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Errant message brings two Burtons together
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - November 19, 2008)
Errant message brings two Burtons together
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
An errant e-mail brought children from two Burtons -- one in Geauga County and the other in Great Britain -- together Tuesday to share their experiences and interests.
In the end, they learned that it is a small world after all.
"Now we know, they're not much different," said Megan Arnold, a sixth-grader at Burton Elementary School, after contacting children in Burton Upon Trent.
One surprise for Megan was seeing her British counterparts drinking Coca-Cola when they logged in for the video-conferencing at Burton Public Library. She said she didn't know they had "Coke."
Linda Baker, the library's youth services coordinator, said it was library director Holly Manning Lynn who got the idea to bring the two groups of children together.
"This came about when our library received an e-mail from a woman in England who thought she was e-mailing her hometown library but e-mailed our library instead," Ms. Baker said. "Our director thought, 'Wouldn't it be neat if kids from our library could talk to kids from the other Burton library?'"
Ms. Baker said the e-mail addresses for the two libraries are completely different, leading her to believe the English woman probably Googled Burton library and found the one in Geauga County.
The two towns are completely different. Burton Upon Trent, approximately 100 miles northwest of London, is a more urban setting with a population of about 60,000. Geauga's rural Burton Village has a population of about 1,450.
Ms. Baker said there is quite a difference in the two libraries as well. The Burton Upon Trent library had about 3,000 children in its summer reading program, while the local library had about 250.
Ms. Baker chose seven sixth-graders who were among the library's most avid readers to take part in the cross-Atlantic chat. She coordinated the effort with Jackie Arnold, the media specialist at Burton High School.
The students who participated were Anna Carlson, Megan Arnold, Adam Thompson, Carolyn Mayer, Thomas R. Fabian, Clare Lynn and Rebecca Porter. Adam is home-schooled, while Rebecca attends Troy Elementary School. The remaining students attend Burton Elementary School.
The students used instant messaging to communicate everything about themselves, from their favorite food to their favorite books. Even the latest Geauga County snowfall and lake effect became a topic.
Ms. Baker said the students in England, from Holy Trinity School, noted that, while they do see snow, they "haven't had a proper snow" in quite a few years.
For Carolyn, the experience was one she won't forget. "It was cool," she said. "They are a lot different but a little the same."
Most notably, she said, it's the different slang used in each country. "Mobs" was the word used by the English students as slang for mobile phones, as opposed to cell phones in this country. The BFFs, or best friends forever, used in this country, became "bessies" in England.
Adam, who served as a maple prince two years ago at the Geauga County Maple Festival, asked about their favorite food, while noting his is "cordon bleu, fancy, huh?"
Their answer, McDonald's, surprised Carolyn, who said she didn't know the fast-food giant had reached across the pond.
Adam also learned that the English students hope to be actresses, scientists, authors and firefighters when they grow up.
Thomas, or Tommy, as his friends insisted, said he imagined the English students would be quite different but learned differently. "I think they're not much different from us," he said.
Adam, likewise, said he found his new friends to not be much different. "I think they're pretty cool," he said. "We all live on the planet Earth, and we're all people. They're different, but we're all the same."
The students plan, with their parents' permission, to keep up their correspondence with their newfound friends through e-mail.
And the experience opened up a whole new world for the group that mentioned places such as Germany, Africa and India as some of the other parts of the world they would like to talk to children next.
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