Global Community for Classmate PC Users

21st Century Skills

tbarnes@epals.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:32:00 GMT

At the 2008 ePals Conference, Adina Popa presented on enGauge, 21st Century Skills for 21st Century Learners. Adina discusses how today's students are immersed in a world of technology and human ingenuity. Beyond these two education reforms, teachers and students alike are in a global marketplace that is closer than ever. Where students in the United States can communicate daily with students in China and discuss their homework and project ideas. Adina's paper illustrates the need for technology in the global education market and how these tools can enhance the learning experience.

>21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills

tbarnes@epals.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:13:04 GMT

Digital literacy

Authentic Global Projects - Belize

tbarnes@epals.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:52:54 GMT

Michael Casey has spent the past seven years teaching grades 5-8 in a multi-subject environment at the Gallon Jug Community School in Belize. For the past four years, he has also served as principal of this small, private, K-8 school. Gallon Jug Community School’s work with ePals began four years ago with simple email exchanges at a time when the school did not have Internet capabilities. Through the use of one satellite connection in this remote jungle village, students were able to send emails several times a month. Four years later the school is now connected to the Internet with a functional computer lab where ePals remains the primary provider of global emailing exchanges. Further, over the past seven years, the school has worked extensively with the Global Coalition (Bethlehem, N.Y.) from Belize as a global member representing the Central American region. ePals has allowed the 31 coalition schools to exchange art, culture, poetry, newscasts, and much more in established “ ePal Groups.” ePals, in conjunction with the Global Coalition, has allowed Casey’s students to explore global issues such as deforestation, global warming and pollution through exchanges. In 2007-2008 his students also completed work on National Geographic’s global warming project. Going forward, Casey looks forward to more projects for the 2008-2009 school year, blogging sites, and much more from ePals.

Contact Info:

Michael Casey
Principal/Teacher
Gallon Jug Community School
Belize City, Belize, Central America
1 King St., PO Box 37
Belize City, Belize, Central America
508.317.3186

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Blogging for Foreign Language Acquisition

Global Community for Project-Based Learning

Intel Education

tbarnes@epals.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:23:31 GMT

Here are some of the projects that Intel education and ePals have collaborated on for students to engage in global projects

Monster Swap:

Primary students give their imaginations a workout by creating unique monsters. They then hone their writing skills by writing descriptions for cyber pals who will try to re-create the students' terrible beasts!

The World Through a Different Pair of Eyes:

Middle school students see the world through another pair of eyes as they communicate with other students from different countries. Students learn about life in other parts of the world, investigate current events and learn about factors that affect the quality of life and longevity of other cultures. Students address the issue of a correlation between where people are born and how long they are likely to live.

StarQuest:

Students relate our modern view of the night sky to that of the anicients. Studying the changing views of the stars in the night sky helps students know more about astronomy and cultural.

Flat Stanley:

By sending a flat friend on vacation, children learn about life in other countries and get an opportunity to host flat travelers from around the world.

The Great Bean Race:

Young botanists investigate plant growth as they compete in a lima bean stalk growing competition with student from other geographic regions.

From Sea to Sea:

Using a WebQuest, students take on the role of Chamber of Commerce employees and develop informational brochures for a local city. Then, they learn more about the economy of the trade and its impact on the local cities and citizens. After developing slideshow presentations, students present what they have learned to an outside audience.

ReadWriteThink

tbarnes@epals.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:20:18 GMT

ReadWriteThink, a large online lesson plan community for educators has created lesson plans centered around the ePals site to encourage students to read and write with more interest. By communicating with peers electronically, ReadWriteThink has adopted the ePals philosophy that students enjoy learning when given a means that is fun for them. See how ePals is used in lesson planning for teachers everyday on the ReadWriteThink site.

Globe Trekker

tbarnes@epals.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:25:29 GMT

This school from Brazil has teamed-up with schools from both Kansas and Canada for global collaboration projects using technology such as Skype and ePals School Blog to communicate with each other

"In November our students, 13 to 17 years of age had a Skype meeting with their friends from Topeka, Kansas. Before that, we had shared a blog where our students had exchanged the information of their everyday life with their peers from Kansas. The blogging lasted for about a month and then we agreed upon skyping. That was a real challenge for my students. I thought the conversation would last for a half an hour or so, but, to my surprise, it lasted for an hour and a half. That was the first project of that kind but hopefully there will be more of them, with other schools, of course."

"Our 10-11 year olds made a great contact with their peers in SenPokChin School , Okanagan First Nations decent from Oliver BC, Canada. The children made the first contact through snail mail. This way of communication makes them all very excited. They LOVE getting letters. So, they got their first letters just after Christmas (exactly on the day of Orthodox Christmas). Yesterday (21st May) they got some postcards and photos of their friends. It's a great opportunity for my students to meet some Indians and learn something about the culture of the Okanagan First nation."

Global Community in Your School

tbarnes@epals.com — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:12:37 GMT

Global Community for Project-Based Learning

tbarnes@epals.com — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:10:40 GMT

Cultural Quest Projects

tbarnes@epals.com — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:07:09 GMT

Blogging for Foreign Language Acquisition

tbarnes@epals.com — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:04:50 GMT

Steuart Weller Elementary School

tbarnes@epals.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:54:27 GMT

I am a CMPC Classroom

tbarnes@epals.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:41:12 GMT

View our currently listed classrooms and find a match for your project needs!

Current Classrooms

Non-CMPC classrooms

tbarnes@epals.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:10:21 GMT

Connect with a classroom in any region of the world. Use our clickable map to locate ePals classroom in any region.

Connect with the Global Community

tbarnes@epals.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:38:39 GMT

Use our classroom connect tool to link with other CMPC classrooms around the world!

Global Projects

tbarnes@epals.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:13:47 GMT

U.S. China Cultural Exchange

Candice Pauchnick at San Diego’s Patrick Henry High School has used ePals’ Schoolmail to collaborate with Yaodong Chen, a professor at Guaugxi University of Technology in Liuzhou China. Students in each class connect giving firsthand knowledge of each other’s culture. Pauchnick found that her sociology students who had used ePals within a cross-cultural project became more ethno-relative, meaning they saw a lot of value in the other culture.

21st Century Skills

Prospective CMPC user

tbarnes@epals.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:52:14 GMT

Interested in possibly purchasing a CMPC? Read some of the testimonies in this forum and see what current users think of the new technology!

Collaborate with a CMPC classroom

tbarnes@epals.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:46:55 GMT

Classmate PC classrooms wanted. Find a partner classroom to collaborate with. Search our listing of classroom PC classroom by using our classroom match tool.

Featured Classroom

tbarnes@epals.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:41:43 GMT

John Smith and his third-grade class at Walker Upper Elementary School in Kansas have purchased the Intel Classmate PC and are using the Classmate Community site. How is this new technology helping them? What benefit does it provide to the students' education? Read their testimony here:

Classmate PC and Climate Change

tbarnes@epals.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:49:31 GMT

Classrooms can create a lot of paper waste. With all of those students in the classroom, that means a lot of books, ditos, quizes and handouts. What if this could be eliminated by using a computer for all of these things? The classmate PC may just be the way. At ePals, we have teamed-up with National Geographic to create a whole new learning opportunity centered on Climate Change and Global Warming.

Do you witness contibutors to climate change in your life? How? Tell us about it here.

[Poll]

Student Forum - Technology in the Classroom

tbarnes@epals.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:42:03 GMT

Students, do you use technology in your class? What types of technology do you or your teacher use? Does it help you learn? Share your experiences here and maybe learn from what other classes are using.