1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
Computer: AMD K6-2 400, 128MG RAM
Telephone: To arrange interviews
Television Set: To watch video tapes related to kites
Video Player: To play video tapes related to kites
Digital Cam: To shoot the interview
Digital Recorder: To record the interview
Scanner: To scan photos we collected
Tape Recorder: To record the interview
Digital Cam: To shoot the interview and the procedures of kite making
Software: PhotoImpact5.0, Coreldraw9.0, FrontPage2000, Office2000, Dreamweaver
Library: Tai-Shan Primary School, Tai-Shan County, National Normal University, National Central Library,to search for information about kites
Museum: To view the exhibition in Jiu-Fen Kite Museum
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
To collect all the information we needed for our project and to understand kites thoroughly, we not only had to search online, also visited several kite making experts. And in order to have fruitful results, we had to do some research beforehand, collect and digest information, design questions for interviews, and rehearsed many times to avoid mistakes. We first went to the Kite Museum in Jiu-Fen. The curator, Ms. Lai, explained all the details to us, and allowed us to take pictures there. That's why we got a lot of special and precious pictures. Then we visited Grandpa Xieh in Taipei. He is more than 70 years, but he answered our questions enthusiastically. He even taught us how to make small kites, and how to fly them in hallway. We learned that Mr. Li often guided his students to attend kites contests before he retired. Now he retired, but he still works on promoting and passing down the skills of kite making in Pearl Community. Mr. Li's daughter in law told us that Mr. Li's health condition is not as good as before after his retiring. But he still accepted our interview invitation readily. And besides, he introduced us Sanma Stunt Kite Workshop and the leader, Mr. Feng. Therefore this time we got fruitful results, we not only completed the interview, but also brought a very special memento, a small kite. We learned information about another kite expert, Mr. Huang, from the "new arrival" section of Eslite Bookstore online. So we invited him to our school and interviewed him. At last we interviewed people from Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taipei County Government and Shi-Men County. They hosted the International Kite Festival for 2 years. We try to understand how local people contribute to remain and carry forward our traditional culture.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
Our living environment is changing, the tradition of our hometown changes as well. Many traditional customs and culture have been influenced by new lifestyle and the latest technology. Our community held a kite-coloring contest under the influences of our project. And this is just the first step. We have seen how several experts made their community different by their great efforts. And since we have learned a lot from this project, we plan to find out the special characteristics in our own community and try to make use of that uniqueness. And then we can affect other local people.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
First, we want to thank to the Parents Association of our school for the financial help. And we also want to thank Ya-Chen's parents for driving us to places we wanted to go and made the whole interviewing process goes smoothly. Our class director, Ms. You, tolerated our temporary inattention while we were working on the project. And she always support us, encouraged us when we sometimes got frustrated because of the obstruction we encountered. Mr. Jian-Xin Zhou taught us extra web page-making skills, and he also used his knowledge in art, help us to create unique web pages. So that we can have a website with good taste. And the last but not the least, our school reunion association hosted a kite-coloring contest in our community. They all contributed to help with our project willingly, but none asked for any kind of rewards.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
After having finished all the interviews for this project, Jun-Heng said," I wonder how come all the people we have met are so nice and kind. Is it because all the kite makers are born this way?" He was right; all the people we interviewed are kind. They all eager to share what they know about kites, no one wanted to hide part of a full account of kite. And no one looked down on us just because we were 6th graders. The only one time that we were denied the entrance was the visit to Dong-Shan Primary School. And it could be a result of ill communication. After that particular experience, we always kept in touch with the person or group that we wanted to visit closely before we really went to visit. And we made sure who was in charge so that we wouldn't waste any time on nothing. Although Art is something without boundary, but after this project, we found that Chinese kites are very different from kites of other countries. We're all very happy that we had the chance to take part in the whole project. We learned so much from the process and we all had a lot of fun, too. Thanks to all those who had offered their kind help, and of course thanks to our teachers for their guide!
|