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	Exchange Activities

In this section, we list some of the types of activity that you can get involved in with your partner schools. We look at the potential benefits for your students and the organisational issues involved.

			Individual exchanges
			Class projects
			Computer mediated communication

We would love to hear from you if you have tried any of these activities at your school. Please send us an e-mail.

The main thing about Montage projects is that they are done through the teacher. The teacher is the best security device whose responsibilty it is to ensure that his or her charges are protected. Find out about safe use of the internet for children.

			Individual exchanges Pen pals Some teachers encourage their students to exchange letters with a student from the partner school in their free time. The teachers in the two schools work together to pair up the students but after that students are left to their own devices. Having a pen pal in another part of the world can help children gain a better understanding of other cultures. It can also lead to lasting friendships. Obviously, some people are better at replying to letters than others and it would be unrealistic to think that pen pal relationships will be long-lasting in every case. It is important that teachers in each country discuss their expectations such as how often students will communicate with eachother. A mismatch in expectations can lead to disappointment if a class finds that their letters are not getting replies. This underlines the importance of clearly specifying your intentions and discussing the details of an exchange in advance. Key pals Key pals are similar to pen pals except communication takes place via e-mail. Students enjoy being able to get replies to the letters quickly and the opportunity to use computers in class can be motivating in the short term. However, e-mail can be less personal than traditional letters.
			Class projects The rationale for doing class projects is based on ideas of experiential learning. Students learn through the process of producing something with their peers rather than just listening to their teacher. The projects on these pages all have an end product, whether it is a poster, web page or a multimedia presentation. We have made a rough division between exchange projects and collaborative projects. Exchange projects In an exchange project, responsibility for completing a piece of work lies mainly with the home school. Students in the partner school act as an audience for the work that is produced. The knowledge that written work will be seen by students in another country adds an extra dimension to classroom activities and can be very motivating for students. Collaborative projects Students in both the home school and the partner school work together to produce the same final product in a collaborative project. Collaborative projects are generally more demanding on a teacher's time and require a greater amount of coordination. Communication is integral to the successful completion of the project. For example, in 'Comic book stories' students must go through a process of negotiation over the plot of the story they are producing together. The Mini-Projects and Class Questionnaire are examples of such projects.
			Computer mediated communication l groups Schools with access to the Internet are able to communicate with each other in a number of different ways. In addition to e-mails sent individually, teachers might consider setting up a group mailing list. For example, Yahoo offers a free service where members of the group can send messages to everybody else in the group. Bulletin boards You could also try to set up your own bulletin board system (BBS). These allow individuals to publish messages on a web site. The messages can then be searched and read by other users. Issues that you will probably have to consider is who has access to the bulletin board and whether or not it should be moderated by a teacher. Voice messages If you get fed up with typing you can always send a recorded voice message. This is fairly easy provided you have the right recording equipment. Find out about free voice mail services. Simultaneous written communication The time difference between the UK and Australia is 9 hours in Australia's winter and 11 hours in Australia's summer.. So if students in Australia stay at school a little later they can exchange text-based messages with their partners in the UK who have just turned up for school. Yahooligans offer various messenger services. Video conferencing Successful use of video conferencing technology also requires careful coordination between teachers over timing and equipment to be used. As with the other modes of communication mentioned in this section, whether students get any real benefit from using the technology depends very much on the tasks they are set by their teacher. BECTA - An information sheet on video conferencing for schools. Teachers Online - How video conferencing can be integrated into the curriculum. Global Leap - International directory of schools interested in video conferencing.