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Scottish visitors, video link enrich foreign exchange at school

By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
   MONTGOMERY — Stuart Club, a modern studies teacher from Scotland who was visiting Montgomery Upper Middle School on Friday, broke the ice during a video conference between students from a classroom in his school in the Shetland Islands and a classroom in the middle school by urging them to ask each other as many questions as possible.
   The video conference allowed the students from the two classrooms to engage in a conversation, enabling them to see exactly which students were asking and answering questions on television screens in their respective classrooms.
   Activities outside school quickly became the focus of the conversation, after the students of Anderson High School in Scotland asked the Montgomery seventh graders, “What games do you play?”
   Montgomery seventh graders responded by providing a list of video games, explaining that the Halo series were extremely popular.
   The Scottish students said that some of them played video games, but that sports were the “games” they spent most of their time playing.
   School dances, music, television shows, America’s cheerleaders, the types of sports played in each country and where people went shopping in New Jersey were the topics most widely discussed.
   Following the video conference, Montgomery Upper Middle School seventh graders spoke favorably about the experience.
   ”I think it’s cool. I like the fact that we’re actually interacting with them and it’s better than e-mail because we actually get to see them and talk to them,” said Montgomery student Vinay Vhaskara.
   Mr. Club, who teaches at a school with a curriculum dedicated to cultural exchange activities with students from countries all over the world, explained why he thought the video conference was valuable.
   ”I think it (the video conference) makes it (the United States) more real for my students. The more real a country becomes, the more easy it is to learn about that place,” Mr. Club said. “Talking with the students from another country ultimately gives them an impression and leaves them with something extra. It makes reading about other cultures more interesting.”
   He added, “In my 16 years of teaching about America, this is the first time I’ve been here. For me, the experience will give my teaching a new dimension.”
   In addition to the Scottish students, who visited Montgomery Upper Middle School via the video conference, three students from upper grades at Anderson High School sat in the classroom with Mr. Club to observe the international interaction as research for their project on the “American dream.”
   The students said they were surprised to see so many similarities between American students and students from their school in the Shetland Islands.
   Dean Johnston, 17, of Anderson High School added, “No one’s really shy. Everyone’s quite confident and really friendly.”
   The three students also visited the West Windsor-Plainsboro high schools and Ridgewood High School during their trip to New Jersey.