Ralph Cafolla

Integrating standards-based education in a telecommunications project: a case study

SUMMARY This case study describes a project that used computer-mediated communication (CMC) to facilitate the new types of learning made possible by modern technology. This paper reports the results of a project designed to use modern telecommunications technology to establish an e-pal or keypal project between second-grade students in south Florida, an English-as-a-second-language class in Finland, and a class of second graders learning English in Slovenia. Rather than just providing a media for cultural exchange, this project integrated specific curriculum standards in geography and language arts. Because the goal of education for students K-12 is to develop content-based knowledge and to incorporate higher level thinking skills to interpret, analyze, and synthesize the data, technology-based projects allow for this development through a constructivist approach to learning.