Social Networking

This week we focused on social networking. This is the greatest challenge I have with incorporating technology into my classroom. In the beginning of the week, I posted that I was struggling in this area. Unfortunately, my peers were not able to give me any new ideas. However, my instructor was able to share a site called epals.com. Epals is a site for students in K-12 classrooms to meet and chat with students in other states or even countries. At first, I did not see how this site was any different than any other social networking site, but after further looking I found some cool features.

The feature I liked the best was the ability for classrooms to post a little about themselves and what they are looking for. It reminded be of a single’s ad on a dating site. Once the different classrooms post their different profiles and what they are looking for, other classes can search for them. One class was a kindergarten class who was looking for a similar class in Asia or Europe to learn about the different holidays and traditions. I love this idea! I think it allows students and teachers to find exactly what they need from the beginning. I also feel that this is a great way for students to learn about different countries and cultures. I will be looking into how much teacher work will be needed for an activity like this. Otherwise, I will stick with my pen-pals idea.