Collaborative Learning

If you are looking to drop the walls of your classroom and expand your students' learning experience, think about collaborating with another classroom across the state, country, or even around the world.  There are a number of sites that promote connecting classrooms around the world and expanding students' horizons.  Two that I have come across are http://www.epals.com/  and www.flatclassroomproject.org/  
     The first one is like a penpal program, the feature teacher this month is an English teacher in Japan looking for English language experiences for her students.  Her project is called "Hot Pot Party".  The students are sharing a part of their Japanese culture and practicing their English through the production of a video.  With Epals, you can use snail mail, email, video, or even Skype to connect with other classrooms. 
     The other site is The Flat Classroom Project which is geared more towards middle and highschool students, but they are striving to include younger students in some of their projects.  The projects are quite organized and global.  Learning is collaborative, creative, and constructivist; they are very engaging.  The projects use Web 2.0 tools to make communication and interaction between classrooms easier.  Ideas for  projects come from Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat and are based on real-world scenarios. 
     If anyone is interested in doing this now or in the future, let me know and I will work with you to get you connected.