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1. Description of Our Community
Tian-Mu is located in north part of Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, the Republic of China. It is well-known for its exotic culture. Due to the early Japanese colonization and the residence of American troops in the 50's, it still has two schools for foreign expatriates, Taipei Japanese School and Taipei American School. The exotic atmosphere appeals to more foreign residence and makes it a special community with international scope.
Tian-Mu however is not just the community with special foods and entertainments. When exploring deeply, the kindness of the residents is like the lights of dawn, warms every heart of the community.
2. Summary of Our Project
St. Anne's Home was established by a Holland Father G. Beunen in 1951 in Tian-Mu. It is a nursing home for local seriously retarded children. The project leads the students to this incredible place where people are loved and cared without hesitation. With this project, the students discovered the story of some dedicated Fathers and Sisters starting a loving "home" with bare hands in a foreign land. With this project, the students knew how love and care can be organized and persistent. And the most important of all, the students learned not just to tell a story but actually carry out the spirit, they give their love back and help to make St. Anne's Home a real merry land in earth.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:1
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:4-6
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Our school uses optical fiber to connect the Internet. We set up firewall, and adopt NAT system to complelte the environment. Except our web server, we link every server with Linux system and build up the whole Intranet environment, thus provide basic services. All the students involving in this project have either wide-band Cable or ADSL services at home.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
The students have faced the following problems in this project:
1.The Language: The Fathers and Sisters in St. Anne's Home speak little Chinese, so we asked the English teacher in our school to come with us when interviewing them.
2.Team cooperation and coordination: Because the team members are from different classes, we have to arrange some extra time to meet together and talk things out. Luckily, we are all responsible for the extra tasks and aim to do the best for the project.
3.Limited resources of the project information: The current data about St. Anne's Home is scarce. To do this project, we had to do the first hand investigation. We did the field work and intervewed the Father, Sisters and fellow workers frequently.
4.Different schedules: People involving in this project had different schedules, to work on the project smoothly, we needed to communicate more often and kept every one updated. Our team leader and advisors helped a lot.
5.The facility: The facilities in our school lab and the teacher's place are sufficient, however, some of our team members had limited softwares at home. So some of us had to stay at school late to work on the tasks.
6.Technical obstacles: Most of our team members were fresh to this CyberFair. Some of us even were novice of doing web pages and processing images. We made mistakes all the time. So when we were not familiar with the techniques or faced new technical problems, we asked the senior members or our teachers for advice.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
After the project, students know how to communicate with others well and take care with seriously retarded children. Teachers also get connection with their community and create the school-based curriculum.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
In Taiwan’s new Grade 1-9 Curriculum, it focuses on the abilities students can actually carry out, not purely the knowledge in the text books. It also emphases on the skills students have to learn from their living experiences. We did this research basing on these ideals and insisted on “Students are the main learning substance, teachers are the guide.” process. From the topic of the project to the last step of the production were all did by the students. This project was totally made on their own.
During the research activities, students had to design a web page frame, they also had to submit their proposal to St. Anne’s Home to persuade them to agree on the project. They had learned how to plan and organize a project, how to arrange their schedules, how to collect relevant data, how to get the access to potential helpers. They had known how to explore and investigate. Moreover, they had learned to respect and care the philanthropy institution like St. Anne’s Home. They learned the spirit of the organization, shared and spread their affections to more people. Through the project, students not just understood the latest technology but the touching moments from real life. They learned how to work with people, how to express themselves, how to communicate with others. They learned all these abilities by actually doing them.
Although St. Anne’s Home is in our community, before this project, people didn’t quite get to know it. While now the community should concern more about the great people and the things they do to our society. The School-based Curriculum and the awareness of local education also encourage students to explore into the community and concern the minor groups. This project had leaded the students to carry out the concepts.
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