In Chris McAfee’s Pre-AP World Geography class, students are learning in a new way. They’re video conferencing with people from around the world to learn more about the different cultures.

The video conferencing takes place in McAfee’s room at De Soto High School. According to McAfee, the students as well as himself, think that it’s an awesome way to learn.

“It’s like talking to someone in the Holocaust, it’s a lot more meaningful,” McAfee said.

The class has requested a conference with someone from Africa. Also, other people they will be conferencing with are with people about the culture of Asia, the Middle East and religious practices of Islam.

“We will also be chatting with any other people we can come up with,” McAfee said.

So far, the class has chatted with a man from Sudan, which is in the northern part of Africa, who survived the Sudanese genocide.

“It was interesting to hear directly from someone who was a victim of the Genocide,” freshman Josh Miller said.

DHS isn’t the only school doing video conferencing. There are more schools in a total of 43 states. Eighty percent of the 43 states said that video conferencing is helping educators meet their academic goals and helping students become more engaged with learning.

Video conferencing for grades K-12 in the United States began in the late 1980s/early 1990s. As the years went by, more states began using video conferencing to learn. Ever since gas prices began to rise, fewer schools have been able to afford field trips, so video conferencing is a great way to learn that is also fun for students.

DHS is lucky to have come across a great opportunity to engage in learning in a fun way. McAfee and his students are glad to have this option to learn.