[printer friendly (text) page]

e-Buddies
A new program that fosters online friendships and develops computer skills.
by Lauren Taintor

e-Buddies is an innovative, exciting new friendship program created by Best Buddies International, a non-profit organization that works to enhance the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships. e-Buddies pairs people with and without intellectual disabilities in e-mail friendships, helping people with intellectual disabilities cross the digital divide. Although these relationships are virtual, they are powerfully real by providing the means and motivation for persons with intellectual disabilities to learn how to use e-mail.

The program is a safe and fun way to make a new friend and learn how to use the computer. e-Buddies are matched based on similar age, gender and interests, and the participants commit to exchanging e-mails at least once a week for one year. e-Buddies never matches individuals that reside in the same state and conducts background checks on all applicants.

Most notably, e-Buddies has developed a program especially for use in special education classrooms. The e-Buddies Guide to Internet Literacy was created by a team of special education experts and was piloted last year in classrooms across the United States. The 2002-2003 school year marks the official unveiling of this exciting, free program. The guide is a comprehensive program that provides a series of lessons for teachers to facilitate e-mail friendships between students with intellectual disabilities and their non-disabled peers.

Any special education teacher can use the guide. To participate in the program, all you need is access once a week to computers with Internet capabilities, the ability to send and receive e-mail from school, consent for participation from parents/guardians and, most of all, the desire to make a new friend! According to an e-Buddies National Survey, 96% of e-Buddies participants with intellectual disabilities and 90% of volunteers had so much fun that they wanted to remain an e-Buddy after a year.

The e-Buddies Guide to Internet Literacy consists of a teacher’s manual with complete lesson plans, including topics for weekly discussions. In addition, there is a guidebook for student use during each lesson which includes guided questions to assist students in developing their ideas.

Participation in e-Buddies builds social skills, computer skills, reading comprehension and writing competence. These capabilities can easily be incorporated into students’ IEP goals. According to Ted Martch, a special education teacher in Oregon, “The e-Buddies program allows me to assess IEP goals and State Standards in Writing, Reading, and Spelling in a meaningful way. We never hear students complaining about communicating with new friends in different parts of the country.”

The benefits of using The e-Buddies Guide to Internet Literacy in the classroom are immeasurable. “e-Buddies has opened up a whole new world to our participants who cannot communicate verbally. With time, help and encouragement, they are learning a new way to relate to others” says Kim Lowman, a special education teacher in Massachusetts.

If you are interested in using The e-Buddies Guide to Internet Literacy with your class, please contact Lauren Taintor, e-Buddies Program Manager for Pennsylvania, at (412) 521-4228.

Please take a moment to visit the e-Buddies web site at: http://www.ebuddies.org/.