Boxes!Originally uploaded by mooosh

We are at the end of our extended vacation on the East Coast – Fort McHenry and other Baltimore points of interest tomorrow and home on Friday.

We got into our room tonight and thanks to me bringing along my laptop, and free wifi in our hotel, an email came in from one of the childhood cancer support groups in Reno (The Keaton Raphael Memorial) that have helped Celest so much. Skype has donated 4 web cams and headsets to them so they might use our model to include other children with cancer to attend school using video-conferencing. Like Celest sometimes these children have to travel 250 miles to the San Francisco Bay Area to get special treatments at Oakland’s Children’s Hospital. Here’s a quote from the email:

“We have been thinking that the best way to utilize the equipment right now would be to initially set it up at Children’s Hospital in Oakland (where Celest and the majority of the Northern NV kiddos are treated) as a way for families to keep in touch while one is away at treatment and the other is at home with the other children (if applicable). There is a Reno mother currently in Oakland that is halfway through their 180 day stay. Her husband and three other children are in Reno. They are having a hard time keeping in touch and are perfect to try out the Skype set up.

I am heading down to Oakland Monday July 30 to help get them started. They already have internet accessible computers available for families to use, so I will just be bringing the web cam and headsets from Skype. Eventually we will have laptops available. I plan to head the family’s home in Reno on Friday to deliver the other webcam and help them get set up from home. That way we will be able to test it while I am in Oakland.”

She goes on to ask if I have any tips and could offer support if they run into any issues. I mean is this awesome or what!?

Yeah … this free Web 2.0 stuff … no impact on student learning.