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30 Jul 2010
Nearly 700 students from across Southern, Eastern KY participate in series of ‘virtual’ out-of-state summer field trips thanks to The Center for Rural Development’s CenterNET2 network
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Students from across Southern and Eastern Kentucky traveled hundreds of “virtual” miles this summer for unique one-on-one interaction with history experts and even NASA space officials—all without having to leave the area—thanks to live, interactive videoconferences provided by The Center for Rural Development’s award-winning CenterNET2 videoconferencing network.
During the last three months, nearly 700 middle and high school students have taken 10 virtual field trips to sites in Orlando, FL, Frankfort, KY, Omaha, NE., Glen Cove, NY, and Newport News, VA, where they have learned about everything from America’s space exploration program to one of the most significant events in history, the Holocaust.
For many students, two-way videoconferencing technology provides a chance to step outside the traditional learning environment and communicate one-on-one with leading experts about topics of interests they could only read about in history books or watch on television before this virtual learning experience.
“It was a very educational learning experience,” Rogers Scholars graduate Cody Epperson of Pulaski County said after participating in a videoconference with NASA officials at the Kennedy Space Center. “We received valuable insight into what is currently happening with the NASA space program.”
In June and July, all 163 participants in The Center’s Rogers Scholars and Rogers Explorers youth programs had an opportunity to get to know more about America’s space exploration program and interact with NASA officials through a series of live videoconferences.
Rockcastle County’s Ben Lake, another Rogers Scholars graduate, said he was impressed by the mental—and physical—strength astronauts must possess to be a part of the space program.
During the videoconference with NASA officials at Langley Research Center, Lake said he learned astronauts undergo a rigorous training program where they live underwater for several months before they are ready to travel into space.
“The mental stress these astronauts are under is really hard for the average person to comprehend,” Lake said. “She compared living underwater in a confined space to being stuck in the closet with your brother for six months. I don’t think I could do that.”
Rogers Scholars graduate Lauren Little of Leslie County couldn’t believe she was talking live to a NASA official about the space program several hundred miles away at the Kennedy Space Center, just east of Orlando, FL.
“It was really cool to be able to talk to someone so far away, and to understand them so clearly,” she said.
Little, who wasn’t even born during the heyday of the NASA space program, said she learned that Allen Shepherd was the first American to travel into space.
“People in Kentucky really don’t think about what’s going on in space, because it is not around here,” Lake added. “We are isolated somewhat from the rest of the world, and this videoconference broke through that isolation and put us in touch with the rest of the world.”
In addition to the series of NASA videoconferences, 400 students from Wayne County Middle School took virtual field trips this year through the CenterNET2 videoconferencing network including visits to:
- Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, KY, for a program on “Life in Early Kentucky”
- Durham Museum, Omaha, NE, for a “virtual” Wild West adventure to learn more about notorious bandits of that time, including the James gang
- Mariners Museum, Newport News, VA, to take a closer look at some of the most famous and dangerous pirates of the high seas
Earlier this summer, another group of 125 students from Lincoln County High School also received a history lesson on the Holocaust in a virtual field trip to the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County in Glen Cove, NY.
All of the CenterNET2 videoconferences for Rogers Scholars and area students in Wayne and Lincoln counties were provided onsite at The Center for Rural Development, 2292 South U.S. 27 (at Traffic Light 15) in Somerset. Rogers Explorers, who spend three days and two nights on a leading Kentucky college campus during the summer, watched the videoconferences from their host sites at the University of the Cumberlands, Lindsey Wilson College, and Eastern Kentucky University.
CenterNET2, located on the campus of The Center, is a national leader in videoconferencing transmission technology supplying content on demand to all Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) campuses and other content provider partners.
The Center for Rural Development, located in Somerset, Ky., provides economic and community development programs to residents in a 42-county service area of Southern and Eastern Kentucky, and is home to several statewide and national technology-based programs. For more information on programs available through The Center, visit www.centertech.com.
Photo Caption 1: Hundreds of students from Wayne County Middle School learned more about life in the Wild Wild West and its notorious outlaws in a “virtual” field trip to Durham Museum in Omaha, NE, in a live videoconference provided by The Center for Rural Development’s award-winning CenterNET2 videoconferencing network. Additional videoconferences for Wayne County students were held this summer through CenterNET2 with the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, KY and the Mariners Museum in Newport News, VA.
Photo Caption 2: Members of the 2010 Rogers Scholars summer youth program at The Center for Rural Development took “virtual” field trips to the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, FL, and talked one-on-one with NASA officials about America’s space program, thanks to The Center’s CenterNET2 videoconferencing network. Rogers Scholars from both summer sessions, held June 27-July 2 and July 11-16 on the campus of The Center in Somerset, viewed the program. CenterNET2 is a national leader in videoconferencing transmission technology. |
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