Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School adopts tele-collaboration software

FuzeBox, Inc., provider of real time visual collaboration applications, today announced that the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School – one of the nation’s largest online schools for kindergarten to grade 12 students – has licensed Fuze Meeting software to enhance communications between its multiple offices, and to evaluate as a teaching tool for its statewide online education programs.

The Midland, Penn.-based school, now in its 11th year of operation, has about 11,000 students and 150 teachers and is now larger than many public school districts in its state. About half of its students remotely attend “virtual” classes starting at scheduled times, while the rest work independently at their own pace.

Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School is implementing Fuze Meeting as a tool for students to participate in virtual field trips, and to allow laptop, tablet and smartphone users to participate in high-definition telepresence staff meetings between its offices in Philadelphia, Midland and Harrisburg, Penn. Subsequent phases could include students using the videoconferencing and collaboration software to access their classes via Apple iPad tablets and PCs.

“We try to use the most cutting-edge education technology,” said Brian Laquinta, director of technology and innovation for the school, “and none of the other tools we looked at matched Fuze Meeting’s cross-platform ability to work with such a wide variety of mobile devices and operating systems.”

“We’re excited to supply our flagship product to one of the country’s leading online schools,” said FuzeBox CEO Jeff Cavins. “The education market is a high priority for us, and their choice of our software demonstrates its potential to foster innovative new ways for educators and their students to communicate and learn.”