Liam’s Story

Childhood cancer survivor Liam Wheeler was homebound because the chemotherapy for leukemia made his immune system vulnerable.  Although his fifth grade teacher tutored him regularly, he still missed key learning opportunities, including class lessons, valuable teacher feedback, and social interaction with peers.

His family reached out and connected with a team at the New York Institute of Technology’s Technology-Based Learning Systems, who tested and installed the simple videoconferencing equipment necessary for Liam to learn while healing at home or in the hospital.  After several months of successful online instruction, including important virtual lunch and recess with friends, he was able to return to his local school to finish the year with his classmates.  Since he had been able to maintain his social connections with peers and academic connections with teachers using the technology on a daily basis, he looked forward to returning to school with confidence.

Liam is now a freshman at SUNY Morrisville, one of the most technologically wired in the nation, studying journalism technology.  Certainly his early experiences in using technology to facilitate learning have paved the way for his success today!