Alisa - Classroom Connection

June 2008

Sometimes the best assistive technology is right at your fingertips! Alisa, a 12 year old student attending school in the lower mainland, was anticipating being away from school for up to six weeks as a result of a scheduled surgery. Her school based team and family agreed that it was very important to keep Alisa connected to her class during her absence so plans were made to keep her connected through some readily available communication technology.

Having set up a similar system with another student, her team quickly organized the necessary equipment. An iMac with a webcam was set up in the classroom and a laptop with a webcam went home. Both Alisa and her class created a Skype account – a free web-based video conferencing tool used by millions of people every day. The iMac was kept off the school network to bypass any issues of web connectivity.

Using this system, Alisa was able to phone her class and view a videocast of her class in real time. She was able to participate in lessons that were going on as well as talk to her friends and classmates. Her classroom teacher felt it was important to keep Alisa an active member of the class during her absence and the system provided that critical connection.

Luckily, Alisa recovered very quickly and did not miss as much school as was anticipated. However, the technology that was put in place worked really well and provides a model for other students who may be missing school for various reasons.

Congratulations to Alisa and her forward thinking team – Theresa (Mom), Catherine (Learning Support Teacher), Gillian (Principal), Barbara (Classroom teacher) and Colette (SET-BC consultant) – for effectively using common communication technology to connect home and school.

Listen to a SET-BC AudioCast with Alisa's team.