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Introduction to E-Pals Theories of E-Pals Background of E-Pals
E-Pals
in the Classroom Future of E-Pals Links to E-Pals sites
Web Site Designed by Trish Churchill @2004
Introduction to E-pals
The capability to express our
ideas, thoughts and feelings is central to our ability to communicate
effectively. Due to technological advances emailing is becoming a faster way of
connecting to the audiences we desire. One of the new emailing advances is
E-pals. E-pals is giving students from around the world the opportunity to come
together to learn from one another, make new friendships and build a better
global community by setting them up with pen pals that they can correspond with
through email.
Theories of E-Pals
E-pals can be linked to Piaget’s Theory of Interaction. Children construct their knowledge by direct connect with their pen pal. The student controls what information they want to know or respond to. The children have the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned about their pen pal that is similar and/or different from themselves. The students can send email, snail mail, pictures, tapes, videos, etc. to their pen pals in a way of making connections. The teacher’s main roles are to set up the initial communication with the pen pal classroom and to monitor the interactions between the e-pals.
For these same reasons E-pals can also be
connected to Vygotsky’s Theory of Constructivism. Children are being provided with concrete learning experiences
where they are the center of their learning.
The emailing process is providing them with opportunities to be
self-directed, to problem solve and to have social interactions with
others. These are key elements to a
Constructive learning environment and curriculum.
Background of E-Pals
In 1990 in Norway, Kidlink, was started. It is a global, user-owned
organization that provides youth with free educational programs that help them
get better control over their lives, create social connections, promote
creativity and collaboration with peers around the world either individually or
through their classroom at school. Over 160 countries have participated in
Kidlink.
In 1992 three
professors, Bruce Roberts, Howard Thorsheim and Craig Rice, from St. Olaf
College in Northfield, Minnesota wanted to partner with another classroom for
their email projects. They found two schools in Japan and the project was very
successful. Unsatisfied with the small scale in October 1993 they created an
electronic mailing list, “International E-Mail Classroom Connections” (IECC),
so that their college collogues could make classroom connections with teachers
in other countries. In March 1994 the
professors changed the mailing list’s name to “Intercultural E-Mail Classroom
Connections” (IECC) because they realized some schools were making connections
in their own countries, urban students were pen pals with rural students and
children in the Midwest were connecting with children from the south. Today
there are five components to the IECC; IECC, IECC-PROJECTS, IECC-DISCUSSION,
IECC-HE (Higher Education) and IECC- INTERGEN (intergenerational).
In 1996 ePals
Classroom Exchange was born. Since than it has been the world’s fastest and
largest growing online classroom community, connecting 4.5 million users
globally. ePals provides users with a
safe and innovative way to connect to each other. It even has a built in
webmail language translator so that users can have meaningful communication
with each other without the fear of a language barrier.
Teachers are using e-pals as part of
their Social Studies and/or Language Arts curriculum. Students are connecting
with other children to find out about similarities and differences between
their educational and personal experiences.
E-Pals users are finding about different parts of the world, about
different cultures and about different ways of living in turn gaining an
appreciation for their own lives and for others differences.
Teachers
are also using it to help some students improve their writing skills. Teachers
noticed that students struggling with writing were concentrating too much on
the mechanics of writing instead of just communicating ideas and thoughts. Teachers have found that emailing has
minimized that and increased the amount a student writes as well as the quality
of the writing.
Schools are using E-Pals as a way to
connect to collaborate on school projects or to gather curriculum ideas.
Classrooms are using E-Pals to start discussion groups on topics of interest
such as the environment, the war, school life, dating and sports.
On October 25, 2001, after the
September attacks on the United States, President Bush joined other leaders to
form the Friendship Through Education Consortium, to link US students with
students in Muslim countries. The first
children to participate were ones directly affected by the terrorist attacks,
Thurgood Marshall Extended Elementary School, Washington DC, Patrick Henry
Elementary School, Arlington, Va and Mott Hall School, New York City. The hopes of the Friendship Through
Education Consortium are to bridge cultures and broaden understanding through
educating students about each other.
E-Pals, for both teachers and
students, is a non-threatening way to develop friendships, to facilitate
conversations and engage children in learning.
Children gain a new admiration for other people and places while finding
out about the computer and achieving new computer skills.
The Future of E-Pals
In
an era when technology is quickly changing everyday, E-Pals is trying to keep
up with those advances. Companies that offer E-Pal types of services are making
advances so that users will be able to share information through the realms of
audio and video maybe even web conferencing. Once E-Pals goes live it will be
provide the field of education; schools, classrooms, teachers and students the
luxury of “in living color” communication like we have not seen so far. It will
open a whole new domain in the field of education and open new doors to how we
collaborate and cooperate together.
Links to E-Pals Sites
Intercultural E-Mail
Classroom Connections
KidLink
ePals
Testimonials 
Name: Margaret Cooke School: Sheridan Hill elem. Clarence, NY, USA
My first grade class has been epals to a small school in S. Korea since we started school in Sept. The children enjoy writing and receiving e-mail. We have sent pictures of the class, school, our first day that we had frost on the ground, field trip pictures. The S. Korean school has also sent us pictures of their school, playgrouond, pool, and pictures of the children learning Korean dances. My class has learned that children in other countries study some of the same things and read some of the same books. They have enjoyed telling each ohter about holiday celebrations and what they are learning about. It has been a wonderful experience.
Name: Ivar
Breivik School: SVS
upper sec. Norway
ePALS is an excellent
tool to establish connection with a class in another country. When I came
across ePALS last fall a had no experience in the use of Internet and email
correspondence. After I entered my EFL class here, I was contacted by a Belgian
class. We soon embarked on a very interesting "health"- project -
which we later published at the folllowing address: http://home.sol.no/~ivabrei/a/interest.htm More
tools have been added, and I am sure I'll make use of these facilities next
year:
Ivar Breivik Sandnessjøen videregående skole, Norway
Name: Lanor Dyson School: Ulsan, South Korea
My class and I have been emailing with a school in New York Sate, USA since August. The children are only 5 / 6 years old. My children are all expatriate children from a total of 8 different countries ( there are only 14 in the class!!) we have been telling each other about the weaher, our class work and festivals and celebrations thatwe are celebrating. My children were asked how they were going to celebrate Easter.The other school went on to describe chocolate hunts etc. my children replied that we were sure to do something, but because we can't get much chocloate/sweets and especially Easter candy, it was unlikely we will be having a treasure hunt. The other class immediately parcelled off to us easter eggs full of jelly beans ( oh they tasted good, it has been a long time... ! ) My children were sooooo surprised and soooo happy. Thank you to that class and teacher. It was a lovely end to a long week!! :-)
Name: Bunnie R. Brewer School: J. S. Waters School, Goldston, NC, USA
My first and second graders sent email to a class in each of the 50 states this year. We asked specific questions and posted the responses on a bulletin board in our room. Using the site last year, I found a first grade in California that we corresponded with the entire year. We continued this past year and have made plans to do the same for next year. This learning experience would not have been possible without your site. You make learning fun and exciting. I've referred to you many times in workshops and conferences. It is a WONDERFUL resource!! Thanks for your hard work!!
*
Taken from the e-Pals web site
Bibliography
Gullo, D.F. PhD. (2000). Developmentally appropriate practice integrating computer technology into the early
childhood
curriculum: a constructivist approach. Journal
of Early Education and Family Review, 5, 7-15.
Liu, P.
(2002/2003). Developing an e-pal partnership a school-based international
activity. Childhood Education,
81-87.
Stanford,
P. and Sidders, J.A.. (2001). E-pal writing! TEACHING Exceptional Children, 2, 21-24.
Salmon,
M. and Akaran, S.E. (2001). Enrich your kindergarten program with a
cross-cultural connection. Young
Children, 30-32.