Hello Everyone,

I meant to post the URL address of my ePAL School Blog page here. Some of the people didn't receive my handouts, during today's presentation, and if you were one who didn't you can download them from my blog page and print them. Here is the address: http://sites.epals.com/cpauchnick/ If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you for attending today.

Candace

Hello John,

Thanks for asking such good questions. Concerning the translation question, no I have not felt a need for having everything translated into another language at this time. The colleagues I've worked with in the past want their students to learn English and having the blog page in this language encourages their students to practice reading and writing  English when they read and post comments.  Concerning the idea of my student having their own blog page, on the ePAL system, is not what I feel would be the best situation for a collaborative group project.  The beauty of the ePALS SchoolBlog is that it brings the classrooms together into a community of students for them to interact. It is like a social gathering. If each student had their own blog page then it would be like taking people in a large room who are socializing together and pulling them apart and putting them in separate little rooms with only a few people to socialize with. This would defeat the purpose of a united community that welcomes everyone to learn from each other. When I had all my students and Professor Chen's students, in China, all participate in the forum on our blog page there was a united buzz of excitement with exchanges of all sorts of topics being discussed. This would not have happened if the students all had their own individual blog pages.  Outside of the classroom there are many students who already have their own MySpace or FaceBook blog pages that are their own personal pages. They socialize with their own personal friends. I don't think too many of them connect to people from all over the world as the ePAL program does. I don't see any need to have the ePAL company try to encourage students to make their own individual blog page.  Maybe a group of students, working on a united project, could post their information on a blog page they create to reach out to others in the world for their opinion and input. I see the value in this type of blog creation.

You certainly brought up excellent points and I'm pleased to give you my thoughts. 

Is there anyone out there who has other ideas on these topics?

Thanks again, John, for writing.

Candace

Hey Candace,

We often show the San Diego / China SchoolBlog as a demonstration of collaboration between classrooms.  Currently SchoolBlog does not have translation features, something we have on our forums and SchoolMail.  How important would it be for SchoolBlog to have instant translation?  Also do you find that the students want to have their own personal Blogs, or do you thing it is as effective to have a shared blog for the whole classroom?

Hello Everyone,

This is an exciting time to discuss all the possibilities of what we can do with ePALS.  If you have any ideas for collaborative projects, with high school students, as they connect with other students please give me your ideas. Are there books you have your students read we could have our students discuss together? Could the students think of a specific topic of their interest and share ideas of it with each other? 

I'd be very interested in your thoughts.

Candace

Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, CA

Candace Pauchnick, Language Arts Teacher, Patrick Henry HS, San Diego, CA

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