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1. Description of Our Community
Our school is situated in Da’an District, Taipei City. Taipei City is the capital of Taiwan, known for its vibrant blend of green spaces, leisure, humanities, arts, historical landmarks, and cultural heritage. Taipei boasts excellent geographical location and top-notch transportation infrastructure, including a well-developed metro system, high-speed rail, Songshan International Airport, and numerous expressways. The nation’s only specialized school is located in Taipei, the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, located in Taipei, is dedicated to cultivating talent in traditional opera. The school offers integrated education, ranging from elementary through to a four-year college program, with the goal of nurturing top-tier professionals in traditional opera. It comprises six departments: Jing Ju, Acrobatics, Taiwanese Opera, Hakka Opera, Xi Qu Music, and Theater Arts. It also includes affiliated divisions for vocational high school, middle school, and elementary school (5th and 6th grades). The campus is well-equipped with classrooms, a TCPA Museum, a Performing Arts Center, and houses the “Taiwan Jingkun Opera Theatre” and the “Taiwanese Acrobatics Troupes”, which are dedicated to promoting traditional opera. These troupes excel in theatrical performances, art promotion, and international exchanges, showcasing remarkable achievements in the field.
2. Summary of Our Project
Watching traditional opera was once a primary leisure entertainment activity for the people of early Taiwan. The traditional opera performances were often arranged as part of the events during local temple festivals, offer thanks to gods, devotion, and benedictions celebrations. As a result, traditional opera became a key leisure activity, and watching performances became a shared memory among the public. In recent years, with the emergence of television, movies, and IT technology, the audience for traditional opera has gradually declined. People now prefer staying at home to watch TV, browse the internet, or go to the theaters for movies. It leads to fewer people watching traditional opera. This shift has led to a decrease in stage opportunities for traditional opera performances, creating challenges in passing down the art of the opera. In addition, fewer people are willing to pursue careers in this field and inherit this art form. Hence, traditional opera has begun to face an existential crisis, while many performers and arts groups in the opera field are starting to develop a sense of crisis. To address these challenges, they have since made continuous innovations and experimentation to repackage and refine traditional opera to align with modern popular performance styles and audiences’ tastes. The art form of traditional opera needs to be passed down through generations, which is why the government established the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, the Taiwan's only specialized school for cultivating talent in traditional opera. The students receive professional foundational training from their elementary all the way to university, preparing them to perform brilliantly on stage in the future. This ensures that the beauty of traditional opera will continue to last forever.
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:dial-up modem
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):
The school’s internet is highly efficient, allowing our research team to efficiently complete the research project. Sharing files on the internet enables our team members to collaborate effectively, enabling us to complete the report quickly. Moreover, the high speed internet makes searching for and collecting data quicker and more convenient. Our school has well-established hardware facilities with three computer labs and one multimedia classroom, while providing local area network, internet access, and network attached storage for all faculty and students. These make more convenient on collecting data, software teaching, and website creation. Teachers and students from the research team have internet access both at home and school, and the school also provides tablets for use on-the-go.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
1. Challenges in Scheduling Visits Due to our regular class schedules, visit activities were typically planned for Wednesday afternoons. However, the organizations and experts we planned to interview were not always available at these times, which caused delays in the visit schedule. Although we were unable to complete the visits as originally scheduled, we ultimately overcame these challenges and successfully conducted the visits, enabling us to complete our research project smoothly. 2. Challenges in Scheduling On-Campus Discussions Most of the discussions and meetings time for the research project were used as our lunchtime breaks and Wednesday afternoons. However, there were some class activities which conflicted with the schedules, making us unable to attend. Additionally, we also had to take care of class assignments and exams, which often delayed the progress of the project activities. Good thing, through persistence and teamwork, we were able to overcome these challenges and successfully complete the project. 3. Challenges in Creating the Webpage Since the research results needed to be presented on a webpage, the teacher arranged lessons during lunch breaks and Wednesday afternoons to teach us webpage creation, such as design, image processing, text editing, and layout, in a computer labs. It was quite challenging for us as beginners. But after a long period of learning and overcoming difficulties, we were finally able to complete the webpage. 4. Abundant Information, but Challenging to Organize After finalizing the research topic, our team began dividing tasks to collect data about Henan Opera from the internet and the library. Since the information was rich, each of us had to spend a lot of time to read, analyze, and organize it. We gradually organized the information, and then eventually distilled the key points into concise content for everyone to able easy browsing and understanding quickly.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Our school has been consistently participating in the International Schools Cyberfair. This not only holds significant value for both students and the school, but also offers students opportunities to gain more knowledge, broaden their horizons, engage with experts and scholars, and learn skills in information application, surveys, communication, and collaboration. The most memorable part during the participation is the process of completing the project step by step —from the initial idea to the final submission. In fact, the process was quite challenging that we encountered many difficulties. But we would consider and figure out the way to address the issue and overcome the obstacles to complete our tasks.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
1.Integrating with the Domain of Language Arts Through collaborative learning, discussions, and communications, students made progress in research planning, questionnaire design, data collection, data organization and analysis, webpage creation, research report writing, presentation preparation, while having a significant improvement in insight and writing skills. 2.Integrating with the Domain of Arts and Humanities We compiled the materials organized during the research process, along with records and photos from our visit to the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, into a dedicated project webpage. We hope to share our research results with everyone. To further promote the art and culture of Henan Opera to a wider audience, we specially invited two fourth-grade classes to listen to our Henan Opera presentation, aiming to help them learning the Henan Opera culture quickly and easily, while appreciating the beauty of the traditional opera together. 3.Integrating with the Domain of Information We used digital cameras and voice recorders to document the people, places, and events we visited, capturing every detail along the way. We also utilized the school’s internet to search and collect information and assigned tasks for writing the research report. Most importantly, we applied the skills and knowledge we have learned in webpage creation to create a webpage showcasing our research results. Through the participation of the International Schools Cyberfair, we were able to share our work with others.
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