School: Ogilvie High School
    Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

4 as students, ages 13, 14, 14, 15 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 21, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2003

Classes and Teachers: Anneke, Anita, Ayda, Courtney, Mrs. Roslyn Teirney, Mr. Tee Khin Lim

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.ogilvie.tased.edu.au

1. Description of Our Team

All members of the team are in the ninth grade at Ogilvie High School in Australia. Anita is thirteen and is involved in a wide range of sports including Badminton, Outdoor Cricket and Rowing. She also dances and is in school choirs and bands as flautist and percussionist. In her spare time she likes to read, play piano, hang out with friends or just have fun! Anita decided to participate in Doors to Diplomacy because she thought it would be a great way to improve her computer understanding, build up team co-operation skills and learn about becoming a good leader.

Courtney is fourteen and enjoys academic pursuits more than sport, but plays netball in winter. She also enjoys music and is in school choirs and bands, playing French Horn and Trumpet. In her spare time she likes to read, go to the beach, and talk to friends. Courtney decided to participate in Doors to Diplomacy because she thought it would be a great way to learn more about the world, technology and leadership skills as well as a great challenge.

Fourteen year-old Anneke enjoys outdoor sports such as sailing, surfing, skiing and other sports. She also enjoys music and is in school choirs and orchestra as violinist but her talent an an artist and sculptor is her greatest claim to fame at school. Anneke decided to participate in Doors to Diplomacy because she thought it would be a great opportunity to learn new skills including team work, technology and leadership skills.

Ayda, fifteen, enjoys swimming, playing hockey, shopping and listening to music. She participates in many activities at school such as choir, guitar ensemble, school sports and competitions. Ayda's English teacher introduced her to the Doors to Diplomacy competition and she agreed to do it because it sounded like fun. Doing the competition has introduced new skills, especially in the technology area.

2. Summary of Our Project

The theme of our site is Women’s Winning Ways of Leadership. This is a very important theme to our team, as we are from an all-girls’ school. We would like to acknowledge the fact that women can be just as good as male leaders. Throughout time leaders have usually been recorded as males. Only in the last forty years have women been beginning to gain recognition for their skills in Leadership. On our website there are heaps of interesting and fun activities for visitors to do, from games to quizzes, finding out about the past, present and future of women in leadership. There are discussion forums and polls, which allow people to express their opinions. From our site, individuals can learn how to be a stronger leader and also gain awareness of their personal leadership potential.

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):

We used school computers – one each, digital cameras, scanners and library resources. Software included Microsoft products: FrontPage, Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Paint, Image Composer, Internet Explorer v.6, plus Hot Potatoes Half-baked Software, Yahoo Pagebuilder and the school e-mail server. Free software located on the Internet included advertisements and we took a lot of time to find the best products for us. The internet and telephone facilitated communication through e-mail and live conversations, vital during our summer break, so we were able to send and receive updates from our coaches, organise meetings and pass along important information. The www also provided a pool of endless knowledge through which, with the appropriate permission, we were able to find and use information, images and other items, vital to the content of our site. As word of the competition spread, many people told us of the location of other resources we could use.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

During the process of Doors to Diplomacy we had two main problems that we found hard to overcome. The first was the time of the year the competition extended over. Because all of our team members live in the Southern Hemisphere, the majority of the competition spanned over our Summer holidays. It was hard giving up our few precious weeks of freedom from school to do school work! Because of our dedication to the project and our realisation of the bigger cause, sacrificing a few weeks became easier. The second main problem we had to work around was only being able to use one computer during the holidays. As Anita was the only team member who possessed our elected web page building software we were based at her house during the holidays. Using our cooperation, communication, organisation and negotiation skills, each team member could arrange to use the computer at different times. Perseverance and a willingness to learn was essential to being able to master new software as members started with little or no knowledge of building web pages.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

To the team students, Doors to Diplomacy means dedication, commitment, sacrifices and perservering through the project when it seems impossible to complete.

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

The US National Project Standard, as supplied by Doors to Diplomacy, related closely to the Australian criteria for English and Society And Environment (SAE or Social Science). Therefore we were able to negotiate with subject teachers times we could spend on the project, something we had never done to this extent before. When we started in 2002 we were in the same class for English and SAE and both teachers allowed us classtime to develop our DtoD site. In 2003 our team was in different English and SAE classes, providing a new problem, but through our negotiations and compromises we were able to meet as a team often. Our site addresses all of the National Content Standards to varying degrees. Although our focus standard was ‘Individuals, Groups and Institutions’, demonstrated by our multiple biographies and Hall of Fame. We addressed the Content Standard called ‘Time, Continuity and Change’ through our work on Oprah Winfrey and her leadership through the media. ‘Power, Authority and Governance’, was addressed by our pages explaining how different government systems work and our work on Marie Curie covered ‘Science, Technology and Society’. Our biography on Gloria Steinem completed our coverage of the Standards, addressing ‘Civic, Ideals and Practices’ through her work on Women’s rights. Through working on ‘Doors to Diplomacy’ we have discovered the leniency of our once ‘strict and unforgiving’ subjects. Our teachers were a great help in introducing and supporting various competitions to the class. We were given the freedom to work on extra competitions or syllabus work as long as we negotiated what criterion we would be assessed on. Through the completion of Doors to Diplomacy we have discovered new ways to direct our education to suit our talents and limits.

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

We used school computers – one each, digital cameras, scanners and library resources. Software included Microsoft products: FrontPage, Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Paint, Image Composer, Internet Explorer v.6, plus Hot Potatoes Half-baked Software, Yahoo Pagebuilder and the school e-mail server. Free software located on the Internet included advertisements and we took a lot of time to find the best products for us. The internet and telephone were most valuable. These facilitated communication through e-mail and live conversations, vital during our summer break, so we were able to send and receive updates from our coaches, organise meetings and pass along important information. The www also provided a pool of endless knowledge through which, with the appropriate permission, we were able to find and use information, images and other items, vital to the content of our site. As word of the competition spread, many people told us of the location of other resources we could use.

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

Our first experience as “ambassadors” was when we had to meet Ms. Bennett, the school principal, to explain to her what the project was about. We had to ask Ms. Bennett for permission to represent ourselves as Ogilvie High School students and we also had to learn the necessary protocols for addressing people we do not know. Another case where we have had to present ourselves in person is when we spoke in school assemblies. Our Grade Supervisors invited us to inform our peers all about the project challenge and we made presentations at the start and at the climax of our work. This has helped us to promote the value of diplomacy in international relations and has inspired some of our peers to visit our site and join in the forums, offering their insights to allow us to have an active, lively discussion threads. Our Grade Supervisors are proud of the work we have done because we have shown dedication to the task and we know this because they have asked us to address our grade assembly twice. When we spoke to Grade 8 and 9 assemblies in a way we were ambassadors for the organisers of the competition because we were explaining the vision and aims of the sponsors and organisers. But as participants in the competition, we are ambassadors for Australia when people come to our pages, because we present the values of freedom and respect for all people that citizens of our country value highly.

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

Our website has not been up for very long but we have made plans to increase the number of visitors to our site and the number of visitors who return to it. Our website comprises of interactive activities such as our discussion forum. Our discussion forum is there to allow people to express thoughts, ideas and opinions. Our team will also contribute to the forum by replying to people’s comments and questions. We hope that our interactive biography quizzes educate those people who are willing to try them. The point of the quizzes is obviously to educate people but is also to reinforce the fact that users of our page have learnt or already know things. We also made a quiz based on the theme of our site “Women’s Winning Ways of Leadership” to make people aware of their opinions about leadership in women. Through our biographies we aim to raise awareness of international affairs. The people we did a biography for were Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Smith, Oprah Winfrey and Marie Curie. Their life stories are used to make our site visitors aware not just of international affairs but also of their own potential and skills, which could make them great leaders in future. Even though our website has not been up for very long, our coaches and teachers who have viewed the site while it was under construction have thought that the approach we are taking to foster initiative, cooperation and learning beyond the classroom is suitable for the age group we are aiming at, which is upper primary-junior high school. Over the past six months that we have been involved in this project, we have noticed students and teachers often discussing 'Women's Winning Ways of Leadership' with us, hence we already feel that our website project has made an impact on our school community. In the future we would like to see this positive effect extend all over the globe, through the power and influence of cyberspace.

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

Each week we met after school in the library, where we were supported by our coaches. Here our teacher-librarian, Ms Lorene Furmage, and all members of the library staff got to know us and supported our work by staying beyond their official hours to enable us safe access to library resources. Late in 2002, we approached the Discover staff of the Tasmanian Education Department, who host a student web forum, to ask for permission to moderate a forum on leadership. This was granted. Many students in our school have contributed to the forum, discussing their opinions on various threads. Besides our coach, several of our teachers have taken a warm interest in this project, particularly our Social Science teacher, Mr Neville Milne, and our Information Technology teacher, Mrs Cheryl Davis, and Grade Supervisors, Mrs Sigrid Pitt and Miss Elizabeth Rockliff. Other subject teachers who have let us out of classes or helped us in various ways were Mrs. Wendy Hull, Mrs. Jenny Morgan, Mrs. Jean Walker, Mrs. Jane Williams and Mrs. Ljiljana Armstrong. Our Principal, Ms Judy Bennett, has been very interested to see what we could achieve and she personally encouraged us to focus on Women Leaders, so that our page could inspire girls at our school.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

As a team we discovered many new things while developing our Doors to Diplomacy project. We learnt a wide range of interesting facts about the women we featured in biographies. While doing these biographies we learnt about different leadership traits and how they are used. Women leaders through time and change all have similar obstacles to overcome. We think it is wonderful how we found the motivation to learn to use technology without having much prior knowledge. In our school we were recognised for our contribution to this project. We gave talks in Assemblies and gained a mention in the school newsletter. Our project involved other members in the community such as various schoolteachers and our parents. We needed advice on technology use, copyright laws and time management. It is amazing to think of all the useful skills we have mastered whilst participating in this competition. Through this practical challenge we've been involved in 'action learning' through and about all these issues - group work, team building, time management, technology use, conflict resolution, planning and organization and, most importantly, leadership skills.