Communications Research Centre Canada's broadband video-conferencing technology gave Ulluriaq students a unique opportunity to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust.

The National Library Broadband Book Club linked students in Ottawa, St. John's and Kangiqsualujjuaq. The schools were connected to CA*net 4, Canada's research and innovation network.

The National Library Broadband Book Club is part of the activities surrounding "The Fun of Reading: International Forum on Canadian Children's Literature" organized by the National Library of Canada, with its partners, Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC) and National Research Council (NRC). Broadband technology will further the Forum's goals to promote Canadian children's literature in the classroom.

The topic of discussion was Hana's Suitcase by Canadian author Karen Levine (Second Story Press, 2002). The book is a true story about the efforts of Fumiko Ishioka, Director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center, as she traced the origins of a suitcase belonging to a young girl named Hana Brady, who died at Auschwitz.

The Broadband Book Club participants, Secondary students, spoke about what they learned from Hana's Suitcase, and shared poetry, artwork and other creative pieces that were inspired by their reading and study. They also reflected on what they thought the Holocaust meant and still means today.

"The Broadband Book Club enables students to build knowledge together, by sharing their research and personal thoughts," says John Spence, Program Manager for the CRC/NRC VirtualClassroom.

The students were able to ask questions to panelists at WO Mitchell: author Karen Levine and Auschwitz survivor David Shentow. Also present was Norman Snowball, Inuit mentor in Kangiqsualujjuaq.

"Students, teachers and panel participants benefit from the kind of sharing and high level of interpersonal discussion that broadband connectivity allows," says Spence. "Everyone is touched by the experience."