ePals

 

ePals is a community connects students and teachers all over the world for interactive projects. It develops the Peer-Assisted Learning Theory. Students would feel more comfortable to communicate with peers instead of teachers. Students from different countries can help each other in language learning, culture understanding and many other projects by sending emails. It is also a great opportunity to make friends. There are many wonderful projects in ePals, I would like to introduce three educational projects:

Who Are We? A McGraw-Hill World Languages Project
This project is designed for native speakers of English who are learning Spanish, and native-Spanish speakers who are learning English. Only classes that meet this description will be accepted! Classes will be paired together for project collaboration so that students have the opportunity to practice the target language with native speakers.

 The Way We Are--A National Geographic Project
In this introductory project, students will engage in a collaborative learning experience. Through email exchanges, students will build friendships and learn about the daily lives and characteristics of the local environment of students who live in another region of the world.

Let's Paint the Globe Green!
This project aims at connecting the eco-clubs of various schools and providing them with a platform where they can share their green practices in their cultural and environmental surroundings. It will not only help develop friendships across the globe, provide an understanding of various cultures, but also give them a global understanding of the Go Green concept.

Apart from the projects, I found that the in2Books program very useful. The program has students from around the world talking about their books and authors, posting their comments, writings, and reviews. However, the in2Books program is only available for schools in the U.S. If I have a chance to teach in the U.S. I will encourage my students to join the program. Students would develop deeper comprehension and thoughtful writing in the program.