Taking college courses without leaving high school is a unique experience and opportunity being offered by Manatee Community College to Southeast High School students in Bradenton, FL. ViaTV Phones are serving as a "supplemental tool" in this distance learning program.

David Beaton, who is on the college's library support staff, says 15 students are enrolled in a course that meets three times a week. A professor's lecture is videotaped and sent to the high school. A ViaTV Phone is set up with a speaker phone in the high school classroom. Students see their college professor when he or she calls in. After answering questions from the previous lesson, the instructor introduces the videotape.

In addition to using the ViaTV Phone for their distance learning program, Manatee Community College is also using it for video conferencing between it's two campuses, the one in Bradenton and another in Venice, which is an hour's drive south. The library staffs of both campuses meet together regularly with administrators using ViaTV Phones. In the past, Beaton says library administrators would have to attend two meetings, one at each campus.

(During a ViaTV Phone interview by 8x8, David Beaton holds a sign reading,
"MCC Distance Learning Network.")

Beaton jokes that ViaTV Phones are helping librarians, notorious for being shy, overcome their aversion to exposure by being seen on the videophone. When asked what influenced the college's purchase of ViaTV Phones, Beaton says, "The low cost and the reputation 8x8 has as a manufacturer of videoconferencing microchips."