References

Annotated Resources Beecher, M., & Sweeny, S. (2008). Closing the achievement gap with curriculum enrichment and differentiation: One school’s story. //Journal of Advanced Academics, 19//(3), 502-530.

This research article details one school’s quest to close the achievement gap between Caucasian students and low income students of color. The achievement gap drastically diminished in math, reading, and writing in this elementary school when they began using an enriched curriculum and differentiation with all students. In addition, achievement gains occurred across student groups and attitudes about school improved as well. This article is relevant to what we are doing with the ePals project because as teachers of students of color, it is important that we make sure that we are using enriching activities that are cross-curricular, as well as highly engaging for the students. We are using an enrichment approach with this project, providing our students with content that is challenging but not frustrating. We are differentiating all of our instruction within this unit so that students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning and knowledge.

Brady, K., Holcomb, L. and Smith, B. (2010, Summer). The use of alternative social networking sites in higher educational settings: A case study of the e-learning benefits of ning in education. Journal of Interactive Online Learning. 9(2)

While this study was performed using graduate students, many of the research’s findings and recommendations can be applied to K-12 grade levels. The research study was designed to identify and examine students’ perceptions regarding the benefits of social networking technologies. For this study, they used Ning in Education network. The study included fifty graduate students and used Likert-scale questions that addressed communication, collaboration, reflection, comprehension, convenience and comfort. The study found that students identified participating in a collaborative learning environment helped increase collaboration and enabled them to “connect with others who have different experiences.” As stated in the study, “A majority of participants in this study highlighted the educational advantages of SNSs (social networking sites), from increased levels of communication and collaboration to deeper levels of reflection.” SNSs provide engaging and innovative alternatives to the traditional classroom setting. As concluded in this article it is important to continue to examine how distance education and SNSs can be used to enhance student learning. This article helped support our desire to use a social networking site as part of our project. While we are using a different social networking site (ePals), than what was included in the study (Ning), much of the information was applicable to our project. It was good to hear positive feedback from adult learners included in the study, while also hearing their concerns. One of the concerns was the delay in response from people they were collaborating with. This could be something my group discusses with our students to be aware of and patient with, so they don’t feel let down when they don’t instantly get a response from their ePals friends. Overall, this study helped validate our desire to include ePals as part of our capstone project.

Demski, J. (2008, November). E-palling around. As retrieved from [|http://thejournal.com/articles/][|[[http://thejournal.com/articles/2008/11/01/epalling-around.aspx|2008/11/01/epalling-around.aspx]]]

E-Palling around discusses the benefits of using ePals in the classroom. This article focuses on the SchoolMail component of ePals which is something we plan on using as part of our project. Through SchoolMail students can email teachers, and students across 200 countries and territories. It complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the Children's Internet Protection Act, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act standards and is tailored to student use. This article discusses the uniqueness of the control SchoolMail and ePals puts in the hands of the educators, while still providing a tool to connect lessons across countries. This article helped tune me into the importance of the SchoolMail feature of ePals. While I knew ePals was known for connecting students from around the world to each other, I didn’t realize how beneficial the SchoolMail feature could be for teachers in monitoring students’ discussions and other privacy features. Due to this article, I now know the importance of this feature to ensure my team and I set our ePals SchoolMail to best suite our different grade levels. For the younger students, more safeguards can be included, while for the older students that need access to more attachments or applications, these safeguards can be removed. This is useful information in ensuring that SchoolMail is set to meet the needs of each individual grade level of our collaborative team.

Devaney, Laura. (2010) eSN: Special report: Empowering the iGeneration. Retrieved from []

This general article reflects upon how technology is empowering today’s learners in ways never imagined by educators in the past. It discusses how the internet and digital age have made information and resources readily accessible to anyone who has an internet connection. This article focuses on the ways that educators can harness this wealth of resources and direct students towards activities that help them become members of the global community and independent thinkers while still meeting the standards put forth by the states. The article lists several platforms that help make this happen, from ePals to Global School Net. This article is relevant to our project because it not only shows how the ePals site is effective in teaching students about the global community, but it also shows other sites that can be used to teach students about becoming members of the global community. I found the others sites listed within this article to be great sources of information about how to teach my students other Social Studies standards. I will be looking more closely at the SeedPlay site next year before I start teaching my students our economic understandings standards, as I think this site could be very useful in helping my students understand the differences in goods and services and the idea of providing a good or service in exchange for money.

Glod, Maria. (2009, June 24). Students without borders. //Washington Post.// Retrieved from []

This article details how students across the country are able to comingle with other students in different countries, creating classroom connections with other students across the country and across the globe. It details how third grade students were able to meet with students in Guatemala, which led to discussions on geography and climate. This article discusses the benefits of having classrooms that globally collaborate with others in order to expand upon knowledge and experiences. Students from all over the world are able to interact with one another through social media and various other platforms, which allow them to see beyond cultural stereotypes and to recognize that they are very similar to students from across the globe. I found this article to be relevant to what we are doing with our ePals project, because it talked about the benefits of having students globally collaborate. It also gave me ideas as to how I could expand this project to include more of the global community and meet more standards from the curriculum. One idea that I gained from this article is to create short videos to present to other students in different locations to showcase some of the differences in our environment. It also showed how students of varying ages could benefit from being members of the global community, so it is relevant to my colleagues who teach other grade levels. This article showcases the importance of teaching students to be citizens of not just a country but of the planet.

Hou, H., & Wu, S. (2011). Analyzing the social knowledge construction behavioral patterns of an online synchronous collaborative discussion instructional activity using an instant messaging tool: A case study. //Computers &// //Education//, 57(2), 1459-1468. Retrieved from []

This research study was designed to investigate how elementary students participate differently in online collaboration. The study analyzed the discussions with their partners during the synchronous online collaboration. The study involved two hundred ninety one Taiwanese students, ages 11-12, however the final analysis was compiled based on the data from two hundred seventy eight students. They were placed into two-to-three partner groups randomly and were given the task to create a concept map. The contributions of each student during collaboration was tracked and collected. The data was then divided into clusters to determine how students communicated. They described student’s communicative styles as: "less contributing," "coordination emphasizing," "communicative" or "task-oriented." These descriptions accurately describe how many elementary students communicate during collaborative assignments.

This case study is very relevant to the work that we are doing with the ePals project, because identifying student’s communication styles will help group children accordingly. A teacher would not want to place three “less contributing” students in a collaborative work group because the likelihood of failure would be high, at the same time teachers may want to try this in order to see if students will step up when given the opportunity to shine. As I read this case study I was able to think about my students and identify many of their communication styles, and it is helping me think of how I will group them for this project.

Kear, K. (2010). Online and social networking communities: A best practice guide for educators (Open and Flexible Learning Series). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

As stated in the book, “Many educators and researchers have reported on the benefits of online communication for learning. Online communication offers increased opportunities for dialogue and collaborative activities, and overcomes limitations due to distance and time” (Kear, 2010). In the chapter, Collaborative Learning Online, Kear discussed what educators need to do to ensure their online learning communities are effective. One suggestion was that educators need to closely monitor discussions to ensure the quality of them remains high. Another suggestion was to share videos, pictures, etc. to maintain a feeling of social presence, because it is essential for the students to feel connected with each other and perceive each other as real people. Kear’s information was vital in ensuring teachers effectively create and maintain their online learning communities.

This informational resource helped validate our decision to use the ePals social networking community. As stated in the chapter, it overcomes distance and time limits and increases student motivation. This chapter helps us make sure we set up our ePals collaboration effectively, and the suggestions stated in the book are imperative for us to keep in the forefront of our minds. This will help ensure that we set up and deliver our ePals project most effectively. One example of this was the suggestion to share videos, pictures, etc. which we were planning on doing as part of our Social Studies ePals project. Through the students sharing pictures and videos of living and nonliving things in their environment will help maintain social presence for the students.

Kennedy, D. & Duffy, T. (2004). Collaboration – a key principle in distance education. //Open// //Learning,19//(2), 203–211.

While researching collaborative learning projects through online communities, I discovered David Kennedy and Tim Duffy’s 2004 research article “Collaboration-- a key principle in distance education” and thought it to be intriguing. Kennedy and Duffy (2004) explain how the University of Paisley has been using distance education to educate nursing students, so they can receive higher degrees in Health Studies. Since the program originated in England and the participants are globally located in 16 different countries, distance education is the most efficient means for students to obtain a higher degree. This program creates a collaborative learning community where students can use a virtual classroom to access their materials and communicate with others. According to the article, “the essential ingredient for successful distance education is not the technology: it is collaboration between key participants using that technology” (Kennedy & Duffy, 2004, p. 203). Kennedy and Duffy (2004) identify the key participants as anyone that has “…a stake in making this educational process work effectively” such as “…administrative staff, teaching staff, technical support staff, librarians, and students” (Kennedy & Duffy, 2004, p. 204). According to the program, distance learning collaboration begins in the planning stages of the course with the administration, instructional designers, and the teachers, but it also continues throughout the student induction process, class participation, and evaluation process (Kennedy & Duffy, 2004, p. 206).

This article is relevant to our project and school setting because it exonerates the need for collaboration between instructors. When I first started this program, I initially assumed the only relevant collaboration was between students. However, this article identifies the need for the collaboration between administrators, teachers, and instructional designers ensure that the learning needs, instructional materials, and evaluation methods are accurately developed. Secondly, this article confirms the need for students to collaborate with each other. It justifies that participants can grow from the materials discussed collaboratively in a discussion panel or blog.

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., and Jones, K. (2007).United states department of education-evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. As retrieved from [|http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-[[http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-|based-practices/finalreport.pdf]]]

This research article included nine studies completed at the K-12 level in two-eighth grade social studies classes. The meta-analysis of 50 study effects found that students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction. As stated in the study, “Learning outcomes for students engaged in online learning exceeded those of students receiving face-to-face instruction.” The article also stated that instruction combing online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction. In conclusion, this article helped validate our idea to use ePals (online learning) combined with kinesthetic classroom learning activities.

This article helped again, validate our use of ePals along with face-to-face instruction, as an effective teaching strategy for our unit. As I learned in the article, the learner builds knowledge through inquiry-based collaborative interaction with other learners and the teachers have the role as co-learners and facilitators. This article helped impact our role as teachers in the ePals environment because while we understand our role as facilitators, the role as a co-learner, might be new to us. Learning the importance to co-learn, ask questions, and dialogue with our students online is a new way to foster learning, independence, and a more personal teacher-student relationship with our students.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.

In this book, Palloff and Pratt discusses various aspects of collaborating online. It develops the relationship between community and collaboration. From chapter 2, this book describes the process of online collaboration through the responsibility of the instructor. Palloff and Pratt first explain the stages of collaboration and the need for instructors to “…empower students to take charge of the learning process” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). They explain how the instructor is the facilitator of the collaborative activity. Secondly, it is important that the instructor set the stage for learning, which involves helping students understand the importance of the collaboration and setting clear guidelines. Next, they describe how instructor can create an effective learning environment. Instructors must model collaborative behavior in order for students to know how to collaborate effectively. “The instructor cannot simply set up a collaborative activity and walk away from it” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). Respectively, instructors must guide the process once collaboration has begun. According to Palloff and Pratt, instructors need to let their students know in advance how they intend to be involved with the collaborative process. By doing so, it improves the students’ confidence levels to move forward with the project. Lastly, it is important for instructor to provide students with the opportunity to reflect on their own learning as part of the evaluation process.

This chapter is relevant to our project and school setting because it explains how we should set the stage, model the process, guide the process, and evaluate the process in an effective collaborative learning environment. For our capstone project, our students will collaborate with each other to collect information to present to our community members. If we, as facilitators of knowledge, can create a learning environment that has the previous aspects in it, then we can minimize the amount of resistance going into our activity.

Revolution Ventures. //Smithsonian Institution and ePals to deliver rich educational content with enterprise// //grade social// //learning platform//. July 27, 2011. Retrieved from [] [|release/smithsonian-institution-and-epals-deliver-rich-educational-content-enterprise-grade].

This article details the new partnership between the Smithsonian Institution and ePals, which will bring Smithsonian resources and expertise in science, history, art, and culture to the ePals social platform. This partnership will provide a place for educators, parents, and students to collaborate with the resources from the world’s largest museum and research complex. Students will be able to collaborate on projects anytime and anywhere and they are protected through a cloud-based platform. The content is delivered in a safe way that is designed specifically for K-12 use, so students are able to easily navigate the various resources.

This article is relevant to the project that we are currently working on because we are going to be using the ePals platform and with the new partnership between ePals and Smithsonian we will now have access to the wealth of resources the Smithsonian has to offer. The ePals site allows students to create, store, and manage files on the site as well as socially collaborate with other students on projects in different areas. This will be very useful in our projects in that we are planning on having students collaborate who are in different regions of the state of Georgia.

Rivero, V. (2010). Tools for learning. //MultiMedia & Internet@Schools//, 17(3), 24-27. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

This article questions, “How much protecting is too much? And, going further, if our students are completely isolated from the benefits of the information age, how will they ever learn?” (Rivero, 2010). As students gather research information, share documents, and collaborate with others online, they need a means to do so safely. In this article, Rivero presents various solutions and means in which schools can ensure the safety of their students. First, Rivero (2010) identifies Lightspeed Systems as a network solution for schools because it has a full range of network security and management features. Secondly, he presents ePals as a “…place for students and teachers to create, share, manage, and collaborate on educational content in a purposeful, project-based, and controlled learning environment” (Rivero, 2010). Next, he identifies PublicSchoolWORKS as a tool that can help teachers with professional development needs and has a means of recording of student referrals and incident documentation (Rivero, 2010). Rivero next identifies netTrekker as more than just a search engine for educational purposes. He explains that the content not only comes up is safe, educational, and classroom-relevant, but it also can read the material aloud for students with special needs (Rivero, 2010). Lastly, Rivero denotes several Internet resources where teachers and student can gather learning resources, activities, games, and gather information safely.

This article is relevant to our project and school setting because it supports our use of ePals a safe web-based learning environment. Rivero suggests, ePals’ LearningSpace “…provides teachers, media specialists, and administrators with visibility and control over how their blogs, wikis, digital lockers, and forums are used” (2010). As a teacher, we are responsible for keeping our students safe while using online resources or participating in online environments; therefore, this article helps support our use of ePals as a learning platform. In addition, this article also provided me with a new tool to help my students with special needs called netTrekker. This educationally based search engine has a read-aloud function, and if my students become stumped on a certain word, it has a definitions and translations tool that can help them be successful.

Schaffhauser, D. (2009). Boundless opportunity. //T.H.E. Journal//, 36(9), 13-18. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

This article is about the “boundless opportunities” that online technologies provide classrooms today. Schaffhauser explains how teachers and their classrooms from all over the world can collaborate through web-based platforms such as ePals, iEARN, and ISSN. He describes how various classrooms have worked together to promote learning and understanding of common principles by using these online tools. Schaffhauser descrive ePals as a safe and secure environment which allows teachers and students to communicate with each other through e-mail, blogging, and a “…function called Classroom Match that allows teachers to post or participate in activities with other classes” (Schaffhauser, 2009).Baugher, a Spanish teacher in the U.S., explains, “…the technology resources allow me to bring the world into the classroom, even if it's just looking at e-mails or pictures from other students” (Schaffhauser, 2009). Goldstein, an English teacher in Israel, supports ePals also. She declares that ePals provides her students with authentic learning opportunities because it “…enhances their English proficiencies, but most of all contributes to their motivation to study English"(Schaffhauser, 2009). The article ultimately presents various resources that can help teachers connect their students with other classrooms, and it provides tips on how effective collaborative learning can take place.

This article is relevant to our project and school setting because it supports our decision to use ePals as our web-based environment. Since ePals is a safe and secure environment, it is an ideal place for our students to collaborate through without having to worry about unnecessary outside interference. Part of our project requires us to share writings and pictures and ePals is an ideal tool that will allow our students to collaborate effectively. In addition, ePals will allow for authentic learning for our students. By collaborating with different parts of Georgia, our students will have the opportunity to take a fieldtrip without really leaving the building. This is particularly important with our current economic recession.

Schaffhauser, D. (2009, October). Boundless opportunity. 36 (9), 13-18.

This article is another validation of how ePals can be used cross-curriculum and can enhance many AKS simultaneously. It shares how students can create their own blogs on the site, while also communicating via Skype to actually “see” their ePal. Since there are so many way to communicate and share ideas with their ePals from other countries, or states, it helps enhance their English proficiencies while also contributing to their motivation to study English. By students reading emails from the other students, it will force them to think critically and read carefully about what their ePal is reading, while also keeping in mind good grammar skills when they’re emailing the ePal back. As stated in the title, there are “Boundless Opportunities” of things teachers can achieve with ePals.

This material helped remind me that our Social Studies unit can reach beyond the Social Studies realm through ePals. Through communicating via the SchoolMail feature, our lesson can also turn into a Language Arts lesson, easily adaptable for each grade level we teach. For the younger students we could focus on sentence completion and setting up the format of an email, while the older students could learn more advance letter writing techniques. It would also help our nonnative English speakers become more proficient in English. Lastly, it hadn’t even occurred to me to having my 4th graders create a blog, but this article pointed out the relevance of blogging for students. This impacted my outlook for this project, because now I see the importance of having my students blog about nonliving/living things in our community. They could blog after seeing something in their yard or neighborhood, and then connect their learning at school, to learning at home.

Scherling, S. E. (2011). Designing and fostering effective online group projects. //Adult// //Learning//, 22(2),13- 18. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

This article supports the creation and implementation of learners participating in collaborative learning groups. The author first identifies the benefits of collaborative groups by explaining how they incorporate real-world skills. By participating in collaborative groups, students develop the critical thinking, problem solving, and interpersonal skills that business and companies need in their work place (Scherling, 2011). However, even though the author promote collaborative groups, she also warns instructors against ignoring “…the challenges and barriers to effective collaborative work”(Scherling, 2011). Scherling identifies problems such as uneven amount of individual participation and difficulty scheduling time to work together as two of the problems that might arise if not dealt with appropriately. In order to design and foster effective online group projects, instructors first identify the students’ needs and adapt instructional methods to promote meaningful learning experiences. When creating the collaborative project instructors must address real world problems, develop a means of monitoring the group’s progress, and allow student to reflect on their contribution amount as well as their partners (Scherling, 2011).

This article is relevant to our project and school setting because it supports our decision to use a collaborative online learning environment to complete our social studies and language arts curriculum standards. This article supports the need for us, as instructors, to identify our students’ needs and utilize appropriate instructional methods to foster a collaborative learning environment. In addition, we need to make sure our capstone project has real-world learning objectives. To minimize negative collaboration issues, we must monitor our groups’ progress throughout the collaborative effort, and we need to allow students to reflect on their learning experiences and contributions as well as their partners.

Serim, F., Zolt, N., Teale, W., McVerry, J. and O’Byrne, W. (n.d.). Reaching the national educational technology standards (NETS) with ePals. As retrieved from [|http://images.epals.com/nets_] [|whitepaper.pdf]

As educational technologists, we understand the importance of reaching National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) with our students. This article shares examples of how educators can meet NETS by using ePals. ePals meets standard 1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity by helping teachers provide children with rich project-based learning experiences that foster the students learning and creativity. ePals also meets standard 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments by providing a place where teachers can go see online creative student learning and assessing are already taking place, and then facilitate their own creative learning projects for their students. This article helps teachers understand how to use ePals not only to make learning more interactive and engaging, but to also meet National Educational Technology Standards.

This article had quite a bit of relevant material for our ePals project. First, it had various ways for us to use ePals to reach our NETS in our classrooms. While our Social Studies project is not on the same topic, we can use many of the examples and suggestions that other projects used for ours. The projects are aligned with state and national content standards, which helps ensure they will meet our AKS and also the NETS. This article impacted our Social Studies ePals unit on living/nonliving things by introducing me to the ePals’ Map project which can help enhance our unit by also using emerging technologies including Geographical Information Systems (GIS), GoogleEarth, and other innovative technology tools. In conclusion, this article provided valuable insight on how we can utilize ePals for our project to help make learning more meaningful and also meet National Educational Technology Standards.

Simpson, A. (2010). Integrating technology with literacy: Using teacher-guided collaborative online learning to encourage critical thinking. //ALT-J: Research in Learning// //Technology//, 18(2), 119- 131. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

This research article discussed the significance of information and communication technology on student learning in a medium-sized primary school located in Sydney, Australia. Students at Inner West Public participated in a collaborative online learning community that promoted technology and literacy. According to Simpson (2010), the study wanted to answer the following question: How does online collaborative learning support critical thinking? To determine the outcome, forty students were arranged into six leveled reading groups, and they participated in the book raps program to determine the changes and growth in their literacy knowledge. The book raps program promoted critical thinking and provided interactive learning opportunities to encourage the love of children’s literature. As students studied literary texts, they shared information “…through moderated and teacher-guided online sharing of responses” (Simpson, 2010). According to the article, both teachers and students used “scaffolded work sheets” (Simpson, 2010) to focus their discussions and activities. Afterward, students shared their responses with face-to-face peers and decided on a shared or individual message to send to the moderator. The moderated responses were then posted on a discussion board for the entire community to read. As the research process began, benchmarks tests were administered. To determine if growth had occurred, data was collected and analyzed against the previous benchmark settings. “The findings show that the book rap successfully created a network that delivered stimulus material to which teachers and students formed various responses both online and offline” (Simpson, 2010). However, it also showed that since this was the first time that the teachers had participated in this type of collaborative online activity, they could have relinquished more technology control over to their students.

This article is relevant to our project and school setting because it supports our use of a collaborative online learning community. This study showed that by participating in a web-based learning community, the teachers helped their students develop critical thinking skills. For our capstone project, we plan to use ePals as our collaborative online learning community. Even though, we are not completing the book raps project, it is possible to use the learning environment to promote higher-level social studies and language skills as students communicate through the ePals platform.

So, H. J. (2009). When groups decide to use asynchronous online discussions: Collaborative learning and social presence under a voluntary participation structure. Retrieve from [] on October 12, 2011.

This research study was used to explore “…two main questions (1) how do groups decide to use computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools in the first place? and (2) once a group decision is made, how do group members participate in asynchronous discussion forums to complete collaborative learning tasks?”(So, 2009). To gather data, fifty-five graduate students participated in an online collaborative project where they were allowed to use various CMCs. Although students were provided with these tools, the discussion forums were entirely on a voluntary participation structure. Within this course, students were not required to participate nor were incentives provided to encourage participation in any discussion forums. So (2009) explained that the data gathered to analyze the outcomes consisted of student interviews and content analysis of the students’ voluntary online discussion forums. According to So’s (2009) results, students’ usage of discussion forum and CMC tools depended on successful and unsuccessful previous experiences with them. Students that had negative results turned to face-to-face meetings; however, students that had positive results with discussion forums and CMC tools tended to stay with the norm. However, the analysis of two groups that used the CMC tools and discussion forums had a positive result. They revealed that “…when groups decided to use online discussion forums, participation levels were almost equal among individual group members, and discussion threads were sustained until the final completion of the collaborative project” (So, 2009).

This article is relevant to our project and school setting because it supports the use of computer-mediated communication tools like those in ePal for our capstone project. Since our groups cannot participate in a face-to-face environment due distance, we need other means to communicate. As a project coordinator, we need be able to exchange information by using discussion forums, email, an Interactive White Board (SmartBoard or Mimio), digital cameras, and possibly iPads. If we apply these CMC tools, our students should be more willing to participate and collaborate to complete the capstone project.

Smith, Grace E. Chapter 6: Using technology to differentiate by process. (2007). //Differentiating// //Instruction with Technology in K-5 Classrooms// (pp. 111-145). International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved from EBSCO//host.//

The chapter of this text seeks to teach teachers in the method of differentiating by process, the bridge between content and product. It describes the steps to differentiating by process, providing simple real-world examples of how teachers can differentiate content by process. It helps teachers to understand helping learners learn by their preferences, whether it is by their learning profile, interest, or readiness. This chapter also details a variety of grouping strategies by which teachers can effectively group students to maximize output. It also emphasizes the importance of using flexible grouping strategies when differentiating by process so that students are allowed the opportunity to extend their learning beyond just academics, they begin practicing skills that they will use later in life in the workforce. This chapter was a very informative and it is significant to the work we are doing with the ePals project. It provided sample lessons that could be modified to serve our purposes during this project. The full textbook also has sample lessons that can be used with this project and in our everyday classrooms.

Sweat-Guy, R., Wishart, C. (2008). A longitudinal analysis of the effects of instructional strategies on student performance in traditional and e-learning formats//.// //Issues in Informing Science// //Information Technology//. Vol. 5, p149-163. This study explores student-centered and learner-centered as an instructional strategy. This study utilizes a causal-comparative design to examine the effects of instructional strategies on student performance in two upper-level core business courses developed in both traditional and e-learning formats. The study spanned 3 years, beginning in the fall 2004 concluding in the spring of 2007 Participants included 293 declared business majors. The analysis of the data revealed non-significant differences in student performance based on delivery method and course. However, the study showed a greater impact on student performance based on instructional strategies. This study was beneficial in my research on quality of instruction, because it also concluded that the format did not have a significant impact on student achievement, rather student achievement is affected by the instructional strategies utilized in the course. Although this study focused on students outside of the age range of the learners that will be interacting with this elearning project, the study is significant to the work I plan on doing. It is important because when I present this plan to my principal and instructional coach for approval to teach this unit I need to be able to provide research that these types of lessons will be effective. This study shows that the determining factor is not in the delivery method, but in the strategies used in the delivery. For this project there are going to be a variety of research based instructional strategies used in order to meet the needs of all the learners in my classroom.