Many schools already involve children in pen pal exchange projects.
There are special motivational and learning benefits to children when they share serious local research projects. The medium for the exchange can be traditional correspondence, fax or the Internet. Whichever one is used, the emphasis of this unit is upon a sustained exchange of learning by groups of children. This is distinct from those kinds of Internet projects where children have brief or periodic communication about a wide range of ideas. This unit is also different from those kinds of programs where many classes of children are part of a global or regional network of children who are working on a common problem.