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Digital Wish Opens Virtual Volunteer Site To Match Teachers with Experts

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/11/12

An organization that promotes the use of technology in the classroom by putting teachers who have specific requests in touch with donors who can help make those wishes come true has launched a new service to link teachers with volunteers. Non-profit Digital Wish now offers "Virtual Volunteers," an area on its Web site. The new service allows teachers to post classroom projects and ask for a virtual volunteer who can serve via video conference; it also allows volunteers to sign up, describe their various capabilities, and volunteer to help with a class project.

For example, a fourth grade teacher is seeking help with a project in which students will create a "Glogster" for a history unit of study to encompass geography, state symbols, resources, and mining. Glogster is a social network Web site for creating and sharing interactive posters that can include graphics, music, videos, text, and other components.

A special education teacher wants help from somebody who has music education to find opportunities where students can perform their own songs. "If they will have [the] opportunity to perform or to make a recording, they will be much more excited about it!" the teacher wrote in the volunteer post.

Another teacher is looking for a descendent of one of several South Carolina Native American tribes to share insights about their cultures. And a high school science club wants help from somebody with robotics experience to guide them in building a robot to enter in competitions.

The organization said that throughout the school year it will recruit for volunteers in corporations, entrepreneur networks, and scientific associations to encourage members to help educators with their class projects.

Digital Wish emails profiles of newly posted expert volunteers to teachers who are members, and volunteers will receive email newsletters that list the latest projects seeking help.

Both groups can sign up at digitalwish.com.