Jon D Pennington

To expand the potential for global collaboration  between my students and counterparts their same age,  we included E-pals in our work since  it boasts the largest interconnected community of classrooms worldwide.  After registering and exploring E-pals we realized that it has very limited and controlled functionality.  So our mission became clear.  Our purpose was not to linger in E-pals but to connect with its members who were teachers in order to  bridge communication between their classes and our own.  After registering on E-pals, my students reached out to teachers from around the world and invited them to learn with us.  Students sent letters to teachers throughout  Latin America and Spain.  Included in their invitations was the link to our Twitter discussion group, Bilingual Connection.   Within nine weeks of sending letters, students built connections with many teachers who sent us class lists of over 400 students emails combined!!!  In each of these instances, communication occurred solely  between the students and the teachers abroad.   Once my students provided me the class’s names and emails, I created a Google doc for each list and linked each of them to a password protected blog page within our network, Learningconnects.us.

More videos from the Madrid class.

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Dr. Kevin Gaugler, Department Chair of Modern Languages at Marist College and Barbara Lindsey, Director of the Multimedia Language Center at the University of Connecticut, asked me if they could interview me and publish a podcast on some of the innovate ways my students have been using technology to facilitate learning. They run the blog World AT Ways which explores online technologies in support of language learning and teaching and intercultural competencies.

Link to the interview and podcast

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