For students, field trips can be the best of both worlds: a welcome and exciting break from day-to-day classroom activities and a memorable, real-world experience that will solidify the curriculum in their minds. Unfortunately, the most desirable trips--those to far-away, enticing destinations--have long been inaccessible to all but a select few,…

Web conferencing tools help educators from around the world collaborate in real time. Teachers, school counselors, and administrators need only to put on their headsets, check the time zone, and log on to meet and learn from educators across the globe. In this article, the author discusses how educators can use Web conferencing at their schools.…

Explains procedures for students participating in an author chat using the Internet, based on experiences with children's author Mary Pope Osborne and a third grade class. Discusses equipment needs, how to formulate appropriate questions, and benefits of online chats, including the immediate response time. (LRW)

So far classroom use of the Internet has been limited to asynchronous communication, but virtual conferencing will allow real-time connections between teachers and classrooms separated by continents. This article describes virtual conferencing applications: Chat, audio- and videoconferencing, electronic white boards, application sharing, and file…

In this article, the author describes the importance of technology in distance learning for elementary education. Imagine having museums and expert teachers available at one's request. In their Rural Hall, North Carolina, elementary school, teachers and students just walk down the hall to the distance learning classroom and connect in a few…

High school students in the SAXophone (Students All over the world eXchanging over the phone) Project use videoconferencing to discuss local culture, science, literature, and environmental issues. A virtual field trip and other activities, planning, and future projects are described. (AEF)

Reviews four studies that capture the present and potential impact of videoconferencing and outlines what needs to be done before videoconferencing is commonly used in education. Discusses instructional effectiveness, cost, factors that affect its success, and videoconferencing compared to other forms of communications. (Author/LRW)