Video conference allows students to overcome vast distances
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Simpson (May 18/01) - Students in Fort Simpson and Yellowknife went head to head in a battle of wits last week even though they weren't face to face.
Despite being several hundred kilometres apart, Grade 9 students from Thomas Simpson school were able to interact with their counterparts from Sir John Franklin high school in Yellowknife via a video-conference.
A small, remote-control operated camera, which swivelled at the push of a button, sat atop a television in each room. The camera in Fort Simpson captured images that were transmitted live to the students and Yellowknife, and vice-versa, allowing the students to see and hear each other.
The event was one of several activities promoting Information Technology Week in the Deh Cho.
Career development officers Candy Brown and Joseph Nayally informed the students of the important role that information technology plays in today's economy, including Internet banking and shopping.
Overall, the field, which is currently dominated by men, employs close to 500,000 people in Canada. Approximately 20,000 information technology jobs need to be filled at any given time, Brown said.
Brian Jaffray, a computer technician for the Dehcho Divisional Board of Education, verified that there is plenty of demand.
"It's busy. We need more people in this field," he said, adding that math, science and computer courses are prerequisites.
Kirsten Hook, a Yellowknife high school graduate who is attending the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, told the students that she is learning to design and build motherboards for computers.
"Why am I taking this? I don't know about you guys, but I like money, and there's lots of money is this field," she said.
Jaffray noted that information technology is continually advancing, therefore there's a need to frequently upgrade skills and knowledge. That's a costly process because it's expensive to enrol in courses, he said.
Technology is sometimes expensive to utilize. Last week's 45-minute video conference came at a rate of $204 per hour, according to Jaffray.
The students made use of some of that time engaging in an information technology trivia challenge.
They guessed how many bits are in a byte (eight), which company invented the mouse (Apple) and who invented the World Wide Web (Tim Berners-Lee). Yellowknife edged Fort Simpson 85-70 in the battle for trivia supremacy.
