students and their ePals in Botswana

A story of global connections that transcend socio-economic status, culture and place.

Students from the Guangxi School, China

Shared language and cultural awareness, China-San Diego, ages 16-18

Their California ePals

These teachers have worked together for eight years….some projects are just a few weeks or months!

http://www.epalscorp.com/about/news/press_feb08_06.html

Email Improves Reading and Writing Test Scores

State standardized test scores from a Newark Public Schools 4th grade class show significant reading and writing improvement through twice weekly use of email letter writing with fellow classmates and a peer classroom in Italy.

Not “one more thing” -- but a new way of advancing learning goals

• Spelling or vocabulary words homework– You assign to write in sentences – Instead, include words in an email to a partner

• Students get extra credit for posting a response to a question in the Student Forum

• Encourage students to read in the Student Forums on topics that interest them

Louisiana and United Kingdom

The student groups wrote about different aspects of their schools and videoed themselves to create a "documentary" about their school and community. We then exchanged "culture parcels" with the other class.

The students had so much fun reading emails from their new friends. They learned many ways they were alike as well as different.

Loudoun County (VA) Public Schools

• Students study communities in grade 3.• Contact classrooms from elsewhere in Virginia

(urban/rural/suburban) and exchange information about their communities. 

• Children grasp the idea of “rural,” “urban,” to compare to their own “suburban” as they communicate with peers from these areas. 

• Next the class has a collaboration with a classroom in an area like theirs but in another country!

• Teachers use videoconferences with classrooms.  • Students use presentations and Google Earth to

showcase their communities.

Most Popular Long-term Matches

#1 English as a Second Language teachers outside an English-speaking country want to pair their students with students in English countries

#2 Teachers of foreign language want to pair their students with native speakers (i.e., teacher of Spanish wants to have Spanish speakers in Mexico)

French class in Spain

Spanish class in S. Korea

One-email exchanges too!

• Students create 10 questions for a classroom in a country they are studying in Geography, things “not in the book”

• Students search global community and find five potential partner classes

• Students copy profiles into a Word file• Students submit questions and profiles to

teacher• Teacher writes to the other teachers, pasting in

the student questions…..

Sample one-email from teacher

Dear (teachername),My geography class in Massachusetts has

questions about your country. Could you please have a few students answer these questions in an email to me? If possible I would like to have the answers by Sept. 26.

Here are the questions:<paste in the students’ questions>Thanks so much for your help. Please let us know

if we can answer any questions about Massachusetts!

Join the Conversation

• Did any of these stories resonate with you?

• How would your students benefit from these types of experiences?

• Do you know of possible partner schools elsewhere?

Goals

• What is ePals?

• Stories of collaboration

• Finding a global partner

• How to use ePals SchoolMail

• What are my first steps?

• More resources and what’s new!

Finding a global partner

• Search by map• Search by classroom• Search by project• Look at the “new schools”

scrolling on the home page of ePals for newest profiles

• Search in Project Forums or Teacher Forums for very specific matches

Search by MapSelect a continent

Select a Country

Eliminate language barriers with translation tool!

English version of the Spanish profile

Translation to 58 languages!

• Most common languages listed first

• Less common languages listed second

• Both in alphabetical order

• This is an expansion as of late June 2009 from eight languages

Cautions…about your assumptions

• What age students are in Primary School?

• What age students are in a school called “College”? Or a “colegio”?

• When does the school year start and end?

• When are vacations or holidays?

Be specific about what you want!

• What do you study? – Use keywords from your curriculum– Geography: Mexico, Brazil, Russia

• Do you want to use an ePals project?– Which one?

• When does your school year start and end?– March-June is end of year in Iowa, but start of school

year in Chile• Interesting way for your students to practice

writing to non-English speakers – Make them more aware of how they say things so

they aren’t confusing!

How do you get a profile?

• You fill out some basic contact info

• You write your profile

• We have real people who read and approve them…or ask for revisions!

Teachers can’t contact other classrooms without having a profile submitted and approved.

ePals Global CommunityClassroom Match – Create Your Classroom Profile

A Successful Profile Includes:

1. Age-range of class

2. Language(s) the students speak

3. Location of the classroom

4. Location of desired partner

A Successful Profile Includes:

5. Collaboration tools (email, postal mail, blogs, video conferences)

6. Length of desired collaboration (3 weeks in October)

7. Frequency of desired collaboration (weekly, monthly, at holidays)

8. Topic of desired collaboration (You can update this when you have a new project in mind!)

ePals Forums (also free)

• Student Forums– We mediate the forums, so you don’t have to read and approve

postings.– Your students can collaborate with other students safely, over

the weekend.– Your students can search and read student postings to see what

others have said, a great way to practice authentic reading and writing!

• Project Forums make it easier to find matches for ePals projects

• Teacher Forums for topics you generate• Parent Forums to help parents learn from other parents• Adults can post in adult forums; students in Student

Forum

Student Forums

Student Forum: Social Issues

Student viewpoints: Turkey, USA

Goals

• What is ePals?

• Stories of collaboration

• Finding a global partner

• How to use ePals SchoolMail

• What are my first steps?

• More resources and what’s new!

SchoolMail:built for school use• Features teachers asked for

• Teacher moderation: – incoming/outgoing option

• Multiple levels of filtering

• Teachers can get copies for alternative assessment

• Translation to 58 languages

SchoolMail usernames

• Student: LindaS@maine.epals.com

• Teacher: LSanchez@maine.epals.com– No extra charge for custom subdomain as

maine.epals.com in district with 10,000+ st.

• Use existing names or we create them

• Roles and responsibilities assigned

• Batch upload from SIS (49K students in 2+ hours)

First Email with Built-in Language Translation

Safe and Protected Student Email:

• Safely integrate student email in appropriate, educational ways.

• Ask students to use academic language, spelling, punctuation – and practice skills valuable in the business world.

• Preview students’ incoming and outgoing email messages.

• Use email messages for alternative assessment.• Ensure that messages are appropriate to age,

setting and context.

Level 1 All messages must be approved by the monitor, whether they contain profanity or not.

Level 2 Messages containing profanity must be approved by the monitor, but unflagged messages will reach their recipients automatically. The monitor will also receive a copy of every unflagged message.

Level 3 Messages containing profanity must be approved by the monitor, but unflagged messages will reach their recipients automatically. The monitor will not see unflagged messages.

Level 4 All profanity filters are off.

Filter Levels

Note: Click “flagged student messages.”

Class/Monitor Students are limited to mailing other students who have the same monitor. Choose this access level if you want students to use email only for internal exercises within the classroom.

School Students are limited to mailing students and teachers in the same school. Choose this access level if you want students to use email only for school-based projects and communication.

District This option, available only if your ePALS SchoolMail™ system includes multiple schools, limits students to mailing students and teachers at schools created within your system. Choose thisaccess level if you want students to use email only for district- and school-based projects and communication.

and…….

Six Access Levels(when set up as a district account)

ePALS SchoolMail™This restricts student communication to other students with an ePals SchoolMail account regardless of school / district.

ePals Allows students to communicate with other students with active accounts in the ePals Global Community.

Internet This option allows your students to email anyone with an email address, whether they are inside your district, part of ePALS or

using the Internet through other means. Choose this access level to allow students to email anyone, anywhere.

Note: as a teacher, you might then go to Filter Level 1 and preview all outgoing and incoming messages.

Six Access Levels(widening the walls)

Goals

• What is ePals?

• Stories of collaboration

• Finding a global partner

• How to use ePals SchoolMail

• What are my first steps?

• More resources and what’s new!

District issues to consider

• Do you need to go through a district committee or director or your principal?

• TRUSTe certification for all ePals!• At the bottom of each page of ePals, you

can see: – Privacy Policy – Advertising Policy – Terms of Use – Copyright and Trademark Policy

School-wide setup

• We prefer to provision all teachers in your school with accounts, even though only a few may want to start right away.

• You provide a list of all teachers, and we can create teacher user names.

• We can upload student names with a “batch upload tool” and that can create student account names (unless you have names you want to use)

Start with a Specific Project

Clear Plan for Email Exchanges in the Project

Brief Lesson Plans

Great teacher-created projects

ePals Teacher

Ambassador Contest Winners

Publish student work to a worldwide audience

Viewing audience in the millions

Join the Conversation

• Do you have questions about getting started with ePals?

Goals

• What is ePals?

• Stories of collaboration

• Finding a global partner

• How to use ePals SchoolMail

• What are my first steps?

• More resources and what’s new!

How Tos, Manuals Under Help from home page

New: ePals Email Extras

http://www.epals.com

Sign up online

Choices of Email Extras

Smithsonian – The Natural World

Further Learning Opportunities

ePals 101 webinar: http://epals.101.sgizmo.com

Global Education conference in November: http://globaleducation.ning.com/

Sample pages from new LearningSpace

Join us!Twitter: @ePals

@RitaOates

Rita Oates, PhDROates@corp.epals.com

www.epals.com