Web Conferencing Finds Elementary School Niche

'Chat Challenge' Brings Teachers and Students On Camera, In Focus

By Ian Quillen
As Cherrie MacInnes' 3rd graders have endeavored to have a Web conference with a class from each of the 50 states, they've unearthed surprises at each stop.

When the students at Washington Street School peered at the computer screen, they learned that while it was afternoon for them in Brewer, Maine, it was still morning in Anchorage, Alaska. They discovered that students in Paterson, N.J., boasted an accent very different from the well-known Maine dialect. And when they did a Web conference with Joan B. Bender's class at Pleasant Hill Elementary School in Kissimmee, Fla., they learned that the nation's southeastern-most state was discovered by Ponce de León.

But as her students research information, compile questions about each state, and follow up with supplemental writing, Ms. MacInnes is surprised not by what they are learning, but by how many teachers are willing to participate in the still-novel frontier of video-based Web conferencing.

"Not one [teacher in the challenge] has ever done this before," said Ms. MacInnes, who introduced the "Web Chat Challenge" to thousands of teachers, principals, and school districts via a three-paragraph e-mail, beginning in February. "Maybe my letter made it sound doable. It didn't sound overwhelming, because it was starting out as a one-time experiment."

Because most of the focus on integrating Web technology into the classroom remains at the secondary school level, teachers say, projects such as this one are relatively uncommon. But with the advent of programs like Gmail and Skype, the increased prevalence of webcams and laptops in schools, and the freedom to teach multiple subjects at once, elementary school may be the ideal place to use Web conferencing in a way that has an impact, experts say.

"One of the reasons it's hard for some [middle and high school] teachers to integrate technology is because they're teaching a compartmentalized discipline," said Terry Smith, who has done Web-conferencing projects for nearly a decade as a 4th grade teacher at Eugene Field Elementary School in Hannibal, Mo. "This is project-based learning. We connect up in math and social studies, and even foreign languages."

Click here to read this article in its entirety.