THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 149 lines
They call economics ``the dismal science.'' Enough said.
Geography? Most of us can't even refold a map right.
Computers without games? Puh-leez.
You can preach to students the importance of subjects like economics, geography and computer technology, but a fidgety room of youngsters is more likely to notice how ripe the subjects are for dullness, teaching's No. 1 enemy.
Three instructors at the P. D. Pruden Vocational-Technical Center and Lakeland High School think they've found a way around the enemy. This way also provides a glimpse of a future world where cooperation and technology break down school walls and increase educational resources.
It's called ``Walk Across America.'' It's an Internet-based project in which students from 10 cities in eight states this school year are joining forces to plan an imaginary walking tour across the United States, meandering from New York to California.
Students in each of the participating cities - including Suffolk - are researching, mapping and describing their assigned segments of this virtual walk: natural, historical and entertaining sights to see, what weather to expect, how much meals, rooms and admission fees should cost.
The students share their information with each other through electronic mail. Once they're done, anyone else will be able to tap into their work using a computer.
It'll be sort of like a cyberspace Trip-tik.
``We're our own AAA - without the car,'' agreed India S. Meissel, a social studies teacher at Lakeland.
Her senior economics class is waiting for a freshman geography class to complete mapping the route through Virginia. Once the economics students receive the route, probably this month, they'll start calling, writing and calculating to come up with the best prices for food, lodging and various fees along the way.
All this information then will go to the vo-tech center, where computer students will send it to the virtual-walk's coordinator in Liberty, N.Y. They'll also pass along the work of the other schools across the country.
The goals: Geography comes alive. Economics is made real. Computer skills are enhanced. Everyone shares in the information, gathered by those closest to and presumably with the best knowledge of the areas studied.
The Pruden computer lab is where it all started for Suffolk. Teacher Betty Jo English regularly scans the Internet for interesting projects, saw a notice for ``Walk Across America'' and got Meissel and Suzanne J. Langston involved.
Langston's geography students were assigned to pick up the imaginary walk at Washington and hand it off at the North Carolina line to students from Wilmington, N.C. Other than that, they were on their own. For the most part.
``We can't take them on the interstate, because you can't walk on the interstate,'' explained James R. Phipps, one of Langston's students.
The interstate highway system might be the only place in Virginia the would-be walkers would miss. The students picked destinations using their own experiences and the places they learned about through a table-swallowing spread of tourist brochures, maps and pages of printed information that teacher English pulled from the Internet.
``They're going to King's Dominion - they'll have fun,'' Amy L. Edwards said with a grin.
``All the presidents' houses,'' said Christina M. Bradford, adding that teacher Langston ``said we have to take them to every one.''
``We're zigzagging them,'' explained Jessica N. Brannon.
Indeed. Fredericksburg. Charlottesville. Richmond. State parks. Mountains. Festivals, but only those that would be in season if the walk were real - meaning January, for this leg of the trip.
``Some of these things we've done - we know they're fun,'' Amy said.
But, like good tour guides, they're trying not to overdo. ``If you take them to too many caverns, it'd be boring,'' Christina said.
The students write directions, mileage and a brief description for each stop. Photos will be taken or scanned off brochures and added to the Internet package.
Back in Liberty, N.Y., the city near the Pennsylvania line where the walk - and project - began, students and faculty of the Rubin Pollack Education Center are taking it further. They are walking or biking the equivalent miles of the route, toting up laps around their school. This tosses physical fitness into the educational mix, said the project's coordinator, Linda E. Jones.
Jones teaches fifth-graders with physical and learning disabilities. Her school had heard of a similar project elsewhere, but without the Internet tie-in.
``We asked the other schools to help us plot our way, to help us visit things,'' Jones said.
She's plotting the route using tiny sneaker cutouts on a 4-foot-by-6-foot map in a hallway. Her students and others in the school also are researching sites and monitoring the weather along the route, again using the Internet.
``There's been a lot going on, a lot of learning,'' Jones said. ``My experience has been that if the kids initiate the research, they do a whole lot better job of getting it and remembering it.''
The new technology isn't always used so creatively or effectively to facilitate and share learning, say experts who track the use of computers in American classrooms.
Too often, computers are simply bought and thrust into schools with no prepared plans for their use, said Cheryl S. Williams, director of the Institute for the Transfer of Technology to Education at the National School Boards Association in Alexandria.
The ``Walk Across America'' project, Williams said, seems to be developing skills in collaborating with others, and will leave behind a product that future students can update and expand - an ongoing resource to be shared.
``I think it sounds like a very groundbreaking project, certainly one that uses the technology appropriately. . . . It's a very out-front project,'' Williams said.
``What we're trying to impress on school divisions and school officials is that computers are a means to an end.''
Schools could do more such projects if they had the computers and Internet links, Lakeland's Meissel said. Suffolk's schools are being wired for a computer network, but don't have the computers yet. Lakeland has two computers with Internet capability for its 1,500 students.
For Langston's geography students, one benefit has been an enhanced appreciation of their home state.
``It's a good experience, because I'm learning about places I never heard of before,''said Tupteon T. White.
``You can relate to it better,'' Jessica said.
``You learn what's going on around here, and you want to go,'' Amy said. ``The natives will tell you what's fun to do'' in their states.
They've also found other benefits.
``It's better than sitting in the classroom - and you don't have to take a test on it,'' Tupteon said.
But she and her classmates quickly ticked off other uses for such an Internet link with students in other states, particularly in science. They said they could share climate information or conduct mutual experiments with peers in other schools.
Even the teachers learned a lesson.
``My kids are showing them just about everything in Virginia,'' Langston said. ``The only problem is, they haven't found anything interesting in Suffolk.''
``I feel sorry for anyone who has to go to Suffolk,'' echoed Tupteon and several others, complaining that there's nothing here except ``peanuts.''
Langston blamed this feeling on her students being too close to their hometown and not being able to see things. To open their eyes, she's thinking of organizing her own walking tour for them, just around Suffolk. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by John H. Sheally/The Virginian-Pilot
Shanika Hall, left, and Amy Edwards help pick natural, historical
and entertaining sights in Virginia as part of a project in Suzanne
J. Langston's geography class at Lakeland High School in Suffolk.
The project is part of an Internet-based ``Walk Across America''
tour that combines economics, geography and computer technology.
Students in 10 cities in eight states are participating in the
project.
Color Map
Schools from these cities are participating in the "Walk Across
America" Internet project.
[For complete copy, see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: INTERNET WALK ACROSS AMERICA