September 2007 — Hardware
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
A vRoom With a View
North Carolina students are peering in as doctors perform surgery, thanks to a distance learning technology that provides unique project-based educational opportunities.
LIKE MOST MAGNET SCHOOLS across the country, Central Academy of Technology and Arts in Monroe, NC, offers its students hands-on learning experience in their future profession of choice, in whichever of the high school's six disciplines their interests lie: engineering, information systems, medical sciences, performing arts, teaching, or transportation systems. Students in the medical sciences academy, for example, meet with surgeons at North Carolina Medical Center to observe surgical procedures, discuss anatomy and physiology with doctors and other medical professionals, and play video games that teach surgery fundamentals. Students in the performing arts academy, meanwhile, are able to meet with cast members of Broadway shows to engage in dialogue and learn what it takes to make it onstage.
VIRTUAL HOUSE CALLS
Elluminate brings surgeons into
the classroom to explain anatomy
and physiology.
The difference at Central Academy is that the students never have to leave the classroom. Using the vRoom collaboration environment from Elluminate, students are connected virtually to their subjects.
"It's getting harder to get students away from the school," says Tom Moncrief, high school curriculum coordinator for Union County Public Schools, which includes Central Academy. These experiences allow the students and the [professionals] to connect and then get right back to their schedules."
Distance learning projects are nothing new to the K-12 education space, especially in rural areas where access to educational tools is less widespread. But these virtual field trips, as Moncrief calls them, go way beyond traditional distance learning. Rather, vRoom offers realtime, two-way communication that includes social networking tools such as instant messaging, application sharing, breakout rooms, interactive whiteboards, and a live webcam—ensuring meaningful communication and offering a project-based learning environment that engages all students in the subject.
Via the program, the medical sciences students are hooked up with the university surgeons, who show them videos of laparoscopic procedures. "They can talk about the anatomy and physiology parts of surgery, education, technologies used in the operating room—just about anything students would want to know," Moncrief says. "Plus, students can use the platform to log on to a surgeon's computer and play games that teach fundamentals of surgery. They really get a feel for the experience. We are working with three surgeons in different disciplines, and they discuss research, ethical issues—whatever is being taught at that time."
