School: Tatar school #6
    Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic, Russian Federation

two students, ages 16-17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 25, 2006. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2006

Classes and Teachers: Svetlana Kroutchinina, Gulnur, Denis

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Team

Our team members are: Gulnur Muslimova (age 16) and Denis Izhboldin (age 17). The leader of the team is Gulnur. She is interested in creating 3D graphics and learning foreign languages. She is also keen on Internet communication. Gulnur was generating ideas, troubleshooting problems, gathering information and conducting the research, while Denis took his responsibility in creating the Web-pages and took care of all technical sides that the project required. He is also fond of creating 3D graphics, animations and programming. “Doors to Diplomacy” was introduced to our team by Gulnur. When she was reading the book “Internet for Dummies” she noticed an article about Cyber Fair program and immediately visited the website. So she presented the project idea to the school English teacher Svetlana Kruchinina who agreed to be our coach. Svetlana Kruchinina welcomed the idea and gave us her full support; she also helped us with proofreading the information from Russian into English. The reasons of the participation of each student are various. So Gulnur wanted to make the world know about her native nation living in the Russian Federation – Tatars. As a Tatar girl she is eager to introduce the people in the world her ethnicity. As far as Denis is concerned he wanted to test his skills in such exciting project like “Doors to Diplomacy” contest and become much experienced in designing the Web-pages.

2. Summary of Our Project

The XXI century - is the century of the Globalization process. Assimilation is one of the most burning problems for minorities on our planet. So, the representatives of many ethnic groups are trying to save their cultural identity. Tatar nation has faced the same problem. The process of their assimilation with other cultures is going extremely fast. So in this project we would like to focus our attention on increasing of the level of national consciousness of the Tatar people. We do realize that integration into an international world is rather natural, we are eager to develop positive attitude to different cultures but maintaining national cultural identity of the Tatar people is also of vital importance. Our project introduces information about history of the Tatars, modern republic Tatarstan which is a part of the Russian federation. You will be able to find information about Kazan-the capital of the Tatar republic, political and cultural figures of the Tatar people. Besides you can learn about the activities of the national Tatar centers in the Udmurt Republic and abroad. Finally we present information about the Tatar school #6 in Izhevsk (it is the only Tatar school in the Udmurt Republic, where Gulnur studies). We have worked out a program of students’ exchange, which is also presented in our project; we hope it will be thrilling for the students who would like to take part in it.

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:1

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Working on our project we had some problems. We had to make great efforts to come in touch with some people, especially the head of the Tatar Public Center in the Udmurt Republic. We wanted to interview him but he was always busy. It was an unpleasant thing when we sent e-mail letters to some of the Tatar Societies (Tatars of Canada, Australia etc.) with requests to give us some information about their activity and didn’t get any answers!

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We have analyzed activity of some Tatar societies and made a conclusion that the rebirth of Tatar nation is possible due to activity of Tatar societies and association in different countries all over the world. In our project we tried to think over the assimilation problem of some nations and ethnic groups (Tatars in particular), which is so actual today and what can be done to save their ethnic identity.

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

Our project is totally extracurricular and voluntary. This project supports our curriculum in the English language, where we could practice our writing skills. We made great efforts to find interesting information for our project and to think over a logical structure for it. The project is also dealing with social studies. We hope that information concerning the history of Tatar nation, its culture, modern republic of Tatarstan and its capital – Kazan, some eminent Tatar people may be helpful for those people who want to know better this ethnic group. To enhance the attention of the readers we introduced some pictures and Tatar national music. In the project there is also a special Flash Movie that presents the Tatar people, their history and future prospects of development in short. Besides Gulnur is going to make Multimedia presentation of this project for school conference of research works, which is hold every year in March. Having made this project we realized the importance of teamwork and focused on the skills that an individual can contribute to the group. So we have become much more organized and active. Internet enables access to a plethora of information. It is our vision that today using the Internet for teaching and learning is more effective than traditional methods of education. Web sources are becoming much more interactive and visually attractive today so it has a positive impact to the community. Sometimes using the Internet is easier and faster (and even cheaper) than traditional ways and methods of getting information.

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

Participation in such project like “Doors to Diplomacy” required a team always being in touch. To make the project we have used computers to communicate with each other, to look for the necessary information in the Internet, to print the information and create Web pages. Telephone, SMSs and e-mails were also very helpful to be in touch with people. Scanners and printers were necessary to copy information and insert it in the project. Each of us has a personal computer, with the latest software and modern complexity (hardware). Easy computer software like Macromedia Flash, Dream waver, Fireworks and Home site helped us in designing a nice website. Libraries were a good source of information for us; so for our project we used some information which we had found in books. We also kept buying our local Tatar newspaper in case we could find the articles of our interest and we also placed them in the project. Besides we used a camera to take pictures of some people who we have mentioned in the project and a tape recorder for interviews. We shared the information about our participating in the project with a local TV program and the Tatar local newspaper “Yanarish”.

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

We do understand that a primary goal of the Door to Diplomacy program is to raise awareness about International affairs and diplomacy. People of different nations and ethnic groups live on our planet. The more we will learn each other, the better we will be able to understand each other and to be more tolerant. This way we are willing to be ambassadors of peace on our planet. People speak different languages, have different cultures but they all want to live in peace. Thus our project introduces Tatar nation and helps to solve some of their problems. Our team is going to present this project to the pupils and the teaching staff at the school scientific conference. We wrote an article for a local Tatar newspaper and took part in one of the programs of local T.V., where we tried to present the main ideas of our project. To inform people in the international community about our website, we will send e-mails to many large e-mail groups. We hope that a short flash movie, which summarizes the main facts of the project, will make the visitors more eager to look through our website and attract more people to the project. We also have made a guest book in our website where we would like our visitors to comment on the website, and share their opinions about the project with us.

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

Working out the project we came in touch with people who are not indifferent to the problems of the Tatar ethnicity. For example a visit to the Tatar youth organization “Iman” helped to strengthen relationship of this organization with the Tatar school in Izhevsk. It would be great if Tatar people, who will be able to read our project, thought over the problem of their national identity, used their native language for communication, saved their cultural traditions. We believe that the idea of the students’ exchange program suggested in our project will be fruitful. The contacts of the students of the Tatar school in Udmurtia with the Tatar children from foreign countries may be very exciting. We are really eager this program to come true.

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

As a team we needed lots of advice and help to complete the project. Fortunately there are people who really wanted to help us. So we are very much obliged to Ludmila Malykh – an associate professor of the Udmurt state university and Sarah Ford – a teacher assistant from the USA, working in the Udmurt state university as a Fullbright participant. We also would like to thank the Head of the Tatar national centre in the Udmurt republic and the members of the Tatar Youth organization “Iman” for their contribution and support.