School: Shanghai Community International School
    Shanghai, Shanghai, China PRC

4 students, ages 15 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 16, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): 2009, 2010, 2011

Classes and Teachers: A. Brill, Marco, Koji, Rintaro, Harrison

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Team

Harrison, Marco, Koji and Rintaro are all 15 years old. Creating a website for Doors to Diplomacy was a requirement for the 9th grade Language Arts class. The groups where chosen by the the teacher Mrs. Brill. Harrison created the website and contributed many on the paragraphs to the websites. Marco contributed most of the text for the website, while Rintaro and Koji contributed by improving their new found English skills.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our doors project is about internet censorship, specifically inside China. We talk about the pros and cons and how diplomacy can help.

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):

Due to the fact that we are located inside the world's biggest firewall, China there some issues in finding videos to put on the site however these where easily circumvented.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The problems that we had to overcome included the internet, issue with email communication, language barriers, being inside China, trouble getting to content blocked by China. Email communication did not always work smoothly throughout this project. Language barriers between members of the group for whom English is a new language.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This has been a major learning experience for all involved.

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

We used the MLA format as part of the requirement for this English class project. We used internal citations, too.

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

Macintosh computers are provided to students in our school so we had a total of four computers used in this project.

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

We will share information about internet censorship in China for those who are outside of China's borders. It is our hope to build understanding of the limitations created by the internet restrictions imposed by the government in China.

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

This project will probably not make a difference in China as many do not even realize the degree to which the web is restricted. Those who are aware are mostly concerned with making a living, also those who wish to circumvent the censorship can easily accomplish it as long as they have the technical and financial resources to accomplish it. There are free ways to circumvent the censorship as well.

We've received feedback, but it was focused on what we had written, not the issue, which was a little disappointing.

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

We enlisted the help of several people to act as spelling and grammar checkers. This is critical since most of us are science types or non-native english speakers.