The phone rang over a speaker and quieted the seventh-grade advanced reading class Tuesday morning at Thunderbolt Middle School.

Jackie Leatherman/News-Herald Photo Seventh graders at Thunderbolt Middle School shared lessons, using new webcameras, with a fifth-grade class at Starline Elementary School, displayed on the projector screen. Pictured from left, Thunderbolt seventh-graders Stevie Anderson and Chris Allen give their presentation.

After about six rings, a live classroom appeared on the projector screen that was pulled down in front of the room.

Whispers of “whoa, it worked” emerged around Justin Pithan’s Thunderbolt classroom.

“Hello, how are you doing?” Pithan said standing in front of the projector screen and facing a web camera attached to a laptop.

Students in Michelle Youso’s accelerated learning class at Starline Elementary School almost two miles away had appeared on the projector screen.

Tuesday marked the first day the Lake Havasu Unified School District used newly incorporated webcameras to reach classrooms in two different schools.

Students from the two classes took turns sharing skits they had prepared on different styles of persuasion used in advertising.

The district spent roughly $500 of grant funding to purchase seven webcameras, which were given to teachers at Nautilus and Oro Grande Elementary schools, Thunderbolt Middle School and two Spanish classes at Lake Havasu High School.

Teachers and a district administrator said they hope to use the webcameras for guest speakers, and one day to share lessons with other classrooms around the United States — and possibly other countries.

Currently the district logs onto Skype, an online European company formed in 2003 that provides free video calls between anyone with a free account and a webcamera.

Michelle Ravnikar, LHUSD instructional technologist, said allowing classes to share lessons live will help make them “real life and relevant.”

Thunderbolt seventh-grader Ciella Burke said she thinks the webcams are “a great way to interact with other schools and being able to show what we’ve learned … with other grade levels.”

“I think it’s very important because we can do way more with technology,” she said.

Burke said she uses a webcam at home, and thinks now students will be able to learn different academic skills from each other.

Dana Richards, Thunderbolt’s computer teacher, said she has already heard of her students using Skype and webcams to help each other with their homework at night. She said the students felt comfortable using the technology from learning about it in her class.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “These are such real-life skills.”

Richards said the technology helps students feel more comfortable with online courses and conducting videoconferences in the workplace.

“It’s definitely technology literary skills,” she said. “They are preparing for the real world.”

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com