Port Jefferson, NY, August, 2001--Erin Wells is a unique high school student. She didn’t wake up everyday, get on the bus, and go to school. Instead, she opted to take her senior year of high school online through a unique, live, interactive program called Babbage Net School. Babbage Net School offers all the required and many elective courses through an innovative real-time, web-based program accessible from anywhere in the world.

“We already live online,” said Erin. “My generation is a “wired" generation. We've grown up with computers and the Internet. This is not a foreign concept to us.”

Through a growing list of enrichment courses, the Babbage Net School makes it possible for students to take courses not generally offered in their school and take the class right online. The instructors are certified, experienced teachers. Classes meet the New York State standards and are conducted in a manner very similar to classes that meet in a school building. The class is fully interactive where the teacher talks to the class and students are ‘given the floor’ to participate. Class materials can be shown to the class as web pages using a synchronized web browser or, are displayed on a whiteboard which functions as a blackboard in a traditional classroom. If a student has a question, they can raise their hand to get the teachers attention or, they can ask questions by using text chat. The teacher can have a student answer a question by talking to the class or writing on the whiteboard as well.

“An online student has to be self-motivated, responsible, dedicated and also adaptable,” said Babbage Latin Teacher Stevy Feldman. “It is easy to ‘get off easy’ in on-line classes. Things don't always go as planned due to technological glitches and one has to be a bit resilient. Erin completely fits the profile. She is a whiz with the computer which, although not a prerequisite for success in an on-line classroom, is a tremendous help.”

Erin is a part of the "generation d” and seriously started using a computer nearly 15 years ago at the age of five. She has been on the Internet for more then ten years. “Because Erin was home schooled the transition to on-line was very easy,” said Feldman. “ She was used to setting her own schedules and taking responsibility for getting her work done. I found that the students I taught who went to traditional schools did not adapt quite as easily.”

“Babbage and home schooling in general helped prepare me for college because both require self-discipline. Real school is extremely structured and when students get to college, which is far less structured, they are not as prepared. I think most students have trouble adjusting to college because they are not use to being ’on their own’,” said Erin. “Erin needed classes that would challenge her,” said Erin’s mother Lorraine B. Wells. “The Babbage curriculum was extremely advanced and the teachers were incredible...Babbage Net School was exactly what Erin needed.”

The Babbage Net School functions as a complete virtual school and is dedicated to the delivery of quality courses through the use of the Internet. It has already successfully been used in classrooms and homes all over the country. For more information check out: www.BabbageNetSchool.com.

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