Students Go On the Air for High-Tech Chat

Ryan Rigsbee, 11, stepped in front of a video camera in the crowded Madrona School library Wednesday with a simple assignment: ask questions of someone 10 miles away.

The camera shot Ryan’s image to a satellite, located 23,000 miles above Earth, that bounced the signal to a television in Simi Valley’s Hollow Hills Fundamental School. A few steps to Ryan’s left, another television showed Hollow Hills student Nate Martin, 10, standing in front of a microphone.

Ryan’s first question: “Do you want to be an FBI agent? Why or why not?”

“No, ‘cause I don’t want to get shot,” Nate said.

“Do you want to go to Mars or Saturn?”

“I want to go to Saturn, because it sounds better.”

“OK. Cool.”

Ryan was one of 72 fourth- and fifth-graders who spent half an hour on the air Wednesday, learning firsthand about the technology behind live television broadcasting.

“They take so much of the technology they see on the little box for granted,” said Dianne McKay, a member of Madrona’s technology committee and owner of a company that organizes televised events. “Hopefully this will give them a better idea. And when they see, ‘Sorry, we’re experiencing technical problems,’ they’ll understand.”

The students have been experimenting with communications technology since January, e-mailing weekly letters to pen pals at Hollow Hills. Madrona teacher Shealen Nash set up the program with her mother, Sandy Nash, who teaches fourth grade at Hollow Hills.

“We wanted them to experience getting on-line and seeing what was in their future,” Shealen Nash said.

The two teachers had planned to let their “e-pals” meet in person. But with the school year rapidly drawing to a close, finding time for a trip between the two schools became difficult, Nash said.

McKay then suggested the students talk via satellite, using equipment provided by her husband’s Oxnard-based telecommunications company, Vision Accomplished.

So Wednesday morning, Dianne and Duncan McKay parked a van with a satellite dish outside Madrona’s library, and stationed a camera and microphone inside, while similar equipment was set up at Hollow Hills.

At each school, students took turns at the microphone, asking their “e-pals” questions about their summer vacation plans and favorite songs and sports. Some held up pictures of their pets.

Josh Samuel, 10, was glad to finally talk to his e-pal face to face. “It was great to see him in person,” he said. “Well, not really in person, I guess.”