An internet pen-pal platform, GloPals, will provide an innovative way of connecting 400 students (total) in rural regions of the country of Georgia with their peers in the US state of Georgia.
Georgia is one of many isolated corners of the world, cut off by geography, politics, and economics. The 2008 war between Georgia and Russia drew attention to the incredible ethnic and linguistic variation which is prevalent in the region, underscoring the human divisions among these lines and the need for increased opportunities for contact in a wider scope. For a kid growing up in a place like this, the world is small, often going little beyond the village or the region.
GloPal will help 400 Georgian kids (ages 7-12) learn about and share different cultural experiences, and practice a foreign language. The platform will create the opportunity for kids to make friends and talk without lingual barriers.
Following the initial release of GloPals, growth is nearly free - free for any child or class to join and use and a pittance to maintain and add new languages. Thus, OMC-J plans to make the platform global in approximately a year within its launch.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
