Global Collaborative Project: Early Elementary ePals

Maggie Brady
Wilmington University
April 8, 2019
GLOBAL COLLABORATION PROJECT

Global Collaboration Project

Classroom Profile
1. The class is composed of twenty second graders. There are twelve boys and eight girls.
Prior to this project, they have composed one e-mail to their teacher using g-mail.
2. There are several accommodations to consider for this class. Six students are English
Language Learners. Spanish is their first language. Also, two students have writing IEPs,
so some of the activities may need to be modified slightly.
Title of the Collaborative Project
1. The title of the project is “Early Elementary E-Pals.” With this project, the second grade
teachers and class plans to connect to another elementary class in Citta Di Castello Italy
to discuss common interests and also to explore the world of insects in both places.
Standards
1. The National Educational Technology Standards for Students and the new NETS for
Teachers emphasize a set of core principals that are quite important for building twenty-
first-century skills. For example, Standard 7 speaks to students being global
collaborators. “Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their
learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and
globally.” (ISTE, 2019) This project will indeed broaden their perspectives because they
will be writing to children close to their age that live in Italy. They will be exchanging
information about local insects with them.
Global Community
1. The second graders at Richey Elementary in Wilmington Delaware will connect with Ms.
Andrea’s class in Citta Di Castello, located in Central Italy. She manages two classes,
forty pupils total.
Explain the Collaboration Method
1. The media that will be used for this project is epals.com. In her article, “Global Learning:
Connecting the World with ePals, Susie writes about the many benefits of using the site.
“Ed Fish, CEO of ePals, is eager to remove barriers so that learners around the world will
have a chance to connect and communicate in meaningful ways. Founded in 1996, ePals
recently underwent a twenty-first-century business makeover and now offers its updated
communications platform to schools free.” (2008)
2. https://www.epals.com/#/connections
Collaborative Project
1. Phase #1: Initial Contact. Prior to the initial contact, the second graders will be
introduced to how ePals works. They will watch the video, “Welcome to ePals”.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_YlHuuqor0) Then the class will work together
with their teacher to compose an initial message to Ms. Andrea’s class. The purpose of
the message will be for the students to introduce themselves and include some general
collective details, such as their age, where they are located on the globe.
Phase #2: First Individual Exchange. Second grade students will be matched up with an
individual fourth grader. The first individual exchange message should include lots of
important and/or interesting details about the individuals. Students should focus on their
daily lives, telling their ePal their hobbies, likes, and dislikes. Ideally, the American and
Italian student are able to identify several things they have in common.
GLOBAL COLLABORATION PROJECT

Phase #3: Insect Information Exchange- The next e-mail will be more academically
driven. The second graders will have studied insects in science class. Specifically, they
studied the insect’s anatomy, life cycle and habitat. In the e-mail, the second graders will
identify a local insect (to Delaware). They will describe the insect’s anatomy, life cycle
and habitat to their ePal, as well as some general facts about the insect. Then, their fourth
grade partner will return the e-mail with facts about an insect that is native to their area in
Italy.
Phase #4: Monthly Exchange. After that, the exchanges will become less formal and
frequent. Students will exchange e-mails on a monthly basis. The topics of the e-mails do
not have to be just insects. After the first two e-mails, the ePals will have lots to discuss.
2. The first three phases will be lessons. After that, Phase 4 will be monthly.
3. “When students (who often have a very small world in which they live day to day) start
regularly talking with a fellow student in another part of the world, this massively
changes their world view- sparking all sorts of exciting new ideas and interest in topics
which could otherwise feel too dry or theoretical for them in purely written form.” (Matt,
2017) The second graders will greatly benefit from this project because they are learning
in a Title 1 school. Most of the students are living in poverty. They are young so their
world view is small. This experience will broaden their world view and help foster a
relationship with someone from another country.
References (APA citation)
1. Boss, S. (2008, July 21). Global Learning: Connecting the World with ePals [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/epals-online-community-pen-pals
2. ISTE Standards for Students | ISTE . (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students
3. Matt. (2017, November 5). Bring Global Learning into your Classrom with ePals.
Retrieved from https://www.teachersnotepad.com/epals
4. Retrieved from https://www.epals.com/#/connections
5. Welcome to ePals [Video file]. (2013, January 29). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_YlHuuqor0