School: EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN COLLEGE
    FAMAGUSTA, EMU, CYPRUS

2 students, ages 15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 17, 2006. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004, 2006

Classes and Teachers: TEACHER: MRS.GUNCEM KINAY COACH: MS. SEVIM EROL TEAM MEMBERS: MS. ULVAN OZAD, MR. ZEKI ILKAN

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://emc.emu.edu.tr/

1. Description of Our Team

Last year Ulvan OZAD and Zeki ILKAN participated in the CyberFair web based project competition with “Dance of the Needle”. The project was announced as the Platinium Winner in the category of Local Specialities. This year they decided to go international! Both participants are 15 years old. Ulvan and Zeki are planning to study medicine during their higher education. Ulvan is the workaholic who is never tired of looking for detailed knowledge about the project theme. Additionally, she conducted an interview. Zeki is the designer of the website. For the past two years he improved his Flash skills immensely which is clearly evident in our project. To put it mildly, his graphics skills is out of this world. As for our coaches, we really don’t know how to thank them. Mrs. Guncem Kinay is our supervisor. Last year she pulled the trigger and there is no way she could get rid of us since then! She is extremely diligent in her work as ICT teacher. She is always looking for a new challenge. Hard work is her strength. She helped us make contacts, assisted us in getting permission to use the music. She helped Zeki while learning Flash software. Never say die attitude is her trademark.

Ms.Sevim Erol is the school’s librarian. She could work for 24 hours and never complain about it. She is extremely polite and she has a heart which wouldn’t even hurt an ant (this is local saying!) That’s why we called her “The Aunt”. She was a great help in searching materials for the project. She is the master in Googling. Not a single day of her’s passes without Googling. This was a challenging opportunity and we are absolutely thrilled with participating in the event. We just cherished this opportunity. You can bet on it that we will be around next year as well!

2. Summary of Our Project

Turkish Cypriots describe their period until the mid 70’s as the days of blood, sweat and tears. After the mid 70’s comes the days of isolation from the world. After we were born we lived with embargoes and bans. Sanctions occupy our minds. We try to describe how it feels like to live in “caged independence”. However, hope never dies. This is the theme of our project and we end our project with a high note. We want the ultimate solution and open up the new door in our lives: a unified island with hearts beating as one.

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:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

In our school, there are 2 computer laboratories each with 24 Pentium IV computers. All computers have access to the Internet through Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) with 1536K uploading speed and 384K downloading speed. Our ICT Teacher is the administrator of the computer centre as well and she gets technical assistance from the Computer Centre of Eastern mediterranean University. We use computers to access networks by 56 dial-up modem link through various network providers at home.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

First of all, there were little written materials about human rights and judicial reforms in North Cyprus- either as hard copy or as an information on Internet. Hence, we had to roll our sleeves and talk with as many people as possible to gather background information concerning these issues from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus point of view. We had the problem of contacting people, especially academicans, scheduling interviews with them because they are busy people and our proposed interview topics needed a good preparatory stage. We worked around their schedules and made sure the interviews were brief. The busy timetable of our school meant that we had to do our research as quickly as possible. We have finished our project but we had some ideas which couldn't be materialised. However, it is a good idea that you allow projects to continue on for the coming years.This is only the beginning for 'The Quest for Ultimate Solution' web site. Also, we live far away each other and we could only meet each other during the school hours. We had the problem of contacting people, especially academicans, scheduling interviews with them because they are busy people and our proposed interview topics needed a good preparatory stage. We worked around their schedules and made sure the interviews were brief. Overall, we don’t have too much to complain about. All these problems are minor ones which is not a great concern to complete the project. We are just grateful and thankful to be given the chance to participate in the event.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We feel extremely pleased to use our talents and skills to work on The Quest for The Ultimate Solution web site. It helped us to learn about the peace and democracy attempts throughout the world. We gained knowledge about the problems we were not familiar with. Especially the violations of human rights, and unfair elections. Additionally, we gained detailed background information about the history of our own country and the roots of the Cyprus problem. Before the project, we were thinking that we had little human rights. Nowadays we believe that our problems must be solved but in the meantime we are grateful that our problems can be solved easier compared to people having to stand violations of human rights in their own country. Coming from their close friends!!

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

Until now, we used to read other people's views and do little questioning. This time we had to prepare something for other people. We had a role of learning first and then organising what we had learned. Next, we sent the messages we wanted other people to receive. We learned to question in great deal. We tasted critcal thinking. We questioned technological devices we have today. We had to listen carefully and understand what was being told because we had little material to rely on concerning local human rights practises. All these are not included in our curriculum. When we started this project we thought we knew lots of the facilities available on the computer. Then, we discovered that we knew very little. We do lots of surfing on the internet. When we rolled our sleeves and started to learn Flash, then we discovered how life could be difficult. But in the end, we know one more facility of computing. We learned how to work with patience and; certainly, appreciate what other people does quickly. Another learning experience was working as a team. Shouldering responsibility, organising brainstorming sessions, organising team work, criticizing without harming feelings, and covering the ground as a group of people is what we did. Sharing became a part of our lives. We felt stronger than ever before.

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

These are the information tools and technologies that we used: 1.Mobile Telephone:To contact with each other, to arrange interviews and to discuss each day's work. 2. Digital camera:To frame anything which looked interesting, to capture resources as many as we can and then load it to our computers without too much of a hustle and certainly without having it to be printed by the local photographer. 3. Computer & the Internet: : P4 1.6 GHZ, 256 MB RAM, 10.4 GB HDD. For editing photos, recording findings, sending and receiving e-mail's, surfing for more information, 4. Computer software: Photoshop, Paint ShopPro8, Macromedia Flash MX, Microsoft Office XP, FTP Program, and PowerPoint 5. Scanner: To scan some interesting old pictures of craftswoman and newspaper articles. 6. Tape recorder: We used it in the interviews. 7. Photocopier: To read photocopied articles at home.

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

We learned a lot by talking and discusing with everyone, we learned about human rights, democracy and the Cyprus problem. We will inform our school by putting up announcements, and we will show our site to certain clubs and classes about human rights. When we conducted our interview, the people were most interested in our project. In fact, we are even thinking about providing our work to the Human Rights Foundation so that they can air it on their web site.

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

Our project will have a profound impact because we will be able to reach teenagers with our website, and they will learn new things about human rights and the Cyprus problem and hopefully pass this information on to others. We hope that the impact will be an increased awareness of the issues related to peace and democracy all over the world and contribute in raising consciousness for those who try to help create a better living conditions in a country. Our project will help people become more aware of what is happening outside their own countries and expand their minds to other parts of the world. Our self confidence in meeting new people, talking to them and getting the information we want is clearly better off. Our communication skills have improved tremendously. We know how to create a web site by using Flash software. Organising all the information into an understandable and presentable unit is another thing we learned. Another important factor is that we have tasted education outside classroom and textbooks. Our teachers and peers are aware that more field work should be conducted especially concerning our cultural heritages. Our awareness in peace and democracy matters has increased immensely. We feel that we have more knowledge about our country and human rights. All these factors helped us gain self respect. All our teachers are really proud of what we have done. Many of our friends are already queing to take part in next year's project. All the people we contacted for information showed respect towards us. At such young age, they didn't expect us to gain detailed knowledge about the Cyprus problem and the peace and democracy struggle going on around us or far away from us.

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

This project clearly puts forward that schools should not be kept apart from the society. We should be in close contact with our community and also be in contact with other societies as well to see what everyone else is up to. Learning should not be limited and by getting out of classrooms and getting connected to other people via the Internet to share our knowledge is extremely important. While doing the project, we had many friends and teachers giving us a helping hand. Whoever we contacted volunteered to provide us with every bit of knowledge they had. We had our Information Technology teacher heavily involved in our project. Our librarian never hesitated to help us with finding resources. Sortly, whoever we approached to take thier views and ask for information provided all the help they could open heartedly.

Special thanks to: Mr. Mehmet Ilkerli for spending many hours with us to provide us ideas about the development of our web site and his extraaordinary skills in creating graphics, Ms. Emine Erk, the Chairperson to the Human Rights Foundation, who enabled us to gain useful information concerning human rights, Mr. Meric Erulku, Superonline Director, for providing us free web site opportunity and technical support for the web site, Mete at Superonline, for acting like lightning while getting the domain name.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Ulvan: I am more optimistic than ever that the Cyprus problem’s edging towards the final countdown. I am aware of what goes on around us concerning peace and democracy. I think that everybody should sacrifice more so that all the human beings could get the same sort of enjoyment for coming to life on this beautiful planet of ours. Zeki: At the beginning I was really excited about doing the project with Flash software. However, as I learned more about the human rights problems I considered myself a lucky person and wondered why the Cyprus problem has taken so many decades to be settled once and for all. Nowadays, I am really optimistic that the USA and the EU countries will push more than ever to bring a solution to the Cyprus problem. We are that close! However, I just hope that the isolation of Turkish Cypriots will come to an end before any kind of solution. No one can satisfy me that sanctions could continue forever. Over the population and keeping away people from their land has no justifiable answer.