Franke Park Teacher Receives National Recognition for Videoconferencing

Pam Ghaffarian, who team teaches third, fourth and fifth grades at Franke Park Elementary in Fort Wayne, was recently featured in an article in Cable in the Classroom's March publication called Access Learning.

In this article, Pam shared how her students are learning science in new ways. Her class is part of the NASA Explorer program, and they use the Allen County Education Network and videoconferencing equipment to improve science and learning. Among other experiences last year, students piloted STORM-E, an "e-Mission" on weather hosted by the Challenger Learning Center. They also videoconferenced with the Zathura author Chris Van Allsburg and a NASA engineer as they learned to write science fiction stories. First-graders at Franke Park videoconferenced for the first time this year, learning about the Sun from a scientist in Hampton, Va. "They drew pictures of the Sun together and compared them to what they used to think the Sun was like," said Pam.

"Integrating videoconferencing into instruction means students can learn from experts anywhere in the world, giving them access to teachers with specialized knowledge, props, and sometimes even a gift for the theatrical," reported the author.

ACELINK has supported interactive videoconferences at Franke Park, which we also make available to any educator in our consortium. For more information on this funding for programs, contact schaufes@ipfw.edu.