PenPal News to Connect Students Between Blue and Red States

I received an e-mail from the founder of PenPal News.  Their new group sets up your students with penpals from an opposite color state (i.e., blue with red) who will watch a one minute video (top one) introducing the theme (see an example of health care above) and then read, watch or listen to a news story about a specific topic in the theme (we curate and provide the stories). The student will then answer prompts about the stories and send what they've written to their penpal in the other class. They'll then comment on their penpal's work and hopefully engage in an interesting and enlightening dialogue.   The bottom video details how the site works. Did I say that the service is free!