A Telecollaborative Project via ePals
Availability of Materials
For this project, the students are required to use a variety of recycled materials in order to create their robots. This could be a problem for some teachers because students may not have the ability to bring in materials from home that they may need. In order to accommodate the need for these materials, the teacher will need to connect with the partner classroom to establish a due date well in advance. The teacher should create a plan to collect materials for his/her students ahead of time. This can be done by sending a note home to parents asking for any clean, recycled donations. The teacher could also place a bin in the teacher's lounge so that other colleagues could donate materials to use for this project as well. The collection of materials should begin at least a month before the students begin creating their robots.
User-Friendly Site
As we planned this lesson, we found that the ePals website is not very user-friendly. In order for all students to have access to the experience, the teacher must take time to set up an individual account for each student. Taking time to set up the student accounts is not the problem; however, after we set up example student accounts, we noticed potential problems that could arise as the students completed this experience. One problem is that all sixteen steps are displayed in the same area, making it overwhelming for students to view. Because all steps are available at the same time, the students would have access to look ahead, which could be a problem if the teacher wants to complete only one step at a time. We also think the discussion boards and message systems are difficult to navigate. These problems could be avoided by using a different platform, such as Edmodo, to complete the project. Edmodo allows teachers to create private groups where multiple classes could join and communicate. Overall, it is a more user-friendly platform for both teachers and students to use and has the same features as the ePals website.
Possible Time Difference
The second step in this project is to meet the students in their partner class. They are required to answer a series of questions in order to get to know each other and learn about their environment. They are asked to post their introduction using video or text. Skype would be the most ideal way of communication between classes; however this may not be possible depending on the location or schedule of the partner class. A way that students could still communicate with their partner class would be to post to a discussion board. The teachers of both classes would have to coordinate a scheduled time for each step of the project to be completed by. This would ensure that the classes work at the same pace, which is important for the success of this project.
Contingency Plans
