1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
We used: computers, telephones, digital cameras, computer software, school library, books, newspapers, oral interviews, social media and Internet. In order to create the website we used the software WordPress. We learned how to work with WordPress through on-line guides and the WordPress Support Forum. We found most of the information in the school library. Our conversations with the Geography teachers and the tour guide at the Stone Forest were the most helpful sources of information we had. We used digital cameras to take pictures of the phenomena. We made contact with our friends on Facebook who provided us with pictures from their personal archives. The social network Facebook was one of the main tools for communication between the members of the team. In order to find some of the words and phrases necessary for the translation we used on-line dictionaries.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
The local newspaper „Shumenska zarya“ published an article about our project. We presented our Cyberfair project online by the Facebook page of the school and the school’s website. In addition, we presented our CyberFair project to our classmates in the IT classes, Geography and English teachers, our school librarian and our relatives. We got positive feedback along with suggestions to include a web counter in the site and make it multilingual. We also got a suggestion to create a website in English about the pagan sanctuary near the village of Madara, Shumen in order to popularize it as a tourist destination.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
When we presented the project in front of our classmates in the IT class they were highly impressed by the way our website was created and found it appealing. Some of them were inspired by our work and decided to participate in the annual CyberFair project next year. We received many positive responds from our friends on Facebook, as well. The benefits for our school are numerous: o By representing the project in our local community we are promoting the school in our city; o The students that participated in the project increased their skills: teamwork, communication, information gaining, article writing, website creation, photo editing. o The teachers improved their English, website design skills and project management. o All in all the project increased students’ and teachers’ motivation for work and learning. o The help from the parents and their satisfaction from the result of the project strengthened the 'relationship' between them and the school. The idea of our website ”The Rock treasures of Bulgaria” is to attract more tourists and help the local business. People around the world learned where our small country Bulgaria is situated, what rock treasures it has, where they are located, how they were formed, legends that local people tell about them as well as other interesting information about Bulgarian rock phenomena. In our website people can also find a huge variety of pictures.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
We are very thankful to Mr. Stiliyan Markov, our tour guide from the Stone forest, who gave us helpful information. We asked our friends on Facebook to send us pictures, about the 4 rock phenomena, from their personal archives. Many people contributed. We are thankful to: Ralica Todorova – IT specialist, Yana Slavova – member of the tourist group “Crazy-young”, Svetoslav Stoyanov – web designer, Krasimir Krumov – journalist, Luchezar Hristov – economist. Rumyanka Simeonova, our school librarian, and Zlatina Dimova and Mr. Georgi Georgiev, geography teachers, also helped in our research. We are thankful to Valentina Mincheva - a journalist from the local newspaper 'Shumenska zarya' who published an article about our project. We are thankful to Galin Tenew, an IT specialist in the Shumen company 'DenLin' Ltd., for giving us advice regarding the problems which occured during the creation of the website.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
A fact we came across was that 'the energy tourism' in Bulgaria is starting to grow. There is a large interest because of the article published in the newspaper “Chicago Herald Tribune” from the chairman of the “Culture and tourism of Northeastern Bulgaria” association – Dimitar Dichev. Dichev writes that Bulgaria is the third main energy center after Tibet and the area around Chile and Peru. 1/3 of all the energy places in the world are in Bulgaria. The rock phenomena Stone forest is the second most powerful energy producer after the area “Rupite”.
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