School: Pingtung County Laiyi Elementary School
    Laiyi Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan

19 students, ages 12~13 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 16, 2006. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): none

Classes and Teachers: Teacher Hui-ming Su, Teacher Hui-cheng Chu, Teacher Ming-hsuan Gwang, Teacher Gui-hsiung Nan; 19 students in Grade 6 Class A

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://163.24.87.140/modules/news/

1. Description of Our Community

Laiyi Township is located at the foot of Dawu Mt., southernmost Pingtung County, and is also the native place of Paiwan Tribe and “Sun”. Laiyi is characterized by a great number of suspension bridges, totems and waterfalls as well as river shrimps and Zaco platypus. On the way to Laiyi, you may find many streams. And, five waterfalls are distributed around the entire Danlin area, such as Danlin Waterfall and Twin Waterfall at upstream. In the summer time, marvelous cliffside spring can be seen at the time of abundant precipitation. When walking to Yiting Village via Gulou Village, you could witness innovative totem sculpture of the indigenous people and Danlin Suspension Bridge-- previously longest one in Taiwan. Laiyi Township is really a natural resort.

2. Summary of Our Project

Laiyi is proud of its wonderful scenery and indigenous people, this is why we would like to introduce it to you. In this website, the tourist attractions of Laiyi area are highlighted. In addition, many interesting and funning places haven’t yet been discovered.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

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 is hooked up to the network via T1 line. Generally, we hope the children to collect required data during the class. Due to slow networking speed of the campus network, the children are required to complete the unfinished school work at home or Internet Café with the help of ADSL.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1. Selection of Subjects:At the very beginning, only narrow subjects were prepared as we didn’t got familiar to Laiyi Township within a short period of time. Then, some items were added to the website. Finally, existing subjects of website were decided. 2. Traffic:It took us 40~50 minutes to arrive there as Laiyi Township is located at the foot of Dawu Mt. Though the traffic conditions to Laiyi have been improved a lot, attentions shall be paid if riding during rainy days. 3. Visit to Elders:We paid a visit to the elders after a delay. As some of them could speak the Mandarin, a teacher is required to act as a temporary interpreter for us.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This was the first time for us to attend the activities of Little Digital Hero. Though some elder schoolfellow gave us instructions, we felt anxious to meet the teachers and children of the elementary school for the first time. However, what really happened made us very satisfactory, since they were very lovely and thoughtful beyond our imagination.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

This is the first time for the student team---from Laiyi Elementary School and the tutor team--from Information Management Department of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology--to attend such an event. The purpose of the theme is to make the Little Digital Heroes have a bettering understanding of their tribe or community. The Little Digital Heroes are required to collect data on-site and incorporate them into the website. Meanwhile, volunteer teachers just give them a hand with their computer know-how. Through local sightseeing, cultural tour and other special activities related to the courses, this Project would make it possible to combine the themes with the community, tribe and courses.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

1.DC, DV, image capture card: Field interview, visit, taking pictures during class, video recording by WMV format. 2.Internet: Looking up data, communicating with the teachers and Little Digital Hero via e-mail, MSN and volunteer teachers. 3.Scanner: Electronic documentation of school reports and pictures of Little Digital Heroes, and uploading to the websites. 4.Printer, copier: Printing school reports and teaching plans. 5.Telephone: Telephonic linking between volunteer teachers and our teachers, or between the teachers and interviewee. 6.MP3 : Data access and recording. 7.Computer Software: FrontPage, Dreamweaver, PhotoImpact, Ulead GIF Animator 5......

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

Since the teachers are local people and very familiar with the scenic spots, the Little Digital Heroes were led by them to make a tour, including Shelefafawu Park, Erfeng Canal, older tribes, and then interviewed with local citizens. Chief Ching-yung Liu answered many questions and told us many legendary stories about the tribes. Nan-feng Tu of NanFeng Arts Sculpture Studio and Yan-juan Gao of Yilin Shijuan Studio explained to us many types of embroidery patterns and their typical meanings for social status. Finally, we dressed ourselves in the clothes of indigenous people.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

1.Insufficient computer equipment:With only 2G memory, every computer of the campus network isn’t equipped with many software, and operates slowly, making it difficult for on-line navigation. 2.Poor computer teaching effects:According to the teaching plan: 1 time every week, 2 hours each time, every Little Digital Hero shall learn how to operate computer step by step. So, everybody had to wait for a longer time, and has a little time of learning. 3.Frequent activities in the school:Due to frequent meetings or activities in the school, sometimes the teaching time was shortened to 1h. 4.Further insight into tribes by Little Digital Heroes: The themes of this Project would provide a further insight into the tribal culture, tourist sites and fairy tales. 5.Resource sharing:The geographical location, tourist attractions, traditional culture and fairy tales of Laiyi Village, etc, are uploaded to the website for the worldwide people.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

The Little Digital Heroes wrote learning diaries themselves, covering the tourist attractions and related activities with the help of some reference books (see the reference); some data were collected from field interview and recording, while quoted articles were marked clearly.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1. In an interview with Ms. Shi-juan Gao, it’s learnt that only noblemen could wear lily in the old times. But, there is only ALISITAN or Physostegia virginiana in Laiyi Township. Lily is the cultural sign of Sandimen. Laiyi Township and Yilin Township are proud of dark embroidery, especially for the people of Laiyi Township who prefer dark color and consider it as an honorable color. But, the people of Sandimen Village and Taiwu Village prefer bright color, such as: yellow.

2. Through this event, the Little Digital Heroes realized that they could learn knowledge and their tribal culture in a flexible and comfortable manner, and also build up their capabilities by creating a website with many ideas and data.

3. When leading the Little Digital Hero to Shelefafawu Park along a rugged footpath, we were a little afraid of them, but some of them said, “never mind, we’re mountaineers. Never fear!“ How brave they are!.