Internet video links teacher to distant students

August 24, 2008 11:56 pm

— MIFFLINBURG — Each morning, Karl Purnell begins his day by teaching English to indigent children on the other side of the world. Purnell, who spends several months a year teaching English and other subjects to young students and monks in a monastery in the Himalayan area of Nepal, continues his classes on the Internet after he returns to his home in Mifflinburg.
On a recent morning, he was teaching English to a young girl in Thailand who uses a laptop in her home to video conference with Purnell. He dials his student through Skype technology and in less than a minute, he can see his student and she sees him on their computer screen. There is no cost to users of this video program.
“How are you this morning?” 13-year-old Intira Chuaipoom asks her teacher.
After exchanging greetings, they get to work. On a recent morning, Intira was learning about the parts of the face. “Where are your ears?” Purnell asked. Intira, whose parents are very poor and must send her to a church school where no Ennglish is taught, pointed to her ears which were visible in real time on the computer screen. “How many ears do you have” Purnell asked. “I have two ears,” the young girl responded.
“Intira is learning quickly because she can see me pronouncing the words,” Purnell says. “Its much better than just audio.”
After only four lessons, Intira is already able to ask questions and give answers about the time of day, her school and her home.
Purnell, who is director of a foundation which has constructed a library and sponsors a school for indigent children in Nepal, says this new way of teaching is the most exciting exerience he’s ever had. “By using the new technology, teachers can educate children from all over the world from their own homes here in America,” he says.
He is currently recruiting volunteers who are willing to spend a few hours a week on their home computers teaching kids in Thailand and Nepal.
“A number of former teachers and people who just speak English are expressing a willingness to do this. Helping some poor child on the other side of world to get an education without leaving one’s home is a very satisfying experience,” Purnell said.
He is currently working with an organization which has received $4 million from the Melinda & William Gates Foundation for building a broadband infrastructure in Nepal. “When that’s finished, we’ll be supplying volunteer teachers from America to teach English and other subjects in remote villages in Nepal where illiteracy is the norm. Its an incredibly exciting project,” he said.
“Our one problem is that we need to supply the kids with a laptop and they have to have a broadband Internet capability. His foundation is currently raising funds for the purchase of laptops and for expenses in setting up video-conferencing sites.
“In some cases, the volunteers themselves are willing to donate a laptop to their students,” he said.
Purnell, a former state legislator from Union County, is a writer and playwright and the director of the National Historic Theater which produces historic musicals for bus groups traveling to Mifflinburg. Each spring and fall, he travels to the Himalayas where he does volunteer teaching to Buddhist monks and students of the Jharkot monastery in northwestern Nepal. By using the new video technology, and a volunteer teacher organization, he’s hoping to supply an education for thousands of indigent children throughout that country rather than the few he can personally instruct in Jharkot.
“This method of instruction can revolutionize the entire field of education. Even kids in this area or throughout the United States can benefit from video teaching via the internet,” Purnell said.
In the meantime, he spends several hours a day working with students in Thailand as a means of figuring out what problems need to be resolved in order to make his program a success.
“I’m only a small beginning of what I believe will soon become a major revolution in bringing education to those in need throughout the world,” he said.

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