MERIDIAN - A group of Cato-Meridian Middle School eighth-grade students didn't have to travel to Auburn to be at the Seward House last week.

Through the lens of a video camera and eyes peering at a projector screen, students in Cato-Meridian Middle School Social Studies teacher Jennifer Taylor's classroom last Friday were transported to the second floor of the Seward House and greeted by curator of Education and Outreach, Jennifer Haines.

With a video camera and a microphone situated on a cart in the museum, Haines presented an interactive talk for nearly an hour about the assassination attempt on William Seward's life and the purchase of Alaska.

All last week, Haines and Taylor tested out Polycom machines used for video conferencing provided by the Cayuga-Onondaga Board of Cooperative Educational Services and its Distance Learning program, which allows students and teachers to interact in real-time between classrooms no matter how far away.

“With budgets getting tighter and tighter, particularly with field trips and gas prices and buses, I see one big potential for this in that some schools in our area may not be able to come to the museum,” Haines said. “This is definitely a way they can still take advantage of what we have to offer here.”

Sitting at their desks, students listened to all the information provided to them by Haines, and then got the chance to ask questions, some about Seward's involvement in the Underground Railroad and others about his family.

Students Abbie Marcano, Wesley Cole and Danial Dollinger were impressed with the conference and how they were at the Seward House, even when it was nearly 20 miles away.

“We weren't really there but we were there,” Marcano, 13, of Port Byron said. “The technology, the way it's progressed, is really cool.”

Cole echoed that, and added that the technology truly augments the learning experience.

“I thought it was really cool and interesting the way technology is giving us a better education,” the 14-year-old from Ira said.

Beyond the technology, students learned all of the details surrounding the assassination attempt in 1865, orchestrated by John Wilkes Booth and nearly carried forth by Lewis Powell. Dollinger said the best part of the conference was learning new information, “all the things I didn't know before.” For the 13-year-old from Cato, he didn't know that Seward's daughter, Fanny, was in her father's bedroom at the time of the assassination attempt. He didn't know that she watched the whole assault take place.

The timing of the conference worked out perfectly for Taylor, she said, as she just finished teaching the Civil War to her students.

“I thought it was a great way to introduce some local history into the classwork,” she said.

But beyond the local aspect, Taylor said there are other inherent benefits for students learning from other sources by interacting with them in real-time.

“It think, first of all, this came from a different person who's an expert on William Seward and also it's interacting with a resource in our community,” she said. “I think its just providing the students with a different learning experience.”

For Haines, she foresees Distance Learning not just being used for local schools.

“It also opens up the potential for schools throughout New York State and throughout the county to learn more about William Seward,” she said. “I would love to do a video conference about the purchase of Alaska with kids in Alaska.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net