CyberFair Project ID: 4742

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Litson-Lechon
Category: 4. Local Specialties
URL: http://cybercie.net/project2007
Bibliography: http://cybercie.net/project2007/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=53

School: Centre for International Education
    Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

25 students, ages 14-18 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 15, 2007. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2003,2004,2005,2006

Classes and Teachers: Teacher Michael A. Avergonzado and CyberCIE Team

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.cie.edu

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

In South-east Asia lies an archipelago of 7,107 islands. This is the Philippines, the pearl of the orient seas. Its population is 76.5 million people as of the year 2000, all living within the 115,739 sq. m. land area. The country has been divided into 3 major areas. The southern most area is called Mindanao, a nature paradise. The northern area is called Luzon, a densely populated area that contains the country’s capital, Manila. The area that lies in between is called Visayas, where you can find the queen city of the south, Cebu.

Cebu city is our local community. Known to be the fastest growing economy of the country. It goes without saying, that Cebu is the heart of business and recreation of the Philippines. The place where you will find everything you need and everything that you will ever want. The sites will captivate you, the culture will entice you, and the food will definitely keep your mouths watering. They say that Cebu is the tourist’s gateway to discovering the rest of the Philippines. This well known fact is the edge in our CyberFair project.

Cebu’s unique character is also due to its people. People here are very hospitable. They are also independent, self-reliant and posses a joyful nature.

However, amidst all its charms, Cebu does have its vices. Our community is notorious for political instability. This hinders Cebu’s full potential to bloom. Knowing this, we Cebuanos won’t stand for it. Youth groups and organizations are very common. With elderly mentoring and assistance, the youth are united and are voicing out their concerns. Together we believe that we can make a difference. Our community is synchronized against a common cause and the youth are inclined to become a catalyst of change.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our CyberFair Project is about the local specialties of our city, Cebu. We chose local specialties because we want to be able to present the interesting, and the tastiest, parts of our culture to the rest of the world. Viewers all around the globe are welcome to view this website and to indulge themselves in learning a little bit more about our city.

This CyberFair Project presents the Lechon Trilogy: Lechon Baboy, Lechon Baka, Lechon Manok. We have provided information on each of the types of “lechon” that Cebu City is famous for. The site is complete with the what? (what lechon is exactly), the where? (places that you can buy lechon from), the when? (its history), and the how? (how it is cooked) of each type of lechon.

Another thing that you can see in our site is business tips for those of you that are interested in the Lechon business and how it goes. The Centre for International Education prides itself on it’s incorporation of entrepreneurial skills in the core curriculum. So, we have included an inside view of the lechon business, how to start and manage one.

Our CyberFair Project contains quite a good number of visual documentation (pictures) and multimedia animation. We warn our viewers that these may cause excessive craving and hunger pangs. We hope that we have given our viewers an informative, interesting and delicious view on Cebu City’s local specialties.

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):

Pentium IV computers were used in the completion of our CyberFair project. Computers that run on Windows Microsoft XP and are connected via a Local Area Network. This is on a dedicated service line.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

There were many problems and obstacles that our team had to face during the making and completion of our CyberFair project. Problems and obstacles that were easily remedied as we accustomed ourselves to the whole creative and learning process of the said project.

When asked, we would all agree that TIME was of a great issue here, for the CyberFair team is composed of students coming from different levels and each with different schedules. We were also flooded with lots of schoolwork and extra-curricular activities that ate up a lot of our time. This scenario made finishing the project difficult. So as you can see having the whole team in a meeting was a rare occasion.

Luckily before everything else, we were able to surmise three (3) important factors needed to make our project a success, these are, content, technical, and of course graphics and animation.

With this knowledge we were able to solve our current problem. How? We created three (3) sub-teams with the same timetable to work on the project when they are able to. Each team was in charge of the completion of a designated section given to them out of the three (3). In each sub-team a capable individual was handpicked to delegate the work to rest of the members and to be able to oversee troubles along the way.

The content, technical and graphics and animation team leaders would then meet every week to state progress reports. This way we were able to keep track of everything and were able to make sure that everything is going right on schedule so that we will be able to meet the given deadline of the CyberFair project.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This participation in CyberFair meant a lot to all of us and is definitely an experience that we will never forget, for it has shown us the wonders of our country and made us more proud of it than ever. It has also enriched us with skills and knowledge that we will definitely never find in our classrooms. The project also allowed us to embark on a unique and different learning journey, letting us explore more about our own country.

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

Our headmaster, Teacher Anne Alberece, allowed us access to the computer laboratory during afternoon from 4:30pm to 6:30pm every Mondays to Fridays. The laboratory is equipped with Pentium IV computers that allowed us to work with the Macromedia and MS Office applications software in the course of the project.

In the development stage, we were given access to a remote site to get actual results when testing our prototype website. The content writers made use of the team website( http://cybercie.net ) for their communications and updating articles for the project. The website allows us to proof-read and comment on a writer’s article before they are transferred to the actual site.

The Cyberfair project gave us the opportunity to apply what we have learned in our web development course from levels 9 to 12. We were taught from the basic HTML/CSS, PHP scripting, and content management systems for dynamic websites. We were taught basic applications in Microsoft especially in MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint and, MS Access. We also studied the modules in the Cisco IT Essentials 1 to understand some hardware and software concepts. In web development, we had the Macromedia/Adobe standard course materials. We had Fireworks for graphics design and web templating, Flash for animation and interactive interfaces for our presentations and websites, and Dreamweaver to write, edit, and deploy scripts.

Our Information and Communications Technology teacher made us use a course management system called “Moodle” to allow us to collaborate online, easily share resources, and submit required information for class.

For us, the Internet has been a tremendously helpful tool, not only in education, but also in our day-to-day activities.

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Project Elements

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

In order to fully accomplish the CyberFair project, we applied a wide variety of information tools and technologies.

In gathering the data we needed for the content, we made use of oral interviews, personal immersions, video and digital cameras, and the internet. In order to put together the content and the website, we occupied a computer laboratory in school with several computers with internet connections, computer software, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, and Adobe Photoshop CS2, and a website content management system.

The individual teams provided personally for the data gathering tools. However, our school provided for the computer laboratory and internet connections along with all the necessary computer software.

The most valuable tool for us was the availability of the computer laboratory for our use. The teams took great advantage of this, and accomplished a pile of tasks in a short period of time.

The technology that greatly helped us was the website content management system. This was a new technology, and it enabled us to collaborate our individual accomplished tasks efficiently through the internet. This made information and file sharing within and between the teams seamless.

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

From the word ‘ambassador’, the very common impression would be, important people, and people whom one cannot just simply approach.

Yes, in a way we acted as ambassadors, but only to the extent of representing our school and the whole Cebu community. This is where the similarities stop though, for we made it a point to be very approachable people. People who one would not shy away from. In order to be able to write a veritable description on our topic lechon, one should be able to interview and interact with a wide variety of people, and the interviewer should be someone who one would not be reluctant to open up his/her mind to.

We were able to alert them to the importance of the lechon, and now they can add one more thing to their lists of ‘Uniquely Cebuano’ and be proud of it.

We asked the same people what their reaction was to our CyberFair project. Everyone thought that it was a great idea to highlight one of Cebu’s best. They said that one can never get enough of people like us. People who would devote time and effort into putting Cebu right out there, where everyone can see it in all its glory.

We are basically showing the community a group of students who take fierce pride in one’s country in the vision of becoming a catalyst for change. We believe that in order to create change, one must have the initiative to start it, and with this project we are looking forward to accomplishing that.

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

We believe that this CyberFair project will renew the Cebuano’s pride to one’s culture.

What was once mistakably thought of as just a favorite party dish is now regarded in a new light, and this has led to the discovery of more things, simple things really but more things nonetheless that we Cebuanos can take pride of.

We had envisioned a reawakening to what was obviously a dormant belief to the Cebuano culture. With our CyberFair project, we were able to influence a large number of people, but compared to the whole population of Cebu, it can be considered a petty size. People would say that our efforts were put into vain for our message would not reach every citizen of our community. We would say otherwise, for we believe that in order to be able to make a great change to one’s society, one must start out with a single small drop to a body of water known as our community, and from there on, count on the ripples and waves that this single drop would cause.

Our website will be frequently viewed by people and in just a matter of time the knowledge of our culture will spread like wild fire and Cebuanos all around would be walking with confident strides. A boost in confidence can affect one’s outlook on life and one’s attitude towards work making people assets to one’s community and not liabilities.

The great change that would take over Cebu will attract attention and will infect all our neighboring communities like Negros, Siquijor, Bohol, Leyte, and eventually the whole Philippines will become empowered.

Some would say that this is all a great dream, but as CIE students, we were taught that what we all have come to understand as reality now were once just dreams before. The best way to predict the future is to create it.

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

There are a great many people who we would like to extend our thanks. People who were there to lend us a helping hand and who provided us with unbiased opinions on the final output of our CyberFair project. People who in the middle of a heated argument between and within the teams provided light and cool judgment. People who encouraged us and pushed us through our full potential. People who never ceased to believe in us. To our teachers we are truly grateful.

To teacher Mike, we appreciate the fact that when we had computer problems you were always there to fix them. You also made yourself available to every computer related questions that the team had. In short, work became a breeze, thanks to you.

To teacher Anne, teacher Rhena and to teacher Beth, we valued each and every little comment that you freely gave. There were missing factors to our CyberFair project, factors that we overlooked, but your comments filled those missing pieces and for that we are gratified.

In times of great weakness, when we felt that we couldn’t go on due to exhaustion, our parents were there to lend us their strengths. To our parents, many thanks for being understanding, for not limiting us, but for broadening our perspectives instead. Thank you for constantly reminding us to think outside the box. This constant reminder resulted to a lot of various ideas that were instantly applied to our CyberFair project.

Almost everyone in our school influenced us and our decisions, in some way, regarding the CyberFair project, and we express a great big THANK YOU to you. Two (2) simple words but heavy with meaning.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

In the process of creating and completing our website, we made a lot of surprising discoveries and we learned much. The CyberFair team is happy to experience and learn more about Cebu’s famous specialties. Each member is proud to say that they learned something new with this experience.

Lechon used to merely be an enjoyable local delicacy, but we have come to appreciate it more with our discoveries of how it was made and its history. We also learned lechon has an important role in our rich past. We discovered how deeply embedded “lechon” is in our history.

As an entrepreneurial school, we eagerly learned as much as we could about the business side of lechon. It was an interesting discovery to see how good the lechon business is doing. We also learned that this keeps the lechon very much alive in our culture.

It was a surprising and amusing sight to see our members, during our research outings, eating lechon in the more traditional way, with their hands! Another surprise we encountered while making our website. We were in the computer laboratory of our school, quite pleased with the amount of work finished. Suddenly, there was a blackout and for a few seconds, everyone was still. Then the team erupted in noise, some laughter and some frustrated cries. We were afraid that our work was gone! Our teacher came in the room; he was very amused and was practically laughing at our reaction. Then he told us that our server had a UPS, an uninterrupted power supply. We were surprised and relieved that all our work was not wasted.

The CyberFair project was a very interesting experience for the whole team. We hope that the excitement, interest, discoveries and fun that we experienced can be reflected in our work.

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