On May 6, students from nearly 100 schools worldwide will collaborate and share ideas in the first-ever Megaconference Jr., a web-based conference hosted via Interent2 technologies.

The conference, which is organized by and for K-12 students, emulates a widely successful Internet2 event called Megaconference.

For the last five years, Bob Dixon, chief research engineer at Ohio State University, has organized and hosted Megaconference, the world's largest web-based video conference with no central location.

Nearly 1,000 people from five continents participated in Megaconference V, which took place last December in three sessions totaling 13 hours.

With various musical performances and demonstrations, Megaconference V played like a light-hearted, amateur talent show where participants from around the world--many of whom wore funny hats--took the spotlight for a few minutes to show their talents and the capabilities of Internet2.

One presentation, for example, showed video clips of Northern Quebecois children banging on electronic keyboards as their Canadian instructor taught them music from a remote location. In the course of the presentation, viewers learned that the project first started with remote violin lessons but was so successful organizers expanded it to keyboarding.

The conference proceedings were broadcast in real time with the highest quality video and stereo sound, so participants could watch the events on a full screen and not miss a single whisker, wrinkle, or expression on the presenter's face.

Megaconference Jr., which puts the Megaconference concept into a K-12 context, is the brainchild of Kim Breuninger, instructional technology specialist at Chester County Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania.

"We wanted our students to see what is going on in education around the world," she said.

Megaconference Jr. intends to bring schools with Internet2 access together so they can create sustainable partnerships in which students collaborate on projects and learn from each other, Breuninger said. Already, 10,000 schools in the U.S. are connected to Internet2 through sponsoring universities and partners.

Only schools that have Internet2 access are eligible to participate. Approximately 98 schools and districts from nine countries--Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Iran, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, and the U.S.--registered before the April 15 deadline. Schools from 22 U.S. states will participate, and 74 people offered to make presentations.

Student and teacher teams volunteered to organize and complete the entire Megaconference Jr., including activities such as building a web site, taking registrations, troubleshooting technical requirements, defining the program's structure, creating promotional materials, and more.

"The idea is that this would be student-lead," Breuninger said. Students made the majority of the decisions, while teachers acted as facilitators.