Broadband connects sick children with classrooms

At Speed Matters, we have highlighted the benefits of high speed Internet for the economy, education, health care, the environment, public safety and closing the digital divide. However, several new broadband-based programs are helping solve another problem: allowing ill children to be kids.

At Georgetown University Hospital, in Washington DC, children with cancer are being connected to their friends and classmates using a broadband Internet connection and webcams.

Becky Wilson, a six-year-old who has Leukemia was able to let her classmates know that she was okay, catch up with her friends, find out what her class was studying in school and even answered questions about her illness.

Dr. Aziz Shad, Becky's oncologist said:

"I hoped that one day we would have some kind of instrument where the child on this end sitting in the clinic forgot that she was in clinic and actually felt part of the classroom. I can't even explain to you what kind of emotional feeling it was today to see it happen."

The Georgetown University Hospital program follows in the path of PEBBLES (Providing Education By Bringing Learning Environments to Students), which allows children who require long term care to remain connected to their classrooms. According to an Alliance for Public Technology report that highlights innovative broadband initiatives, "50 percent of all children requiring long term care do not graduate from high school on schedule."

PEBBLES places child-sized robot units that are linked with a high speed Internet connection in both the patient's room and classroom. Patients are able to control the robot and participate fully in class - even raise the robots hand to get the teachers attention.

Webcams help kids with cancer be kids (My Fox DC)

Broadband Initiatives: Enhancing Lives and Transforming Communities (APT)