 in face-to-face settings. As a result, students can tackle cultural and political issues-such as those involving terrorism and the war with Iraq-that they might be reluctant to do in a classroom. One student told Merryfield that "online discussions are like a veil that protects me" and allowed her to "feel safe enough to ask the hard questions" of other students in her class. The student noted, "People respond to text instead of a person's physical presence, personality, accent, or body language." Online classes have another important advantage: they allow all students to participate equally. In traditional classes, it is found that discussion are gen- erally dominated by a few students. In her Web-based classes, Merryfield estab- lished rules that set minimum and maximum numbers of messages each person posts. "There is no possibility of a few people monopolizing a discussion, nor is anyone left out," Merryfield says. One of the main ways students communicate in the online class is through threaded discussion-an interactive discussion in which a person posts a message, people respond to it, and then people can respond to those responses. Threaded discussions can be much more meaningful and in-depth than tradi- tional classroom oral discussions, says Merryfield. "Discussions take place over several days, SO people have time to look up references and share resources," she says. "They have time to think, analyze, and synthesize ideas. I have been amazed at how these threaded discussions increase both the depth of content and equity in participation." Overall, online courses can provide significant advantages for teaching global education, Merryfield says. "Online technologies are the perfect tools for social studies and global education, as these fields focus on learning about the world and its peoples." "This provides opportunities for teachers to expe- rience a more global community than is possible face to face." However, she adds, "All of us do need opportunities for face to face experiential learning with peop