Troy, Montana embraces era of high-tech teaching

Hana Coy’s second-grade students were squirming with excitement to meet their pen pals, students from a Billings school that they had been writing back and forth to throughout the year.

Using a Webcam and a computer screen projector, Coy’s students were able to talk with the pen pals they would probably never meet in person. They conversed as though they were in the same room and created fodder for future written correspondence.

“We continue writing letters,” Coy said. “They could write more and have more of a conversation (through letters) after meeting them.”

As a first-year teacher, Coy is brimming with ideas to integrate modern technology into her classroom at W.F. Morrison Elementary. Troy http://www.cityoftroymontana.com/ school teachers are given the option to have their own classroom Website, so Coy uses her blog to update parents on upcoming events, post photos of the kids and allow her students to write their own blog entries.

By Canda Harbaugh, The Western News

Full Story: http://www.thewesternnews.com/articles/2009/05/26/news/doc4a1c2d3d4142e368791938.txt