e-Collaboration in teacher education

Through collegial staff links between Alaska Pacific University in Alaska USA and Charles Sturt University in New South Wales Australia, the opportunity for pre-service teachers at each institution to engage and work collaboratively with each other arose.A voluntary program of collaboration was designed in which students were paired across each institution. Seventeen students participated and formed eight teams. The teams were instructed to maintain regular email contact over a four-week period of time, beginning with an exchange of information about their personal backgrounds and college activities. As a culminating exercise, teams were required to collaboratively plan a learning activity that each member could use in a classroom in either Alaska or New South Wales. Feedback on the program was provided by14 students.In this presentation, student feedback on the e-collaboration program's outcomes and benefits for each student as well as examples of collaboratively planned learning activities will be shared. Lessons learned and implications for continuing e-collaborative efforts at several educational levels will be discussed. 'Pen pals' have been replaced by 'e-pals'.