Safely Connecting Students

Safely Connecting Students by Wendy Mitchell

America's schools have gone high tech, with the National School Boards Association reporting that over 95 percent of school districts required student use of the Internet in some manner.

But how do schools ensure that students are protected while surfing the Web?

Many use a free Internet learning community called ePals. It lets students safely converse with kids around the world, as they learn that homework in China isn't that different from homework in the U.S.

There are protected e-mail and blog tools-called SchoolMail and SchoolBlog-that help kids and teachers connect with peers from across the globe. In fact, over 325,000 educators and their students in more than 200 countries and territories use the service.

The community also offers teachers Web-based curricula such as In2Books, which delivers authentic online literacy tools that can help teachers create customized, collaborative learning environments.

To learn more, visit the Web site www.epals.com. Free Web-based communities help safely connect schools.

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