Blog Post #14

For this week's assignment, the options are limitless. Dr. Strange asked us to create a blog post assignment in our area of specialty that he might use in the future. My area of specialty is Elementary Education (K-6). I had no idea where to start or what I was going to do! Then I started really thinking about my classroom and what I want it to be like. This is the second time I have taken EDM 310. What I really like about this semester though is that it is a lot more collaborative. I know I am not the only student who thinks working in groups (especially with 16 hours of work in a unit) is the most beneficial. There are so many benefits of having a collaborative classroom that I wanted to do something with that topic. I wanted to find a tool or resource for other EDMers to find more about and hopefully find it useful in their classroom. So with that said:


Blog Post #____, Due ____

ePals

What is ePals? How can you use it in your classroom?


Answer these questions following the guidelines of Writing A Quality Blog Post.

Melissa Canterbury- What is ePals?

ePals is an education media company and the leading Global Learning Network. They offer a safe and secure platform worldwide to K-12 students, parents, adminitstrators and teachers for building educational communities, providing quality digital content and facilitating collaboration for effective 21st century learning. ePals serves approximately 1 million classrooms and reaches millions of teachers, students and parents in approximately 200 countries and territories. "ePals provides digital content designed for collaboration and self-paced, self-directed learning as well as a safe platform to share work globally. Authentic ePals projects are centered around meaningful content and experiences that require teamwork, digital literacy skills, higher-level thinking and communication."

Global collaboration- ePals' reach, including 200 countries and territories, provides a powerful network effect that brings together students and educators based on areas of learning interests and geography. Unlike traditional social networks, where a person usually connects solely with people he or she knows in the "real world," the ePals network connects students both "down the block" and literally around the globe with people they may not know, but with whom they share a common interest. For example, a high school class studying Chinese may use ePals to connect with a class in China that is studying English. These interactions help students in both countries learn the language and experience some of the culture through this real-world connection.

Effective Learning- ePals is a platform designed to promote meaningful teaching and learning, showing teachers and students how to use technology strategically to promote the fundamental learning principles essential for academic achievement. This involves creating a safe and secure content-rich environment that challenges students and educators to research smartly, collaborate with other learners of all ages, think critically, problem-solve, and communicate their learning using various web 2.0 tools. It is this way that technology serves deep learning and is not simply an add-on in the classroom.

How will I use this in my classroom?
ePals offer SO many resources for educators. There are hundreds of classrooms all over the world and gives an in depth description. I can see my students collaborating with students all over the world depending on the unit we are studying and interests. Like I said about EDM being more collaborative this semester, I think my students would LOVE to Skype with other classrooms, visit their blogs, and work on projects collaboratively through ePals.
There is a resource tool that provides teachers with projects already made by other classrooms to use, links to useful websites such as Smithsonian Institute, McGraw-Hill Education, Nat Geo Education, and BIE.Org. ePals also has tons of lessons plans! Another tool that I absolutely love about ePals (and wish I would have discovered weeks ago for my lesson plans) is Common Core Projects and resources!
I have added ePals to my Symbaloo page and I absolutely love it. I think every educator in the 21st century should use this company in their classroom!