Team of Iroquois West educators receives videoconferencing Grand Challenge Award
by Kathleen Ricker

A team of educators from the Iroquois West Consolidated Unit District has earned the 2006 Grand Challenge Award for Classroom Videoconferencing. The award is given by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to honor innovative Illinois educators who demonstrate outstanding leadership and contributions toward enhancing education through technology using videoconferencing.

The project for which Iroquois West educators were honored uses videoconferencing equipment donated by the University of Illinois’ TRECC program (Technology Research, Education and Commercialization Center) to connect fourth-grade pupils at Upper Elementary School in Thawville with student mentors from the district’s High School in Gilman. During their videoconferencing sessions, the high school volunteers help special education pupils with reading skills by being read to, talking about the stories, and asking comprehension questions. The program included approximately 35 students from the two schools.

After participating in the mentoring sessions, the reading test scores of the mentored students rose according to Becky Morgan Upper Elementary.  And the program provided other benefits as well. Luke Lustfeltt, a junior at the high school, said he volunteered because he “likes helping younger kids.” Fourth-grader Selena Diaz said her experience was cool because “practice reading made me a better reader.”

“The Web cameras have allowed two groups of students who otherwise would never interact to establish a new bond that has helped them with their academics as well as learning about good citizenship,” said Upper Elementary Principal Mary Peters, who has spearheaded the videoconferencing program in the Iroquois district. “The Upper Elementary students have made new buddies with this program, and the high school students have learned the value of volunteering.”

The Iroquois West district includes schools in five communities, so geographic distance would be a barrier to a more traditional in-person mentoring program. The videoconferencing “saves the district the expense of travel and it saves on time wasted in travel for the high school students,” said Peters.  

Along with Peters, the other recipients of the Grand Challenge Award are: Becky Morgan, Upper Elementary; Jan Villwock, Iroquois West High School; and Sharla Williams, Upper Elementary.

The team of Iroquois educators was presented with plaques and additional web cameras to use in their classrooms on May 12.
TRECC provides free Creative Webcam NP web cameras to assist Illinois educators in advancing their communication capabilities. For more information on the web camera give away program, and for videoconferencing resources, go to www.trecc.org/education or contact Nancy Komlanc, director of TRECC’s Education and Training activities, at nkomlanc@ncsa.uiuc.edu.
The videoconferencing system is available free online through the University of Illinois’ Educators’ Knowledge Center (www.trecc.org/ed-kc), which also allows educators to share classroom materials, chat with colleagues, post questions to other educators, and participate in live videoconferences with other schools around Illinois.
TRECC is a program of the University of Illinois that is administered by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is funded by the Office of Naval Research.