#IDEALSPEAK

In the Round Square collaborative project we have been developing the #IDEALSPEAK program. This programs objectives are to connect a greater number of the student body to the Round Square Program. Often only a select number of students could get involved with trips so we proposed using the concept of pen-pals and modern technology to pair students up with other students around the world. In the pilot program we paired up with two schools, one in France and the other in California.

In the program students are paired up based on age and sex. Every two weeks we would give students a discussion topic and they needed to demonstrate evidence of their discussion on the #IDEALSPEAK bog. This was successful to a degree that some students participated. However, it would need to be more embedded in the program before we can see valuable tangible results. This we have discussed to make it a compulsory element or add it as some sort of class work but as yet we have not decided. In the survey feedback participants want to keep the program voluntary, although, as the participants are volunteers they were expected to state this. We intent to test the program on a whole class to truly gauge use of the student body before a possible whole school program.

One promising aspect of the program was student participation. Students often communicated with their partner once a week and chose a variety of different mediums to conduct their conversations. I would also often have students tell me about how they really liked their partner. The objective of this for the future is to either prepare students for trips or to get exchanges excited to come to Markham.

Finally our future plans. We are now connecting with at least 5 new schools, mainly in the Western Hemisphere but also one school in Bangkok. We still have the desire to expand the program to the whole school but would like to test the program on an English Language class. We are also in contact with Round Square and have been forwarding on our findings.

Below are the students feedback so far on the program: