Curricular Area(s): Career Education, Social Studies
Core Competencies: Communication, Personal Awareness and Responsibility, Social Responsibility and Critical Thinking
Grade(s): 2-12 (ages 8+)
Tool Access: https://www.penpalschools.com/
Resource Description
PenPal Schools is a digital learning tool that provides students with a venue to connect, learn, take action, and share perspectives with other students from around the world through engaging in collaborative online projects with real-world impacts.
This multi-modal learning tool develops multiple literacies such as reading and writing, digital literacy, and social-emotional literacy through fostering empathy.
Teachers can select a project for their students to engage in from a wide range of topics and difficulty levels. Students then complete an intro lesson for the project and their results from this are used to match them up with up to four pen pals from around the world who are starting the same project on the same day. Projects are divided into lessons. Pen pals share their work, message one another, and collaborate. Teachers can monitor all communication and provide feedback (built-in assessment!).
PenPal Schools can serve as a valuable transformative learning tool in the classroom as we can use it to connect our students with others around the world. As students connect, they will be exposed to how others learn, play, and interpret knowledge; students will gain insight into the global community they are a part of and the variety of perspectives held by their fellow community members.
Yvonne Dawydiak
March 14, 2018 — 7:21 pm
Thanks for sharing this! I was asked a few months ago by a TC from our WKTEP (West Kootenay Teacher Ed Program) about PenPal Schools and so did some research into it to try to determine if it was a safe, valuable place/project in which teachers might wish to engage their students. What I was able to learn impressed me. Through my professional learning network (via twitter) I connected with a local teacher who has participated in the program. She shared her experiences with me and also mentioned that she was impressed that the penpal schools program people actually called her school principal to confirm that she was indeed a teacher at that school prior to allowing her class to participate! While I don’t know if this is something that is always or even routinely done, this added a level of integrity and trust to the program from my perspective! After my digging, I felt quite comfortable suggesting the program to this TC and to others! I hope you have a chance to participate in it!