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NORTON - After breaking her leg playing soccer last month, New Testament Christian School student Liz Cianci returned to class, although her teachers couldn't see her.

She could hear them, though, with Skype online telephone software on laptop computers in her Walpole home and in school.

Liz, an 11th grader, became the first New Testament student to attend class that way.

Classmates would wheel the laptop computer on a cart that listed her schedule to her classes, where the next teacher would place the computer where its camera could see the lessons, science teacher Frank Allen said.

Liz has since returned to school part time. However, she now uses Skype to attend religion classes in the school's second-floor chapel while she stays on the first floor of the school on Route 140 near the Taunton line, according to her father, Tom Cianci. He called the wireless home-school connection "amazing."

"Liz could talk to her teachers, and they could talk to her. It was pretty cool," he said.

"The first day she had it, kids stayed after school and they were having a regular conversation, just as if she was there."

Principal Lynne Brennan said the setup arose after school officials and the Ciancis discussed how Liz "could keep up with her classmates."

She broke her right leg playing soccer for the Norton Knights in September.

Brennan said her son Kevin was familiar with Skype and donated a laptop computer for Liz's use.

The computer didn't have a camera, though. So, Liz could watch the lessons from home, but her teachers and classmates could hear but not see her.

Allen said the setup was "a little awkward at first, because she didn't want to be on camera because she's shy."

"After a while, she would respond if she would answer a question," he said.

The camera's limited range also affected Liz's interaction in the class, Allen said. "Seeing the board was difficult," he said.

Allen said students with long-term impairments would benefit from attending class through Skype.

"It gives them that social contact," he said.

Brennan envisioned New Testament using Skype perhaps next summer.

One senior's parent may be deployed overseas, and "might not make his daughter's graduation," she said.

School officials would use Skype to allow him to attend, Brennan said.

New Testament also could use Skype if a public health issue closed the school, she said.

"You can keep the education going even though the students are in many places," Brennan said.

MICHAEL GELBWASSER covers Norton for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.