The Kids Can Handle It!

Today we had the last MysteryQuest USA of this year. I am always struck by the patience and flexibility of the students in participating in this event! We had some interesting challenges this time - the class in Wales, Alaska had a power outage and were connected for a while via their generator; another class had a problem with their PowerPoint and had to finish their presentation later in the program; and we had a few connection issues with some of the sites (as usual it seems!). Try to connect 8 different sites all with different equipment and it gets interesting!

But while the adults participating in (and running) the videoconference may be stressing out about the technology - the kids are totally engaged in the task - finding out where everyone is located! They are patient with each other. Patient with the technology. They get great practice with their communication skills - speaking clearly and slowly. They are willing to do their part again without complaining when something happens so that we can't hear them. The kids just roll with it! And what do they remember when it's over? The fun they had... where the other classes were located... how neat it was to see the kids in Alaska...

And now the question is, who else can we connect with? The world is entering into the classroom in amazing instructional experiences!