1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
Computers: We have 10 networked computers in our classroom, using a T1 to connect to the internet. More than half of our students have online computer access at home.
Digital Still cameras:We have access to three Sony Maciva Digital still cameras which also can take little MPEG movie clips (up to 60 seconds on one 3.5 floppy disk).
Digital camcorders: One student used her family's digital camcorder to create a movie clip.
Analog camcorders: One student used his family's camcorder to record his interview, then viewed the tape to help with his transcription.
Tape recorders: Many students had their own pocket tape recorders, and we had 3 available for check out from the school.
Software: (Front Page: We used Microsoft Front Page to create our webpages this year and found the resampling and thumbnail features to be especially useful. (Adobe photodeluxe: We used Adobe Photodeluxe to resize, improve, crop and otherwise manipulate our digital images so they would look as we wished on the web pages. telephones: Many of our interviews were scheduled on the phone; a few were conducted by phone. Some were approved of on the phone. email: We used email to show our "test" versions of the webpages to concerned memebers of the project; in one case, the interview was conducted by email. scanner: Some of our still photos were taken with standard cameras; we used a scanner at school to import those images and convert them.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
Students were asked to sit down with their parents and come up with a list of five potential local leaders. They brought that list to their teacher and she helped them pick a first choice. The person to be interviewed had to be contacted and had to agree to do the interview as well as to have their name and image included online in the project. The interviews were conducted in person, for the most part, and before the project was complete, the subject of the interview was asked to approve their part of the project. See our web page for further information.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
Students learned about the many contributions, above and beyond what might be expected, many of our local leaders make to our community. Adults in the community learned that students are interested in their contributions, and able to share that interest with the world. Again, we tell more about the impact of this project on our webpage, under the "Introduction: Problems We Overcame and Surprises We Found" link.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
Please visit our web page to learn about all the wonderful help we acquired during the course of this project. See our "Introduction" and the web page called "Problems We Overcame and Surprises We Found". Those links are: http://www.floresville.isd.tenet.edu/elementary/fes/leaders/purpose.htm and http://www.floresville.isd.tenet.edu/elementary/fes/leaders/problems.htm
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
We learned many surprising things about our local leaders in the course of doing our personal interviews. Please see the "surprises we found" part of our web page. The surprises are at the very bottom of this page. That link is: http://www.floresville.isd.tenet.edu/elementary/fes/leaders/problems.htm
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