Students as Global Communicators

Student as Global Communicators : 

www.empatico.org

Teaching children to become aware of their surrounding cities, states, and countries is important.  Teaching young children to learn, respect, and celebrate the differences in all people is also important.  With that being said I feel like Empatico is a wonderful way for global communication.  This is where the children can interact with other children around the world and see how people differ from themselves.

Empatico is a free tool that can connect classrooms around the world.  All you need is internet connection and a computer, a tablet, or a smart phone that has a camera to create global communication.  Although this is geared toward ages 6-11, I still feel as though it is something that I could use to teach my preschool students about children around the world.  The best part about this website is that it will always be free to educators everywhere.

I found this website to be very easy to navigate through.   It is very straight forward and it is extremely helpful in making sure we get the best experience out of each interaction.  It gives lesson plans and activities on many different topics of interst.

What I also loved about this website was that it gave tips on how to be a respectful communicator.  Teaching the students how to be an active listener and to communicate respectfully will help make the experience more meaningful.  

One problem that may occur with this app is that if internet connection gets lost you will not be able to communicate.  

Check out their own blog by clicking this link:  https://blog.empatico.org