For Ailing Student iChat Means ‘iCan’

Profiles in Success: Bel Aire Elementary School

iChat Sparks ‘iCan’

During the 2006-2007 school year, Bel Aire hosted a fifth-grade “Cyber Fair.” Young technology innovators – clad in black t-shirts with apple-shaped nametags – scurried about the stage, showing off their prize-winning inventions (all created with Apple hardware and software) before hundreds of faculty members, families, and friends. The highlight of the evening: a Keynote presentation by Laub, the keynote speaker. His on-stage demonstration brought down the house.

“He’d told us, ‘I don’t really have an invention, but I use my computer differently than the other kids,’” Purcell recalls. “We told him to come up with a name for it; he called it ‘iCan.’ In his presentation he explained what it was like to have leukemia and have to stay home, and that when he got an Apple notebook his life completely changed. Then on a giant screen we popped up a Spanish class across the campus, and showed how he could participate in a lesson. The audience got to see what it was like for him to use iChat AV. The applause was deafening!”

In the audience, Purcell adds, representatives from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society were listening raptly. Realizing the potential of iChat AV, the Society has since been promoting its use by other sick children. Combined with the media attention the story has received, inquiries from all over the country continue to pour in, all requesting information about Apple-based videoconferencing.

The Power of Connection

Now in remission, Laub has turned his experiences into something positive: He’s helped other Bel Aire students who are too sick to come to school to learn to use “iCan.” Purcell says Christopher’s story has had a dramatic impact on the student body — and on everyone who has witnessed the ability of technology to keep Bel Aire’s student community connected.

“I’ve been in the classroom while Christopher was at home using iChat, and you almost couldn’t watch because it was so powerful,” Purcell notes. “That power is in the acceptance of the kids, and their willingness to bring this child into their lives.” Christopher’s mom and dad say that they honestly feel that connectedness helped his healing. They said the difference in his disposition from the first year without iChat, and the second year when he had it, was unbelievable.

“We don’t know how something we do today will affect someone in 20 years,” concludes Purcell. “But when they’re older, I have no doubt that my kids will look back and talk about this very freely. They’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s when Christopher was on the computer.’”