Distance Learning

This is not a wiki that I found on the site, but I am a big advocate of this particular emerging technology. It is so simple to use. I actually researched this as a project for my educational psycholoy class last spring semester and will try to unload that powerpoint for anyone interested. Distance learning is exactly that, learning over a distance. I had used it in my high school, but until I started to research I didn't realize the possibilities! The most basic distance learning is just having a webcam. A teacher can have one set up in his/her classroom and link with another teacher in a nother state or just in the next room. The children can sit in their desks and talk back and forth learning about each other without having to leave the comfort of the classroom. Most amazingly, one can link with doctor offices, nursing homes, zoos, and more to get information from professionals without them having to make a special trip to your school. Other non-classroom ideas are teaching new things. If the school gets a new program, they can webcam from the office and someone can teach how to use the program over the internet instead of traveling to the school to teach everyone. I love this idea and plan to use it in my own classroom.
I help out at a school that links up with a school in the Middle East and the students are paired up with a students from the other school, they are allowed to email each other once a week and talk about whatever they want. The teachers teach the same units and send each other pictures and the like. For the whole year the students in Indiana get to be friends and learn together with students from a completely different continent.
Sadly, I cannot find the powerpoint. If I do at a later date I will be sure to add the link.