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1. Description of Our Community
The proverb “Tainan as number one city, followed by Lukang and then Monga” indicated the importance of Lukang in the history of Taiwan's city development. Marine shipping between Lukang and Quanzhou started in Qianlong 49. Immigrants settled in Lugang and were engaged in trade. As the immigrant population gradually increased, more hometown culture and art were brought into this town by the immigrants; subsequently, the prosperity of economic activity led to the development of temple culture in this town. Quanzhou masters in succession came to Taiwan to build temples, and thus various size wooden products, sculpture, painting and other skills were also rapidly emerging. Japanese introduced 'Inami carving' during the Japanese colonial period to teach Lukang masters to make furniture accessories “Room Bar' and exported them to Japan; at that time “Room Bar' production became a popular industry in Lukang; delicate and detailed carving also cultivated a lot of carving talents. Taiwan started to develop intensively toward the northern and southern metropolis in 1945. Since then the economic development in Lukang waned, but Lukang retained the traditional skills, especially in the production of wooden furniture. In addition to retaining the traditional tenon technique, the production of wooden furniture has more strict requirements on wood materials, techniques, and carving than the production of wooden furniture by machine for mass production of furniture. Hand-making is slow but they are good works and unique, and are worthy of collection.
2. Summary of Our Project
Furniture is daily necessity, which has a very close relationship with our lives. As we know, a sturdy fine wooden furniture can accompany us for a long time; however, people are unfamiliar with the wisdom of sophisticated manufacture procedure of the traditional wooden furniture and the art of this product. Nowadays, traditional arts division are gradually reduced. In Lukang many workshops were still engaged in traditional furniture production and design to retain the production techniques, actively to promote mentors to continue this traditional craft heritage and to expect breakthrough and innovation. In this case study, we collected information associated with the historical evolution of traditional furniture, manufacture procedure, tenon structure, decorative techniques and symbolic meaning, and visited arts division’s wooden furniture artistic creation, conducted several implementing and experience in order to have more understanding of traditional furniture. Besides, the web production also wants to let more people understand the traditional skills.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:21-50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:2-3
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
It was a brand new learning experience for students participating in Cyberfair 2015. The students used to be led and taught by teachers in the past, but for this project, they are required to collect data independently, visit teachers that have expertise in various areas, and participate in experiential activities. The major problem for the students was the change of the way they learned. Fortunately, through teamwork, sharing, communication and coordination, they finished all researches and activities.
Besides, we did not have enough time and know how to make web pages. It was difficult for us to find a time that we were all available for activities since all students are from different classes. Sometimes we had to ask some students to sacrifice their regular curriculum. Therefore the research progress was very slow. As to the use of computer technology, it took time for them to learn and get familiar with the application of all software, in order to produce a great Cyberfair project website.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
I learned many things that I could not learn from a regular school while working on the 2015 Cyberfair project. For each activity, it was very important that we teamed up to accomplish it. Everyone had to do the best to contribute. I also learned that it was not easy to be as good as teachers, unless we have very strong perseverance to insist and proceed to the end. All experiences are very valuable and helpful to me.
We had chance to have better understanding of our traditional culture through this activity, and promote our culture through the Cyberfair project. What we had done might be a combination of technology and culture! We let people realize that Lukang does not only have tourist spots, snacks, and historical sites, but it also has a unique calligraphic culture.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The purpose of Grade 1-9 Curriculum is to nurture democracy literacy, compassion, awareness about the local and international communities and the ability to synthesize knowledge so as to develop lifelong learning skills. The curriculum should anchor on life and respect different personalities. It aims to develop the ability for explorations and reflections and encourages the concern over the society, the environment and the nature. The purpose is to establish in-depth understanding of and identification with local cultures, as well as to respect and appreciate other cultures. For the Cyberfair project, we discussed the project topic, “wood furniture”, developed the project plan, distributed work, walked out of the campus to interview folk artists in the community and learn the cultural background, techniques, and symbolic meanings of traditional furniture. We have learned, appreciated, and identified with the excellent traditional arts of our hometown. By searching information on the Internet and producing webpages, we learned to organize the knowledge with the technology and take the initiative in exploring things. During the process, all members worked together and helped each other, as well as taking the initiative in solving problems. All fields of Grade 1-9 Curriculum and local curriculum were blended into our learning, and the spirit of Grade 1-9 Curriculum was truly implemented in our study.
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