Jump into ePals: A Great Way to Get Started

What is Jump into ePals? Jump into ePals is an introductory project, led by an ePals staff member. We are all former teachers or current teachers. It is a 4-week project designed to introduce you and your students to project work and the communication tools available here at ePals.

What is Jump into ePals? Classrooms are placed in small groups with about 4-10 other classes from around the world. You will do short assignments; forum discussions, media gallery uploading, a short wiki activity, a short blogging activity, and an exchange. We do all the heavy lifting so you and your students can enjoy the global collaboration!

What are the benefits? For teachers… – All project content and assignments are created for you and are loaded into the workspace – ePals staff support 24/7 – Instant collaborative partners that you can carry into your next project or exchange Thank you for a wonderful first experience with ePals. I just love it! You have been patient with me, and I know I have more to learn, but I'm "hooked" and want to do more. Teacher, Virgin Islands

What are the benefits? For students… – Chance to make connections with students from around the world – Practice the important 21st century skills of collaboration, communication and critical thinking – Use tools such as , wiki, blogs and media galleries You would have thought my students hit the lottery when they received their s from Ludmilla's students. They have gotten where they run in and check their s first thing. Teacher, USA

What tools are used? What are the key elements of this project?

Assignment Pdfs Each weekly activity is written for teachers as a downloadable assignment pdf with teacher tasks and student tasks.

Blog Posts Assignments are posted to the blog with reminders sent to teachers.

Blog Posts Videos and other items of group interest are also posted to the blog.

Discussion Forums There are both teacher and student discussion forums. These discussion boards provide ongoing public conversations between the teacher and student members of the group and are a great way for the group to ask questions and get to know one another.

Discussion Forums Threads can be started by the project leader…

Discussion Forums Or by teachers and students… Created by a student in the Virgin Islands, polling other students on favorite types of fish to eat.

Project Resources Media Gallery In this Media Gallery you will find all of the resources you will need for the project.

Shared Work Media Gallery Students can upload photos, pdfs, videos and anything that they want to share with the group to this gallery.

Project Wiki A wiki is a collaborative tool that allows for all project members to add or edit content. In the Jump into ePals project the host creates the main page and then members can add/edit additional pages. Example of a host created page:

Project Wiki Example of a student-created wiki page:

Exchange Perhaps the most popular part of the project! Exchanging s with other students from around the world.

Who will I meet? To date, Jump into ePals has had classes from 36 countries including: USAMexicoVenezuela PolandItalyVirgin Islands CanadaUkraineHong Kong South KoreaSpainBulgaria Russia BelarusTaiwan IndiaPakistanRomania ColombiaJapanDenmark MalaysiaNorwayTurkey Ghana Republic of Georgia Australia

How do I sign up? From the Join Project page From your homepage Or send an to