School: Secondary School 50
    Ashgabat, Ahal, Turkmenistan

7 students, ages 15-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 15, 2007. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): never before

Classes and Teachers: coaches-Elena and Roman; students- Rovshan, Ramiz, Svetlana and Begench

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.gcetm.net

1. Description of Our Team

Our team consists of 4 members: Rovshan, Begench, Svetlana and Ramiz. All of us are of 14 and 15 years of old. We live in the capital of Turkmenistan- Ashgabat and study at the same grade of Ashgabat secondary school N50. We are interested in modern computer technologies and that was the reason of our collaboration. We are the members of Global Connections and Exchange project in Turkmenistan, which offers us to participate in a variety range of online projects. We work there under the supervision of Elena- GCE Online Projects Specialist and Roman- Master of IT in Education. We encounter realistic challenges in designing, setting up, and carrying out experience through our participation in GCE online activities, such as online exchange forums with US and Uzbek partner schools, various competitions, which required revealing our skills in web design, graphic editor and Internet. We have conducted a number of ICT workshops which helped us develop our computer and Internet skills. Thus, Rovshan and Ramiz are good at working in Photoshop and Dreamweaver; Begench and Svetlana are skillful in online forums and Internet research. Doors to Diplomacy Project has appealed to us and it is the best way for us to take the initiative. We are planning to create our own website about our country to share our riches with the globe.

2. Summary of Our Project

Arousing interest to cultural heritage of our Motherland, we’ve chosen Doors to Diplomacy category 8- Arts and Culture. One of the main UNESCO goals is to provide all the nations with the opportunity to express their own culture, because culture is in blossom while crossing with other cultures. As culture is an integral and sustainable part of our country, which reflects people’s way of life, their achievements, customs and traditions, we would like to create our own website and devote it to this issue. We’ve entitled our site as Doorway to the Riches of Turkmenistan, because we want to tell the globe about Turkmenistan’s cultural heritage: precious architectural monuments, ancient historical sites, magnificent theatres and museums, cultural landscapes, traditional games, arts and music and others. Our website will serve as a cultural dialogue of supporting peace and world unity. Participating in Doors to Diplomacy project and using new technologies we are trying to build an intercultural dialogue among other nations.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:none

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:none

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:not sure

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:1

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Our team does not have computers and an Internet access at school, we are working on Doors to Diplomacy Project with our coaches three times a week from computerized center with Internet connection of GCE project. Besides, we work offline, visiting our libraries, meeting professors, experienced in this field and then gather together at computer equipped center to compile the required material and post it online.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our team does not have computers and an Internet access at school, we are working on Doors to Diplomacy Project with our coaches three times a week from computerized center with Internet connection of GCE project. Besides, we work offline, visiting our libraries, meeting professors, experienced in this field and then gather together at computer equipped center to compile the required material and post it online.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

To pay profound respect and concern to cross cultural issues and contribute to the creation of propitious atmosphere of understanding, sharing and protecting our cultural heritage we have created our website which will be the doorway to the riches of Turkmenistan. Moreover, this website is our collaborative project, which combined and used all the previously gained computer and research skills in a new context. It is intrinsically interesting and fun for our team to participate in this project and communicate with students from other parts of the world to share our ideas and views. So all this stimulate our team to be active and creative and we can contribute and get recognition.

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

Doors to Diplomacy project is in conformity with our curriculum requirements- respecting and protecting cultural heritage. It has been the core concern of UNESCO since the organization came into being more than 60 years ago. The adoption of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity corroborated 'fruitful diversity of… cultures' in a spirit of dialogue and openness. We have conducted our research on cultural values of our country, visiting historical sites throughout Turkmenistan, national museums and libraries, communicating with our national scientists. Moreover, our team made online search to reveal websites on Turkmen culture and history. Thus, bringing all the found material together has educated in us about the fact that we are the ancestors of the great, rich and original culture being influenced on the culture of entire humankind. We also agree that online collaborative projects, like Doors to Diplomacy is one of the best ways to use exciting potential of IT for supporting coaches and their students in developing the most crucially important skill in culture teaching and learning. Promoting creativity and allowing it to flower in a spirit of freedom and intercultural dialogue is one of the best ways of maintaining cultural vitality. Access to the new technologies opens the way to original forms of expression. Since creativity concerns everyone, including us- teenagers, being developed within our coursework and revealed in writing our research at school and participating in joint projects, just show that art and culture education is a part of all school curricula.

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

Nowadays modern technology plays a paramount importance in everybody’s life and offers exciting potential for supporting both students and their tutors’ progress. So, while creating our own website for Doors to Diplomacy Project our team has applied modern technologies and software to meet the goals and high standards. We have spent many hours combining the tools carefully with critical evaluation. Having brainstormed the ideas on the topic our team chose the best one that suited to team’s interest, met standards, involved higher order thinking skills, and enhanced learning for all members of the team. Then we created a plan of our actions and selected the technology for gathering, organizing, and sharing information. We built our team’s mailing list, created a separate e-mail accounts to keep corresponding with our coaches. Two times a week we received the instructions from our coaches of further steps on project’s implementation. Sometimes, when we did not have an Internet access we discussed our tasks via phones. While working on Doors to Diplomacy Project we also met with our coaches in computerized center to chat conference at yahoo messenger. During our workshops on ITC, conducted by our trainers we’ve created the design of our website with the help of such program as Graphic Editor, Photoshop and Dreamweaver and chose the appropriate links to it. We also made online research to explore the required resources for our work. So our team has tried to use all the available modern technologies for the project’s realization.

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

Participating in Doors to Diplomacy Project was a perfect opportunity for us to act as “ambassadors” guiding the whole community around Turkmenistan’s cultural heritage. To create our own website our coaches gave us the power to be the guides and provide the other participants of the project with a virtual tour through all the country and see all the major object of interest in it, feel the local spirit, experience the country’s traditions, customs and culture. While elaborating the website our team as spokespersons made presentations at school on the project, urging the other students and tutors to participate in online collaborative projects like Doors to Diplomacy, and creating their own projects in favor of recognizing their own creative works and strengthening their networks the world.

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

Creating the collaborative project on cultural achievements of our country we pursue the goal to draw everyone’s attention on the concept of using modern technologies and web resources in particular for better and deeper learning of cultural issues. Providing students with sufficient experience and practice with using Web resources would help them develop appropriate research skills. We have designed our website with the purpose of encouraging the creative use of Internet resources and building the bridge between our classroom and real life. Our website “The Riches of Turkmenistan” introduces the community to the clue of successful and effective cooperative learning and teach how to be sensitive and keen awareness of the cultural heritage of the Motherland.

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

As our team represents GCE project in Turkmenistan, we have made a questionnaire on successful topics to discuss online and e-mailed the other participants to brainstorm the ideas. We also involved our GCE Web development and Training Coordinator in consulting us while creating the website’s design. Our classmates helped us finding the necessary information on historical sites and architectural monuments in Turkmenistan by visiting our libraries or exploring the Internet. Also our research workers and archeologists volunteered for interesting issues and historical events for the website.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Doors to Diplomacy Project is something new and fresh for us. It has opened new opportunities for our team to develop our skills of negotiating, planning, and sharing information and determine the potentials. We learned how to work together in achieving the ultimate aim. Our “Doorway to the Riches of Turkmenistan” is our first joint work where we have revealed our computer, ICT, creative and research skills.