School: Hua Gang Junior High School
    Hualien City, Taiwan, R.O.C.

13 students, ages from 14 to 16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 15, 2001. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2000

Classes and Teachers: Wei Cheng-Hua

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://210.240.67.2

1. Description of Our Community

Hualien, located in eastern Taiwan, is long and narrow county and it is very convenient for everyone to arrive here from other counties, even foreign countries by all kinds of transportation. Its back is close to the Central Mountain Range, but it faces the Pacific Ocean. As it is crisscrossed by waterways, the scenery is beautiful. The four seasons are very similar and the weather is warm and comfortable.  No matter what you want to do, even for making our home, establishiong a factory,or having the business, Hualien is an ideal place.

2. Summary of Our Project

This project is about several famous people that have different occupation and certain power in Hualien , even some of them are not natives of Hualien. We utilize the kind of "interview" to introduce them for you and show their own special qualities. We also hope that you can pick up something interesting and useful as your own suggestion in your life.

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:dedicated connection

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

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

There are two computer classrooms. Each one has about forty personal computers. Besides, each counseling office and instructor office has about two or three computers. So, we have enough equipment to do the project. The district web system at school is optical fiber cable, which can link to the web center through ADSL. The up-loading speed of ADSL is 512k per seconds, and the downloading is 2mb per second. We, at least, are satisfied with the speed, although it sometimes would be out of control. Out of class, some of us would do the project with Hinet or in certain ISP store. However, the condition is not very stable. The speed is not so fast. In a word, we just use them in order to finish our project.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The first and the most important problem we met is lack of the suitable time we can cooperate with each other. Some of our teammates want to go to the cram school, take a trip to foreign countries, join the orchestra, or do the science and math competition. We can hardly fine a ¡§suitable¡¨ time to get together to do our project. So, we decide to divide all of our teammates into several groups. Each group has a leader. Those leaders can really discuss the project together. Then, the leaders have responsibility to inform the MSG to their teammates, and each group has to finish their assignments in time. That is our solution to overcome the time. Besides, we also had to overcome the big problem, distance. Most of the subjects we interviewed are far from us, like our county magistrate, the chief councilor and so on. So, we tried to ask our teacher and other people to help us finish the whole interview. It is extreme hard for us to translate our whole project into English edition. Our mother tongue is Chinese, not English. We often feel that we cannot find the suitable English words or sentences to fit in our project. So, we would ask for our instructor, like Professor Cheng Da-chi in I-Lang, to translate our interview a little bit. And, thank all the people for helping us.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We have learned more by making this project. We not only learn the beauty of Hualien , but also know the great righteous in Hualien. Besides, we also understand the importance of cooperation. We know how to be a leader and how to lead your people to finish a work. At the same time, it has strengthened our relationship.

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

We know there has had a problem that the people in Taiwan always lay more stress on the courses, and ignore the importance the local or the humane education. Probably, we students do not know where we are or who the great people are in Hualien several years later. That will make us so embarrassed.   Local education is one of the most important elements in Taiwan now. We teammates take seriously to get in touch with the intimate environment, our Hualien. We know those who are in fame and honor in all kinds of occupations, and this is not what we could learn from the school or the books. We should find it by ourselves.       We also have got the importance of politeness and how to make a plan to interview the subject. Then, each of us does our job by myself. After finishing our own work, we would get together to collect the whole elements into the project. For example, the leader, at first, divided the whole project into several elements. That is because we want everyone has the work to do, and do what he or she are good at. Like the front page belongs to Hawaii and Ming-sheen, Shein-wei, Cheng-cha, Wendy are typewriters. So, each of us does have assignment to do. Finally, we cooperated with each other to finish the project. Originally, we sought to do the project by the Flash. However, all the computers could not scan the homepages by Flash. So, we still utilized the FrontPage to do the project. Finally, we think that learning from the Net is easier and useful than in the classroom. We cannot just study in the thin books or the narrow space. Sometime, we should get rid of the concept that students only can learn from the teacher and in the classroom. We should know students could learn everywhere. In this way, our students can be more creative in our schoolwork.  

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

The information tools and technologies we utilized include:

 telephone¢winterview those who are not in Hualilen.  digital cameras¢wpicture the process of interviewing the subjects and show them on the Page.  scanner¢wscan the subjects¡¦ private pictures and show them on the Page.  tape recorder¢wrecord the contents of interviewing .  library¢w know any MSG about the subjects before interviewing and is easy to question them.  books and newspapers¢wget other useful MSG about the subjects and put in our Page.  oral interviews¢wthe basic tool to interview the subjects and the real way to get in touch with the subjects.¡@Photo Impact5.0, FrontPage 2000, Word 2000, Word Pad, Internet Express, and Outlook Express¢w the tools of finishing the project. ¡@ Our school offers 16 computers for us to urge us to learn how to make the homepage, even set up the Information Club. All of the computer equipments are used when we need. Beside, the recorder and the printer we use are the award we won in other Homepage competitions. The most useful tool is the tape recorder, because we always interview the subjects. If we just record the words from the subjects by the pen, we could not collect what they said. The only way to record their words is to use tape recorder. We will not lose any words and important points. Besides, the Photo Impact5.0 plays a very important role in making the project. It let us make the Page so easily.

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

First of all, we find the books or any information that are associated with the subjects in order to what they are. Then, we tried to make some questions about them. So, we often collect those MSG from the newspapers, TV, books, cyber net and so on. Secondly, we use the basic and the most useful way----interview---to get in touch with them. We interviewed them in person or by the phone. And they also felt excited at the interview and showed their passion to us. They also volunteered to offer their private pictures or other MSG for us. It really helps us improve our contents of the project. After interviewing, we would show them on the Page ASAP. In this way, a lot of people would fine some mistakes we never pay attention to, like the China Times, the local media and so on. Then we could re-new our Page again and again in order to make the perfect project. We decide to do the project continually, even the competition is over. We deeply believe that this is an very meaningful activity.

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

The subjects of our project are the famous local ambassadors (present and past). We all hope that we can show their greatness to all the people. We can learn their ways of being a hard-working man and humble attitude and get some teachings from them. They are the real models for us. They are a nice example of local and humane education.

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

At first, we, all the instructors and our teammates¡¦ parents, discussed who we wanted to interview and made certain categories. In the process of interviewing, each of the subjects volunteered to offer the pictures and MSG. It really made us learn more. The interview of Tzai Yaw-shing, a crippled life fighter, really touches our deep heart. He was so excited at our interview. He volunteered to come to our school and received our interview. He showed how he lives at ease, even he has no both hands. We really admire his active attitude. Cheng Chan-ming, the marathon player, volunteered to offer his own valuable news MSG. The Wang county magistrate offered his administrative items or reports for us. Teacher Yeh Ryh-shung lent his masterpieces to us and also told us where we should do. Pro. Li lead us to appreciate the amazing world of stone, fossil and so on. Besides, we have to thank the help from each members¡¦ parents. They offered clues, and offered the transportation to take us to interview the subjects. We can not finish the project without their help.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

First, we learn the steps and skills of how to make an interview and the importance of cooperation. Secondly, we found what the Hualien¡¦s humane culture is and what the local culture is. We know there are more and more righteous maintain the sprits of Hualien. Although we still do not know what the real culture is, we know where the Hualien¡¦s energy is.