Children Get Online by Video Teleconference

An auditorium full of Venice elementary school children exchanged waves and greetings Monday with Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, through a video teleconference over the Internet.

The morning conference was a belated celebration of NetDay ‘96, a national effort to link schools with high technology.

Last year, Beethoven Elementary School was wired for Internet access, but the students were disappointed when an effort to go online with President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore failed because of technical problems.

But Hundt and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Torrance) promised the children they’d try again, and on Monday, Harman joined the students in a cyberspace meeting with the FCC chairman.

From his office in Washington, D.C., Hundt talked about his job and the importance of wiring public schools. The students watched on a big screen TV with split images; one screen showed Hundt and the other showed the excited children in the Venice auditorium.

“This is soooo cool,” grinned Sylvia Salas, 11.

School administrators said the day’s activities, which included the dedication of a Weathernet station donated by KNBC-TV, Channel 4, helped mark the technological progress of the school.

All the classes in grades second through fifth now have computers with Internet capabilities, and the kindergarten and first-grade classes are scheduled to go online soon.

“This is an important milepost for us,” Principal Margaret Thomas said. “We’ve made gigantic strides . . . and our next step is to integrate the computers into the curriculum.”