Students to travel abroad virtually

Andrew Wainer

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- This summer Huntington Beach High School students

will be able to travel the globe without leaving home -- and they can

earn school credit while doing it.

Social studies students will be able to talk with residents and policy

makers in nations such as South Africa and Northern Ireland, among

others, through teacher Jinger Wallace’s new History Partners course.

The class, which will teach students Internet savvy and the latest in

global current events, will rely heavily on Wallace’s travels to these

foreign lands. During her summer travels, Wallace will post on the class’

Web page written dialogues of her conversations with people from nations

particularly affected by U.S. foreign policy.

“People have passion about what’s going on in their country that you

can’t get from a textbook,” Wallace said.

The page will feature bulletin boards, chat rooms and a gallery of

digital photographs from her travels.

“It’s a way of connecting students with the world on a much more personal

basis,” Wallace said. “School can be so artificial.”

The chat rooms, Wallace said, will allow students to communicate with

people from other countries “who have actually lived through the things

we are studying.”

Wallace said she has always believed in connecting students with

real-life events.

“I’ve taken students to Europe, but only a few get to go,” she said.

“When the Internet came along, it was the ideal vehicle to include the

whole class in this type of activity.”

During the first two weeks of the course, Wallace will teach students how

to use the Internet and give them background on the nations they choose

study.

“The Internet is so big, it will be helpful to give students some

structure to explore it,” Wallace said.

After that, Wallace will take off for foreign lands.

Students will then do their classwork through the Internet, e-mailing in

their research papers from home, Wallace said. Those research papers --

which will analyze the impact of U.S. foreign policy -- will be the basis

for the students’ grades.

Students will use some printed material at the beginning of class but

mostly rely on their cyberspace conversations with Wallace’s contacts

abroad in writing the papers.

Senior Amanda Crater said she thinks the History Partners course will

enrich the school’s curriculum.

“It’s an amazing way to implement the technology,” she said. “I think

it’s great that we can get credit for going online and interacting with

people we don’t know.”

Wallace said she eventually hopes to integrated the History Partners

course into the curriculum during the regular school year.