ePals is a great educational tool that allows teacher to connect and collaborate with other classrooms in more than 200 countries and territories. ePals is also user friendly in that is allows for students in an elementary school setting to be able to use it without as many technical complications as other website might present for younger children. ePals also offers an array of tools such as blogging and forums for keeping in touch and school mail. The website also gives helpful suggestions on projects that may be great for completed by collaborate with schools who are a part of the ePals program. I have now become a fan of ePals because of the multicultural experiences it provides for students. Another great feature is that ePals is free.
According to the ePals website this tool is useful for students who are in Kindergarten and older. However this is not to say that this tool could not be used for a Pre-K classroom as well. When using ePals I believe that students will be able to express their creativity in many ways. Students will be able to use resources such as working with others in a different part of the country to come of with up they may be a good soution for global warming for instance. Students will also be able to blog their experiences so that their parents or other students will be able to see what they are learning. Ensuring that every child has access to this tool may be challenging if someone was working with in a school that does not have enough computers to go around. If this is the case then teachers would have to improvise and use one computer and hopefully a LCD projector and use ePals as a collaborative classroom tool.
According to the ePals website this tool is useful for students who are in Kindergarten and older. However this is not to say that this tool could not be used for a Pre-K classroom as well. When using ePals I believe that students will be able to express their creativity in many ways. Students will be able to use resources such as working with others in a different part of the country to come of with up they may be a good soution for global warming for instance. Students will also be able to blog their experiences so that their parents or other students will be able to see what they are learning. Ensuring that every child has access to this tool may be challenging if someone was working with in a school that does not have enough computers to go around. If this is the case then teachers would have to improvise and use one computer and hopefully a LCD projector and use ePals as a collaborative classroom tool.