ePals2

=**Communication Tool:**= Group Members: Katie Fields Megan Treadway


 * Screenshot or logo**



ePals is a very useful tool in the classroom. It is a global community for learners, teachers, and academic experts in 200 countries and territories. ePals also provides connections to students, teachers and learners that are safe and secure. E-mailing and writing in forums are the main ways to communicate in this tool, but it does take 24 hours to get your profile approved before you can actually utilize the e-mail portion. Overall, ePals is a great way for you and your students to have a collaborated learning experience.
 * Brief introduction of the tool**

Advantages of this tool include that it provides students and teachers with a trusted source where they can e-mail eachother and be a part of a collaborative learning experience. Other advantages include that this tool is free, easy to sign up for, easy to use and that it is actually managed by teachers and administrators. This tool allows students to e-mail, blog, and interact with peers worldwide! It is efficient in the sense that it is easy to use and does not require much time to sign up for. It is effective in the sense that the quality of this tool is excellent and well organized. It is enhanced in the sense that it allows many opportunities for students that would otherwise not be available, for instance...fostering class-to-class projects on diverse subjects, promoting cross cultural collaborations such as foreign language learning, and swapping inspiring ideas with schools and teachers around the globe.
 * **//Advantages of the tool//**

Although there are not many disadvantages to ePals one disadvantage or limitation to ePals is that sometimes when students try and communicate with other students in other areas a lot of times the other end is not very reliable or consistent, so many students have been disappointed at times. This tool does not allow for instant feedback either, a lot of times students will have to wait a while unlike other tools, which allow another student to respond immediately. Another disadvantage to ePals that we discovered is that you cannot start to use the e-mail system until you make a profile and have the profile be approved which normally takes about twenty-four hours, this causes you to have to wait to use this tool and not be able to use it right away, as some students may wish to do.
 * **//Disadvantages (limitations) of the tool//**

An example of integrating this tool into the classroom would be using ePals to promote cross cultural collaborations. If the teacher were having trouble getting students interested in or learning foreign language she could find a teacher in a different country who speaks the language she is trying to teach, and then have the students interact with one another. However, the school that she contacts must have students that are also able to speak English so that her students are able to understand what they are saying. Another scenario could be that the students do know the language very well and could practice their writing skills by e-mailing other students in a foreign country and asking them about their daily life and how it is different from their own in the United States.
 * Application of the tool in your subject area**


 * Find a tutorial video on YouTube**

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 * //List of key features showed in the ScreenToaster ://**

If your classmates want to learn more about your topic, where should they go? Please recommend 3 websites or more. [|About ePals]
 * Useful Resources**

[|Blog about ePal]

[|Monitored ePals for students]