By:Anne Marie Allocca
Risa Miller, District 24's technology coordinator, was kept busy last year arranging video conferencing for numerous classes at the schools.
Thanks to Brooklyn Avenue's PTA, all of the classes were treated to a videoconference. This year, Buck will utilize a portable videoconference unit, which will enable students to hold conferences in their classrooms instead of the library.
"Video conferencing is similar to making a telephone call, except instead of just being able to hear each other you can also see each other," Miller said. "We use a television monitor as a screen so it's big enough for everyone to participate at once. The wonderful part for students is that they actually get to interact with people at those different institutions."
Video conferences take place with the Museum of Television and Radio branch
in California, the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, the Ocean Institute in California and the Albany Institute of History and Art in Albany, New York, to name a few. "The kids just think it's the greatest thing that they're able to talk to somebody in California and see them at the same time and the person can see them as well. We don't like to book more than one class in a videoconference because it cuts down on the students' interaction time. They participate as if they're at the museum asking questions, having conversations and doing activities with whomever is at the institution," Miller said.
The topics for the conferences are chosen based on the curriculum in the classroom. The kindergarten classes were studying the human body so they spoke with the Liberty Science Center. The program was called "Jessica's X-ray," a story about someone who broke a bone.
Brooklyn Avenue's sixth-grade class held a conference with the Holocaust Memorial Education Center. The students were able to talk to Holocaust survivors, who shared their personal stories and explained how bullying can lead to stereotypes.
Buck's fifth-grade class learned how television impacted the Civil Rights Movement and how publicity helped it grow. After the conference, the students are asked to do an accordion poem where each student can only view one line before they fold the paper to add their own
thought.
Miller shared some lines of a poem written by one of the classes:
We are all the same on the inside.
Black and white people are the same.
We all should have the same rights.
It doesn't matter what our skin color is.
We should all be treated equally.
Miller is in charge of setting up the conferences. She meets with teachers beforehand.
"I try and talk to the teachers about what's going on in their curriculum, which area they would like enrichment for," Miller said. "Some of them want science, some want social studies. Then I can focus on what's available for their specialty and the area they would like to enrich." Most conferences last an hour and the price ranges from $90 to $200 for each program.
"They are expensive, but it is like taking a field trip without every leaving the school," Miller said
Most importantly the students enjoy the one on one with the institutions.
"A lot of them say they want the equipment at home," Miller said. "They ask 'How much does it cost to get it at home? Could my dad sign up for it?' Sometimes the students are going on a trip to California and want to visit the place they saw. I think it's a wonderful program and a great experience."
