Well, Agnieska and Justyna and their students in Kielcach, Poland have been communicating with my students in Châteauroux, France since November 2007. We've had a few rough spots coordinating our writing efforts, but all in all it's been a very positive collaboration, and one that we're hoping to expand for next year.
We've been using Viva, the Virtual Village, for our exchanges between students. Viva has been live for nearly ten years now, and although it's a very simple, low-bandwidth forum-based interface, it's still a great tool for encouraging students to write to each other in their target language. You can see most of this year's student writing and exchange in the "Forum Europa" and "Science Lab" forums.
Our general topic has been "Saving Our Planet", as explained in an earlier blog entry. Our students have exchanged or written on topics like endangered species, pollution, recycling and oil spills.
Now, with the current school year winding to a close, I'm looking for new partners in other countries to add to our project. I've already gotten favorable responses from Ana in Romania and Marina in Italy, and am waiting on a few others. If we can get students at five or six different sites all communicating on the same topics, I think we'll see a very favorable group dynamic developing.
More soon, --- Phil
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