<<< Press Room Kids Interact with Santa, Learn Life Science Lessons of North Pole Over Polycom Video Conferencing Systems Virtual Rides on The Polar Express Conducted December 9-15 for K-3 Classes PLEASANTON, Calif.—Dec. 1, 2004 -- Santa Claus and Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the leading provider of unified collaborative communications (UCC) solutions, today announced another in the annual series of chats with Santa that classes around the country hold each year. This year’s interactive, forty-five minute lesson, entitled “A Virtual Ride on the Polar Express” and provided by Vision-Quest Services (www.vision-quest.com), will be presented by Santa Claus with the help of Prancer, one of his famous reindeer, using Polycom video conferencing systems in schools and at the North Pole (actually at a real reindeer farm in South Dakota.) Each video session, connecting up to 4 schools at a time and classes from kindergarten to third grade, teaches life science, geography, language arts, math and reading through a series of lessons in the four days prior to their interactive Q&A with Santa. Children make their own train tickets and build their own trains out of cardboard boxes using math (two- and three-dimensional shapes) on the lesson plan for day one, science experiments of jingle and hand bell wavelengths on day two, and geography and the environment of the North Pole on day three. Students then email Santa describing what they have learned and ask him further questions about the North Pole and his reindeer. The lesson with Santa on the fourth day covers what it is like to live in the North Pole, the mammals which are native to the region and have migrated there, and what reindeer eat as well as how they grow. Students conclude the four-day lesson by writing stories about their journey on the Polar Express and publishing them in a book for the class. “This is the fourth year for these popular Polycom video conferencing sessions with Santa,” said Elaine Shuck, executive director of Black Hills Smart Centers in South Dakota. “In the three years we’ve been conducting these sessions we’ve connected 100 schools and several thousands of students around the U.S. with Santa. One Texas teacher says this year’s topic will help her students learn about other environments as the majority of Texas students have never seen snow or a live reindeer. We are fortunate this year to have Vision Quest Services managing the events and providing connections through their satellite network.” “Polycom is proud to be the official video conferencing provider to Santa and children throughout the world,” said Craig Lynar, vice president of vertical solutions marketing at Polycom. “Polycom video conferencing is an established teaching tool in the world’s schools and universities bringing students together from around the world in sessions as crisp and clear as if they were all in the same room, as well as specialized content from expert sources – all of which ensures educational equity for even the most remote students.” Pricing and availability Go to www.vision-quest.com to book a virtual session with Santa for your class from December 9-15. Classes start at 7:00 a.m. MT each day until 3:00 p.m. and are 45 minutes in length, priced from $75 to $500 depending on the number of schools connected and the level of interaction with Santa. The media is invited to attend local sessions by participating schools or to view the sessions which can be streamed. About Polycom Polycom, Inc. is the world’s technology leader of high-quality, easy-to-use video, voice, data and web conferencing and collaboration solutions. The Polycom Office™ is our continued commitment to make distance communications as natural and interactive as being there by providing best-in-class conferencing solutions that are interoperable, integrated and intuitive to the user. The Polycom Office is based on industry standards and supported by an open architecture that promotes interoperability in multi-vendor environments and complements leading network infrastructure platforms. For additional information, call 1-800-POLYCOM (765-9266) or +1-408-526-9000, or visit the Polycom web site at www.polycom.com. Polycom and the Polycom logo are trademarks of Polycom in the U.S. and various countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2004, Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved.   <<< Press Room