HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pennsylvania—Students attending C.W. Longer Elementary School live in a small town in the central part of Pennsylvania. The nearest landmark is Penn State University, about an hour's drive away. Nearly all students grow up speaking English with little exposure to cultural diversity. Fifth-grade teacher Ann Hess decided to expand her students' horizons by having them explore the faraway islands of the South Pacific, using the Internet and their own imaginations to fuel the journey.

"After reading an excerpt from the novel Call It Courage, my students expressed great curiosity about the location of Bora Bora," Hess explains. "Since we live in Central Pennsylvania, we know very little about the islands of the Pacific."

Hess asked students to work in pairs to create a travel agency "whose purpose is to sell vacations to adventure-seeking people." The assignment was a natural fit for the class reading theme, Danger Zone. "It also gave us something to dream about during our dreary Pennsylvania winter," Hess says.

The project integrated language arts with technology skills. Students began by searching the Internet for resources to learn more about the South Pacific islands. Although most of Hess's students have home access to computers "and use the Internet regularly to chat and e-mail," they were less skilled "in doing a focused search to locate the information they needed," Hess explains.

Students used graphic design and presentation software to produce travel brochures that included text, graphics, and photos downloaded from the Internet; business cards to identify their travel agency; informational posters, including maps; and an electronic slide show complete with text, graphics, animation, and sound effects. They were encouraged to write persuasively.

Most students were new to using presentation software. Says Hess, "I finally found a technological tool with which they had no prior experience. They became absolutely addicted. Their rate of skill acquisition eventually exceeded mine." Students began arriving for school an hour early just so they could use the school's computer lab, which includes 30 networked computers. "Their enthusiasm was contagious," the teacher says, "as they learned from each other as well as from me. I learned as much as they did!"

Hess describes herself as a "technology junkie, fascinated by the many possible uses for technology in the classroom. I am amazed at the quality of product that can be produced, willingly and even enthusiastically, by 10- and 11-year-olds."

Longer Elementary enrolls about 350 students in grades K-6 and features "blessedly small classes," Hess says. Although the school computer lab is well equipped, high demand for use means that each class has access to it for only about 45 minutes a week. Each classroom also has two computers. Along with technology skills, Hess says, "we practice (and practice and practice) patience!"