Category: edci337-app

PenPal Schools Evaluation

PenPal Schools is a web application that enables “creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and discussion” through Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and an emphasis on global-citizenship (PenPal Schools, 2020). It is used by schools in over 150 countries and allows students (8 and older) to engage with other learners in “thoughtfully designed, collaborative projects” (Wilson, 2018). These projects are offered in many of the core subjects along with others such as Environmentalism, Social Justice, and Current Events (PenPal Schools, 2020). They involve “self-guided, differentiated and mixed media” lessons based on a chosen topic (Wilson, 2018). In the lessons, learners read and analyze texts, watch videos, share ideas in a forum space, and collaborate all while “[building] empathy, curiosity, and respect” (PenPal Schools, 2020). The team at PenPal Schools curates each lesson to align with different international educational standards in the areas of “reading, writing, digital citizenship, and social-emotional skills” (PenPal Schools, 2020). Teachers sign up for PenPal Schools and receive their first topic for free (more topics can be obtained through referrals, fees, or scholarships) (PenPal Schools, 2020). In regards to safety, students can only join through a teacher invitation and the only personal information required is the student’s first names, last initials, and country. Every post is moderated and student safety is the application’s number one concern. Click here to dive deeper into the key features, safety, and cost of this multimedia app. Through the integration of PjBL, global citizenship, and multimedia, PenPal Schools provides students with the ability to connect with similar aged children around the world thus enhancing their cross-cultural respect, sensitivities, tolerance, and worldview

In 2015, President Barack Obama said PenPal Schools was one of the world’s leading social enterprises (Wilson, 2018)! The program also received a “Top Pick for Learning” award in 2018 from Common Sense Education (PenPal Schools, 2020).

Multimedia Principles

PenPal Schools expertly crafts a multimedia learning environment that fosters the growth of knowledge on a global scale. Since each topic includes videos and readings that incorporate a mix of visual and auditory components, the Multimedia Principle is present (Mayer, 2014, p.8). Each forum section provides potential information to be used in the writing prompts along with worked examples to help students create a resource on a given topic (Mayer, 2014, p.9). Helpful hints and worked examples guide students (Guided Discovery Principle) towards certain learning outcomes, allowing each topic to expand learners’ worldviews while teaching them critical literacy skills(Mayer, 2014, p.9). The website is designed for learners of varying abilities, evidenced by the different difficulty levels within each topic. These levelled resources establish the Coherence Principle as extraneous information and resources are left out of a students’ dashboard (Mayer, 2014, p.8). All of this creates a user-friendly learning platform that allows learners to feel confident enough to explore new topics and share their ideas with their penpal. Each pairing works through a topic at their own pace (Segmenting Principle): watching videos, doing readings, responding to prompts, and creating an end project (Mayer, 2014, p.8). PenPal Schools is a useful multimedia-based, learner-centred tool, that integrates technology organically and authentically.

Collaboration

PenPal Schools works to create a collaborative learning experience that is safe, interactive, and engaging. Through the lessons, students can “[build] on” their own existing knowledge by learning from the provided videos, readings, and experiences of their penpal (Van Den Bossche et al., 2006, p.494). Van Den Bossche et al. states that collaborative learning “…offers possibilities to learn from other viewpoints” by understanding that while another person’s viewsmay differ from one’s own, those views are still legitimate and worthy (2006, p.496). PenPal Schools offers an opportunity to listen and share with friends across the globe and develop those conversations into collaborative projects involving both students’ new learning and their pre-existing viewpoints. A teacher, Jillian W., supports this by stating that “students [connect] globallyon PenPal Schools to collaborate and learn together” (Common Sense Education, 2019).

Project-Based Learning

An important facet of PenPal Schools is its foundation in project-based learning (PjBL), a “type of inquiry-based learning” that emphasizes student choice, autonomy, and self-reliance (Kokotsaki et al., 2016, p.268-269). PjBL leads to meaningful learning experiences through its basis in the following constructivist ideas: “learning is context-specific,” “learners are involved actively in the learning process” and goals are achieved “through social interactions and the sharing of knowledge and understanding” (Kokotsaki et al., 2016, p.267-268). Key aspects of PjBL are “time management”, encouraging thoughtful learning, “establishing a culture that stresses student self-management”, connecting with community members, using technological resources effectively, and using varied assessment methods (Kokotsaki et al., 2016, p.273-274).

Tying digital multimedia tools into PjBL allows students to “comfortably engage with the process of designing and developing their project” and being able to easily share and documenttheir creations in “a digital format” (Kokotsaki et al., 2016, p.272). For elementary ages, PjBL improves “experiential reasoning and comprehension of relations,” content knowledge and group work skills, motivation, positivity in the classroom, and literacy (Kokotsaki et al., 2016, p.269-270). PenPal Schools is an effective tool for the implementation of PjBL into any classroom.

Global Citizenship

PenPal Schools promotes global citizenship by connecting students around the world through the exploration of various topics that build a “global awareness…[and] interconnectedness with others” (Katzarska-Miller & Reysen, 2019, p.26). While traditional classrooms may overlook current or social justice events, PenPal Schools provides educators with opportunities to tackle global issues that “[are] simply too important to be dominated by other curricular imperatives” (Schweisfurth, 2006, p.47).

Learning about different countries around the world allows students to gain a better understanding of humanity and appreciate the similarities and differences between one another. The goal of globalized education, and PenPal Schools, is to form “a greater understanding of interconnectedness between self and world, skills and values” (Katzarska-Miller & Reysen, 2019, p.31). By connecting with other cultures, students can learn to empathize with others and work towards “sustainable development and peaceful societies” (Schweisfurth, 2006, p.42). PenPal Schools makes it easy for teachers to integrate global awareness into their classrooms by increasing their “global content,” “[supporting] the idea of student-perceived awareness,” and “[encouraging] student connections” (Katzarska-Miller & Reysen, 2019, p.28). While global citizenship may not be a concrete part of the BC Curriculum, teachers must integrate PenPal Schools or other similar multimedia technologies to work towards a more inclusive world.

Alicia M. from Saraland Elementary School says PenPal Schools “creates an understanding of culture differences!”

PenPal Schools provides opportunities to connect with other learners around the world, share experiences, and explore project-based learning collaboratively, all of which are “key to becoming an educated global and digital citizen” (Bjelde, 2020).

– Ms. Bjelde, Ms. L. McLean, Ms. A. McLean, Ms. Gustavsson

References

Katzarska-Miller, I., & Reysen, S. (2019). Educating for global citizenship: Lessons from psychology. Childhood Education, 95(6), 24-33. doi:10.1080/00094056.2019.1689055

Kokotsaki, D., Menzies, V., & Wiggins, A. (2016). Project-based learning: A review of the literature. Improving Schools, 19(3), 267-277. doi:10.1177/1365480216659733

Mayer, R. E. (Ed.). (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning(2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139547369

PenPal Schools. 2020. A Global Project Based Learning Community. (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2020, from https://www.penpalschools.com/index.html

Schweisfurth, M. (2006). Education for global citizenship: Teacher agency and curricular structure in ontario schools. Educational Review: Global Citizenship Education, 58(1), 41-50. doi:10.1080/00131910500352648

Van den Bossche, P., Gijselaers, W. H., Segers, M., & Kirschner, P. A. (2006). Social and Cognitive Factors Driving Teamwork in Collaborative Learning Environments: Team Learning Beliefs and Behaviors. Small Group Research, 37(5), 490–521.

Wilson, L. (2018, May 03). Everything You Need To Know To Get Started With PenPal Schools. Retrieved June 13, 2020, from https://hundred.org/en/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-to-get-started-with-penpal-schools

Out of the four apps that each of our group members researched, “PenPal Schools” “Peekapak”, “Padlet”, and “Canva”, we have come to the consensus that for our final evaluation we will be diving deeper into PenPal Schools. As a group, we are all looking forward to learning more about the web application and how it incorporates many different Multimedia learning principles.

“PenPal Schools is a website and Multimedia program that is used by thousands of educators in over 150 countries (PenPal Schools, 2020)… It allows students (8 and older) to connect with other similar aged learners from different countries and cultures through “thoughtfully designed, collaborative projects” on a variety of subjects including Literacy, Social Studies, English/Language Arts, Science, Math, Music, Art, Spanish, Environmentalism, Social Justice, Current Events, Cultures, Civilizations, Virtual Reality and much more (Wilson, 2018; PenPal Schools, 2020). The lessons that learners participate in are “self guided, differentiated and mixed media” which motivates [them] to stay engaged (Wilson, 2018).”  (Bjelde, 2020).

This app utilizes a variety of multimedia principles such as collaboration, modality, segmenting, personalization, and many more that will be further explained in our full evaluation.

One of our main concerns with the other three applications was how their information was stored and used. The privacy settings in Penpal Schools allows students to remain protected and relatively anonymous throughout their use of the webpage and application. Each student is linked to a class code (set up by their teacher) and their only personal information given is their first name, last initial, and country.  We had concerns with our other apps’ privacy policy because there were varying degrees of third-party data storage.

In addition to the fewer safety concerns, PenPal Schools feels relevant and authentic to 21st-century learners and modern-day global citizens. By fostering connections to others around the world, promoting digital literacy, and hearing different worldviews, students become more culturally-sensitive, aware, and understanding. With the plethora of learning opportunities present in this app, each of us found it to be a dynamic and inspiring multimedia application for students.

We can all definitely envision ourselves using this app in our own future classrooms as it can be used in many different ways for a number of different grades. The accessibility of the application and the excitement of having a pen pal creates a very engaging and motivating learning environment. 

References

 Bjelde, S. 2020. EDCI 337: Evaluating an Interactive Multimedia Learning Web Application. Retrieved from https://sarahbjelde.opened.ca/2020/06/17/edci-337-evaluating-an-interactive-multimedia-learning-web-application/.

Peekapack is a website that has ready-made lesson plans full of activities, games, books and more for teachers that are interested in teaching Social and Emotional Learning. This app has won 5 stars on the Commonsense Media website with a 5-star rating from teachers as well (Rogowski, 2020). It has also been awarded the Smart Media Awards from Acdedemic Choice, 2019 Top Pick for Learning from Commonsense Media, and the 2017 Family Choice Award. These carefully curated lesson plans align with literacy standards, have “ demonstrated effectiveness in schools ” is accessible and easily modified, and promote diversity and inclusion (Peakapack.com). An additional resource tied to these lesson plans is an online world/ game called myPeakaville. Students create an avatar, assess their daily feelings, and play and learn within the Peakaville world.

The website has ten units (self-regulation, respect, gratitude, perseverance, empathy, teamwork, kindness, honesty, optimism, and courage) that all begin with a letter from Leo the Hedgehog and a read-aloud story that acts as the provocation for the unit. Each lesson plan is fully complete with the resources attached, the time needed, the material, the connections to curricular standards (the United states standards), the learning outcomes, the breakdown of the lesson, and the guide for educators to follow. One of the best parts is for each lesson you, as the educator, can choose between the lesson plan for in class or at home. Lessons can be sent home and done between guardians and children. These lessons can be lengthy so asking the Guardian to do it can be a big ask. As the lessons are clearly laid out it is easy to pick and choose which lessons or units one would want to implement in the classroom at all. It is quite a lengthy curriculum, and getting through the whole thing in one school year could potentially be hard.

Some interesting and potentially helpful aspects of the app are the curated parent and student email list on the main page, the reports page that shows a breakdown of the curriculum, mood boards that track students’ emotion reports that are given through the myPeakaville game and a district report.

myPeakaville is one of the more interesting parts of the site when looking at it from a multimedia lense. It is the online world where learners create an avatar and work through scenarios that align with the lessons that are being taught. They can track their easily identifiable feelings. There is an animation of a face displaying emotion and a word above it that says what it is. Additionally, one can hover the mouse over the picture, and it will say the emotion that is displayed. One can then click on a question mark near the face to learn more about the emotion as well. This is a great example of the multimedia principle as words and pictures are better than just words alone (Mayer, p. 8, 2016). It also supports the spatial contiguity principle as the word that is associated is right next to the picture (Mayer, p. 8, 2016). Before assessing emotions it prompts one to close their eyes and breath in and out five times. This is a great tool for helping students center themselves and tap into what they are feeling. myPeakaville engages learners in technology with the specific purpose of teaching students important lessons in SEL. Sensory modalities are used throughout the myPeakaville site as there is narration throughout, along with text and pictures (Mayer, p.8, 2016). It supports the segmenting principle as is a learner paced experience. Students can work through the led experiences at their own pace and learn through the process (Mayer, p. 8, 2016). The myPeakaville site is an example of the guided discovery principle. Students are led through activities that teach, test, and guide students through the self-discovery of emotions and the emotions of others- guided discovery principle (Mayer, p. 9, 2016).

The lesson plans are more teacher-led. Through developed lesson plans a timeline is set and activities are arranged purposefully. This leads to less autonomy for the students. The lesson plans that are provided begin with a story that immediately sets the tone for multimedia learning. Aj Juliani says in his article “The Importance of Teaching With Stories”, stories fully engage the learner and sync them to the storyteller. By beginning the lesson plans with a letter from Leo the Hedgehog and a story the learners are invested in Leo’s narrative and form a connection with the teacher. Through the text and pictures, the narration that is provided in the audio recording, or narration by the teacher, students are given worked examples of how-to and how not to handle certain situations (Mayer, p. 9, 2016). Each of the lessons builds upon the last, giving a well-rounded experience and understanding, specific for that grade level, in an SEL topic, thus supporting the prior knowledge principle (Mayer, p. 9, 2016).

Using the Rubric from the University of Western Ontario I was able to evaluate Peakapack. I found that overall it has many great aspects, some okay aspects, and only two alarming aspects. That being said, the main issues were the privacy settings and not being available offline. The lessons themselves can be taught, for the majority offline but the educator must first be able to access the lesson plan on the web-based site. Additionally, the site is “Free for a basic account. An individual Teacher Pro plan includes the entire curriculum for $149 per year for up to 20 students ($299 per year if adding the game). For schools, the curriculum price is $7.50 per student ($15 per student if adding the game and analytics)” (Rogowski, 2020). This can be a large expense for most teachers as the allotted budget is low. One can apply for grants, bid for PAC funding, or ask for money from the district. All of these things are circumstantial.

Overall this website is a great use of multimedia. It connects students virtually where they are visually seeing actions taken, hearing, and reading about what they are seeing, the multimedia principle (Mayer, p. 8, 2016). The picture books are also a great example of this. The actions and facial expressions related to certain emotions are depicted in the illustrations and the words in the book further identify what they are seeing. This web-based site provides opportunities for fun, meaningful and important learning to occur that provide teachers with a jumping-off point for teaching SEL topics that can be hard to approach (Sorden, p. 6, 2012). Beyond teaching students how to be good people it integrates multimedia learning seamlessly and purposefully.

Juliani, A. J. (2016, March 21). The Hidden Importance of Teaching With Stories. Retrieved June 5, 2020, from http://ajjuliani.com/hidden-importance-teaching-stories/

Mayer, R. (2014). Introduction to Multimedia Learning. In R. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 1-24). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139547369.002

Rogowski, M. (2020, April 22). Peekapak Review for Teachers. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/peekapak

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING CURRICULUM FOR PRE-K TO 5. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.peekapak.com/

Sorden, S. D. (2012). The cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Handbook of educational theories, 1, 3.