One of my favourite websites for sharing content is epals.com. Described as “the Internet’s largest global community of connected classrooms,” ePals has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2008 EDDIE Award for “Best Internet Communication Website” and a 2008 Technology and Learning “Award of Excellence.”

I have been using ePals in the classroom for almost 15 years, since it was in its infancy. The leading edge, innovative technological tools that it provides teachers, students, home-schoolers and parents around the world, are excellent means for students to develop communication skills and creative content.

Available in more than seven languages, classroom teachers around the world can connect their students one with another in simple email exchanges, in complex collaborative projects, in the sharing of text, sound, and video products. What makes the exchanges unique is their authentic nature. Students learn from each other through instant Internet communication. No longer separated by a classroom walls, or by the distance to another school district, province, state, continent or country, students develop rich understandings of the similarities and differences between themselves and their peers near and far. The only barrier is the time separating linked classrooms.

As a teacher always looking to push the limits of what technology can do, I have been able to use ePals in my classroom to link students in the exploration of literature. Students in different countries read and discussed the same novel. Remote Man, a novel, is about students in different countries, not coincidentally, who become involved in catching an international endangered animal smuggling ring. The characters in the novel gather on the Internet to track down the perpetrators from their homes in Australia, America, Jamaica and France. 

Students in my class quickly became engaged with the novel as they read and discussed the plot, characters, settings and themes. Their engagement was increased when they shared emails, artwork, points of view and questions. They also participated in live text chats with their classmates across the oceans. The author, Elizabeth Honey, kindly agreed to join in the discussions. Her presence in the online chats contributed greatly to their success, and inspired further student learning. Students wanted to know more about her reasons for writing the book, as well as how she crafted the characters, the settings and the story.

On one occasion, the author, at home in Australia, discussed the book with the class, in the school’s computer lab, along with a home-school family in the Highlands of Scotland. One student, on holiday in Saudi Arabia, also joined in. Separated by 14 time zones, the students and adults learned from each other in the moment.

The linked video describes the way the Internet became a way for students to overcome time and space and learn from one another. Produced by my school district in support of their Teaching With Technology Project, I was able to share our unique learning activity with teachers in my District. TwTI Murray Interview.mov

To add another personal highlight of my experience with ePals, I look back to 1999. My class was chosen to host the Prime Minister of Canada to showcase ePals for Netd@ays Europe, a way to demonstrate Canada’s leadership in the use of the Internet in schools. This event involved the Prime Minister visiting the class, sending emails to our class partners in New Zealand, followed by an address to the whole school about being citizens of the Global Village. This was, without a doubt, a career highlight!

Having had classroom partners in the USA, France, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, I can attest to the fact that my students truly understand what it means to be residents of the Global Village, and are better people because of these experiences.

Honey, Elizabeth. (2004). Remote Man.  New York, Yearling.

www.epals.com

The National Atlas of Canada

Having always had a fascination with maps, I immediately saw the potential for the National Atlas of Canada’s website in education. There can be found here more maps than one can actually study in a lifetime, due to the fact that the site has pre-made printable maps, in addition to user created maps on an almost infinite number of topics: history, economy, health, geology, environment, climate, transportation, population, and hydrology. In fact, only the curiosity of the questioner and the depth of information that one seeks limit the maps that can be created.

Therefore, if creative minds are the goal, encourage students to seek information about Canada that intrigues them.

Here is an example: Grade Sevens at my school often research Natural Disasters. Given a type of disaster, students could research the location and magnitude of a disaster such as Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Hurricanes etc.

Here’s How:

Go to the Atlas and pick: Environment-Natural Hazards-Tsunami.

Zoom in to an area of the country of interest. Click on Population overlays. Add roads or other human data. Centre the print area. Print a colour PDF for study. The parameters of the map are completely user defined.

Here is an example of the map created. BC Tsunamis Map

Pop-up-windows allow the user to examine individual events, perhaps leading to further research questions.

e.g.

This data set may trigger further research, analysis and understanding. Students might compare events of different time periods, or at different locations. Or they could compare the relationship between two different disasters e.g. earthquakes and tsunamis. Perhaps their curiosity would lead to other types of creative pursuits, such as a podcast of a radio broadcast of an historical disaster or their own video on how to prepare for such a disaster in the future, or a brochure on the topic.

No matter what the end product, a student will have a richer understanding by using the creativity of the map making feature at the National Atlas of Canada.

So here I am, trying to synthesize synthesis! It’s a lot harder than it first seemed, I must say. But here goes.
First of all, I have to inform my distant readers (if there are any left) that this Blog has turned from mildly amusing afterthoughts on my return to life in Canada after a year in Australia, to a more focused examination of things I am learning through my online course and my preparations for changing jobs. And so I am reading Gardner’s Five Minds for the Future.
Reading Gardner, one jumps back and forth between abstract ideas and practical ones. And then one has to make sense of it all. One way is to look at one’s own teaching practices and see if it is mirrored in Gardner’s ideas. Perhaps then, some sense can be made of it. We shall see.
Looking at a classroom strategy that may have some elements of synthesis, I chose a project used in Mathematics and Science. The topic of Structures, particularly bridges, is introduced in Science through various digital media: Discovery Streaming video and bridge design software (West Point Bridge Design). As an integrated task, students work in groups to design and construct small toothpick bridges, while keeping track of “building supplies” (toothpicks, glue, paper etc) in Excel spreadsheets, when they “purchase” daily supplies to complete their bridges, journaling their day by day successes (and failures) thereby integrating Science, Language and Mathematics.
The outcomes are truly cross-disciplinary, with group work skills, scientific knowledge and practical mathematics being learned. The idea follows Gardner’s Components of Synthesis: A goal, a starting point (previous models), and a method.
Unfortunately, I will not be in a position to assign this project this year, and therefore will not be able look at it from the new perspectives that I am developing from my reading and engagement in this course.