ePals TM Keeping Children Safe

Question: Can a FREE service allow teachers and school administrators to monitor content, while still giving students an easy, safe, and secure way to communicate with peers worldwide?

YES!

ePals Introduction ePals SchoolMail is a complete, internet-based solution and collaborative toolset designed for the education environment. With ePals SchoolMail you will be able to give members of your educational community access to – and to each other – in a safe, managed way. ePals SchoolMail offers a multilingual environment for you and your students, making it an ideal tool for communicating in a multi-cultural school community and for learning second languages. ePals SchoolMail filtering and monitoring system enables you to: – know what your students are communicating about – know what your students are sending and receiving – get students in touch with the information and people that you want them to be in touch with as part of your curriculum

Unique Features of SchoolMail 1.Language Translation: ePals SchoolMail is the first with built in Language Translation. 2.Safe and Secure: Options for monitoring student work (SchoolMail was made for school use with qualities that teachers asked for!) 3.World’s Largest Online Learning Community: Use ePals SchoolMail to communicate with students, parents, peer educators, and members of the global community.

Unique Features of SchoolMail: 1. Language Translation

Unique Features of SchoolMail: 2. Safe and Secure

Access Levels Class/Monitor: Students are limited to mailing other students who have the same monitor. School: Students are limited to mailing students and teachers in the same school. District: Limits students to mailing students and teachers at schoools created within your system. ePALS SchoolMail: Limits students to ing people who are using ePALS SchoolMail in their schools. 2. Safe and Secure

Filter Levels Level 1: Monitor must approve every message sent and received. Level 2: Monitor receives a copy of every message sent or received, but must approve only those which contain profanity identified by flagged words. Level 3: Monitor will only receive messages that contain profanity, and these messages will require approval before reaching their destination. Level 4: All content filters are off. Monitor only receives copies with attachments if set for this. 2: Safe and Secure

Flagging System Stop sign with exclamation point Stop sign OK sign Checked envelope Paperclip

Homepage Review: ePals SchoolMail

Student Monitored Mail monitoring lets you: Safely bring technology into the classroom. Preview students’ incoming and outgoing messages. Ensure that messages are appropriate to age, setting and context. Safely integrate student in appropriate, educational ways.

Classroom Integration Authentic assessment Use vocabulary words within Round robin story writing Share and analyze data Write an alternative ending to a story Respond to a daily news headline or topic

Complete Access to ePals starts with a PROFILE.

Active Participation in the Community Starts with a Classroom Profile Creating a Classroom Profile is an important first step in active participation of the global community. Teachers can’t contact other classrooms without having a profile submitted and approved.

What is a Classroom Profile?

A Successful Profile Includes: 1.Age-range of class (age in years as well as grade level) 2.Language(s) the students speak 3.Location of the classroom 4.Location of desired partner

A Successful Profile Includes: 5.Methods with which you would like to collaborate 6.Length of desired collaboration 7.Frequency of desired collaboration 8.Topic of desired collaboration

Sample teacher profile

Profile - Your turn 1.Age-range of class (age in years as well as grade level) 2.Language(s) the students speak 3.Location of the classroom 4.Location of desired partner 5.Methods with which you would like to collaborate ( , postal mail, blogs, video conferences) 6.Length of desired collaboration (school year, semester and months your school in session) 7.Frequency of desired collaboration (weekly, monthly, at holidays) 8.Topic of desired collaboration (the more specific the better. Global warming is better than science.)

Preview Your Profile

Student approval page

Now What????? Finding a Project

ePals Projects for Collaboration

Advanced search page

Submit your own project!

Resources Website: Contact me: Judith Lay Copy of today’s PowerPoint presentation: Link will be added at TechFest SchoolMail instruction manual from ePals: tion/SM_Teacher_v20.pdf tion/SM_Teacher_v20.pdf

Teacher Forums