Journeys of Communication and Cooperation: a Digital How-to

Students living in Southern Taiwan’s largest city have begun to get glimpses of what life might be like in a small, rural Pennsylvanian town.

Kaohsiung American School’s (KAS) Grade 5 class has embarked upon a journey of collaboration and communication with Northern Potter Children’s School (NPCS) Grade 5 class, and the use of tools such as Prezi, Google Apps for Education, YouTube, Edmodo, and Skype has given students a new take on the traditional pen pal experience.

The initial exchange between KAS and NPCS began with each student making an “All about me” Prezi. The introductory Prezis provided students with some much-needed context about each other’s lives. The Prezis were then embedded on a shared KAS/NPCS Edmodo page, which provided a safe, secure environment for students to view and comment on others’ work.

Transitioning from the introductory, individual Prezis, we moved into collaborative Google presentations. Students from each school worked together to create a Google presentation, featuring photos and information about their daily school life. This exchange allowed the students from KAS to get a visual idea of how their school compared with Northern Potter.

After establishing contact and familiarizing students with their pen pals, we began to explore sharing students’ written work. As writers, our students have enjoyed having a wider audience beyond the students in their respective classes. As both schools use Google Apps for Education, Google Drive provides a readily accessible way for students to upload their published works so students from both schools can comment and provide feedback on their writing.

Edmodo is an excellent platform to enhance exchanges. With the use of the shared page, students from both schools can respond to the same questions and comment on responses. Both schools shared “What we are thankful for” videos to create a common ground during Thanksgiving.

Likewise, Chinese New Year was brought to life for the students in Pennsylvania, when KAS students created an instructional “How to make Chinese lanterns” video. Students enjoyed making “wallwishers” for the other school, to show them what having a pen pal means to them. Students’ learning from their respective classrooms was showcased with student-produced Animoto videos. KAS students shared book trailers for novels they wrote; NPCS students shared highlight videos from their science experiments.

After months of sharing work, letters, videos, and photos, it was finally time for a Skype call! Communicating via Skype was a highlight for students, as they finally got a chance to talk in real time with their pen pals.

We keep discovering new ways to enhance the collaborative process, and students and teachers alike continue to be excited by this learning journey!

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