Saturday, February 28, 2015

Bringing the World Together One Project at a Time

     When I studied abroad in India I had the opportunity to collaborate with a community called Reach The World. It was a program that allowed me to write blogs and field notes on different topics and be connected to an elementary classroom back home in the US. I was connected to a fourth grade class and they used my blog posts in their social studies class to learn more about India. I had the chance to video chat with the class twice allowing them to come up to the computer one by one and ask me different questions about India. I loved the idea of Reach The World; being able to bring various cultures straight into the classrooms of the students. 


     A similar program to Reach The World is EPals, except this site is more collaborative and natives of each country are able to work together on projects. The main categories of this site are divided into: challenges, find classroom, projects, learning centers, and ePals Central. All of projects and activities I have looked at so far seem to range from late elementary school age up through seniors in high school. I think one of the biggest benefits of EPals is that it can be used for any subject including science, social studies, language, etc. I wish that it were also geared to students who were beyond high school as well. While students learn about different people from different countries all over the world, this website gives students the opportunities to actually meet, (virtually) connect, and make friends with these students from places like Brazil, India, Japan, etc. This helps students gain a broader understanding of the world at an early age. 



I don't know if I would use this program specifically since it is geared more towards students in elementary - high school but I would definitely want to find a program similar to this in order to give my future adult ESL students an opportunity to engage and make friends with with native English speakers outside the classroom. 

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing the information about Reach the World. It sounds like a great program, not only for the students but fro the international traveler who has to reflect on what to share and how to share it with 4th graders.

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