Geographical Barriers The business world has become familiar with the concepts of "global market" and "global economy," but educators have just begun large-scale experiments with extending learning opportunities outside their own classrooms, schools, and communities. Technology can tear down geographical barriers and end the isolation felt by students and teachers in urban, suburban, or rural classrooms. Students gain exposure to places they would never visit, people they might never meet, and programs not available in their area. While field trips to museums, galleries, and sites of historical importance are a mainstay of most student experiences, technology can support opportunities for shared learning across the globe. Students can view exhibits at the Library of Congress or tour the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam without leaving their classrooms. They can communicate easily with other students, their teachers, and a variety of researchers, artists, or other content experts through Internet-based telecommunications. Teachers can share concerns, receive formal and informal support, and access a greater variety of resources from libraries, museums, research facilities, and other education institutions. Not every community can support world-class museums, extensive libraries, or opportunities to explore artifacts from world cultures. Technology provides a means for students and educators to access this information from their own community. WebQuests WebQuests are popular Web-based learning adventures that are limited in variety only by the imagination and resources of the teachers and organizations that create them. Teachers may structure their own WebQuests by identifying Web resources that support curricular goals and requiring students to visit these sites and gather information, much like an online scavenger hunt. Several educational resources sponsor elaborate WebQuests that accompany scientists, photographers, or writers on journeys across the globe, under the sea, up tall mountains—just about anywhere people can go. Students can follow these teams on the Web and view pictures and video files, listen to interviews, and gather information to build their knowledge and skills across several disciplines. One exciting example from 1999, ASIA Quest by Classroom Connect, followed a team of scientists and adventurers as they replicated Marco Polo's route along the Silk Road in China. Students corresponded with the team and one another as the team rode bicycles, trains, and even camels across China. Classroom Connect has new Web Quests you can participate in each year on The Quest Channel. Other popular WebQuest sites include Discovery.com National Geographics Xpeditions Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators also contains links to WebQuests as well as directions for creating one of your own.