Using Global Collaboration For A Classroom

This week I got the chance to explore ePals which is a global learning community for parents, teachers and students K-12. This is a platform where classrooms can collaborate on projects with other communities around the world. It is a safe learning environment to students to be able to communicate and share ideas. Student are able to learn about what is going on around the world, their cultures, language, and communication etc.I was amazed by how well organized and how many ideas and projects that are taking place. It's a great way for students and teachers to share their learning styles and ideas to continually make learning a fun experience! There are many themed projects and students and teachers are able to use the search engine if they're looking for a particular topic and are able to narrow down their search by country and language. What I like is the way it is set up in lining of the projects and describes them in a well organized manner by stating objectives and standards, activities, lesson plans, and resources to aid students in participating in these projects.

One of the projects that I stumbled upon while visiting this site was the Monster Writing Project, this one particular classroom in France was looking for another class to collaborate on this project with in order to improve student's reading and writing skills in English. Student draw a sketch of a monster and then write a detailed description of it. Their partner then reads it and attempts to draw the monster. Students are then able to look at the original sketch and match the drawing. Winners get their drawing displayed. I like that this is a project that can engage and motivate students to working on their language skills. It helps them build their reading, writing, and critical thinking. This would be something that I would enjoy using in my own ESL classroom one day. I would look into getting students to maybe share their stories of their daily activities or write about their favorite pet in order to get them to work on their writing and reading skills. Although the monster writing  project is one of the ideas that I really like because it really incorporates all the skills that student would need to work on when learning a new language. There are so many ideas and projects that teachers can use in their classrooms to motivate students to learn.

Learning to Network: Ning

One of the networking sites that I explored was Ning. It is a networking site where people are able to create and customize their own website by having the ability to have blogs,videos, forums, and integrate their site with Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Twitter. It works for anyone who wants to able to create a platform where people are able to share ideas and knowledge. They are able to build their own online community based on a specific topic of interest. Ning actually lets service members charge their customers through their site and has three different plans for its members as well.
 One of the features that I like is that people have the ability to integrate with twitter and Facebook and anyone can join the groups through both of these social networking site. One of the forums that caught my attention was the NCTE Assembly for ESL/English Language Learners it's a group targeted at promoting the understanding of ESL/English Learners of all ages. It works at informing teachers, students, etc. on ways to aid ESL students and also teachers in how to provide a better teach the academic language and content. They also provide sessions in getting students to develop their academic language and literacy in content areas. I think its a great way ESL teachers to share their perspective and experience in how to able to better serve ESL students in their learning as well as being able to get teachers to learn how they will be able to help their students in their language development. I like the idea that I might be able to use a site like this where I'm able to discuss different ways of being able to teach an ESL classroom and be able to find sessions that I can attend to enhance my learning as a teacher. Networking sites like this gives teachers and students the ability to experiment with different ideas and exchange information with a global community. It's having the ability to connect with other teachers going through similar experiences. According to Alan Levin's New Media Consortium "It's always important in tapping into our sense of willing to experiment, play, and try new things." In other words being a teacher or a student is all about being able to get out of our usual comfort zone of learning and being able to  try and experiment with the tools we are given, such as a networking site. Being able to improve our knowledge in teaching and keeping an open mind about what is out there for us to learn and improve on. It's about sharing our knowledge and our creativeness and getting feedback from others and again going back creating something even better.I can definitely see myself joining an ESL forum as a new teacher to be able to take tips from other teachers to better my experience and my students experience in their learning. I can also see being able to create my own network and gather teachers and students around the globe to have an open discussion about any number of topics in teaching the English language and what we can do to improve the way we can help students to become confident and interested in their language learning. Its a great way for anyone to build a network and create and recreate information and knowledge.