School: Tsoying Junior High School
    Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ROC

7 students, ages from 13 to 14 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 10, 2001. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2000

Classes and Teachers: Horng Chiou-lan, Chiou Kuen-shan, Tang Tsui-Li

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.tyjh.kh.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Tsoying had developed as early as more than 300 years ago when the civilization of Taiwan just started. As time passed by, Tsoying remains an ancient old town and is a famous tourist attraction in Kaohsiung. You won¡¦t see the concrete jungles here. All you can see is traditional Taiwanese style bungalows and various temples worshiping different gods and goddesses. People here are warm and friendly, and are proud of the rich historical buildings in town. If you want to know more about our community, please visit the website: An Old Tribe¡¦s Story¡KTsoying http://ajet.nsysu.edu.tw/~cf13/E-Home.htm The website was built by students in Tsoying Junior High School last year, and joined the International Schools CyberFair 2000.

2. Summary of Our Project

Mr. Ye was born in the era, when Japanese Government governed the Taiwanese. He was born and raised in Tainan but spent most of his lifetime in Tsoying. As time goes by, people forget stories and people once happened and lived in the two old towns, Tainan and Tsoying. Mr. Ye writes stories that remind us of the past rough life. He also devotes himself to maintaining Taiwanese Literature. In our project, we will introduce the eminent authority of Taiwanese literature, Ye Shi-Tao. We will present his biographical sketch, writing course and his works in brief, including novels, critiques, and translation articles. In our website, you can also listen to our interview with Mr. Ye (in Chinese). We hope our website will make more and more people know about Mr. Ye, a glory of Tsoying, and Taiwanese literature.

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:more than 6

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

We used ADSL connection in our computer laboratories at school, and dial-up modem (narrow-bandwidth) at home.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We faced a lot of difficulties during the process of producing, such as problems of time, teamwork, effectiveness, skills of homepage-making etc. We almost gave up once, but later we invited two more teammates to share our workload. Because of heavy school study, we were left little time to do the project, and we didn¡¦t work efficiently. At the same time, we heard that some teams who also prepared for the competition quit, so we wanted to give up too. However, our teachers encouraged us to challenge ourselves and helped us to solve all problems. When everyone was exhausted with study and making webpages, the leader of our team watched us closely to speed up our homepage making. We were not good at making a homepage at first; thus, we spent a lot of time in trial and error. We made lots of mistakes at first so that we worked very slowly. As the deadline approaching, we worked harder and sacrificed our sleeping time. We depended on our strong will power to finish the project finally.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We conquered the biggest challenge in our junior high school life

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

We know more about the development of Taiwanese Literature and the history of Tsoying , and these parts are not fully addressed in our school curriculum. We also learned lots of Taiwan history and ideas of native consciousness. Our skills of homepage making are also improved at the same time. The most important thing we learn is how to work as a team. The project made us realize the importance of teamwork, which supported us to overcome every problem. We have arguments, anger, disappointment and lots of setbacks during the process. Sometimes, our parents were angry because they didn¡¦t understand why we spent so much time in front of computers, and neglected our schoolwork. But we supported each other. We united together. Nobody is perfect and everyone needs to learn to forgive and be forgiven .We stuck to our belief- creativeness, teamwork and negotiation. So we finally succeeded in finishing our project.

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

We used many kinds of IT tools in editing the homepage, such as: Homepage editing and layout: Dream Weaver (V3.0) Photo-scanning: scanner/Photo Impact (V5.0) Documents-producing: WordPad /Word 2000 Photo and picture editing: Photo Impact (V5.0) Sound encoding and editing: Windows moviemaker Wav. Zipping and RA-encoding: windows media encoder Digital Instruments: recorders, digital cameras, and cameras Hardware: computers and notebook pcs

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

We decided to join CyberFair contest in a rush, so we didn¡¦t have much time to plan our project. At first, we spent lots of time finding the residence of Mr. Ye. We didn¡¦t have any clue. We asked our parents and neighbors, but they had never heard of Mr. Ye, let alone his residence. Then the principal of our school helped us to contact people in the literature circle, and finally the head of Kaohsiung Education Bureau gave us Mr. Ye¡¦s telephone number. So we called and found that Mr. Ye lives just one Kilometer away from our school. Out principal also helped us to arrange an interview with Mr. Ye. Although we were not really well prepared and nervous on the day we met Mr. Ye, we still got lots of valuable information about him. We especially thank our teacher, Ms. Horng Chiou-lan, for her guidance and encouragement for the interview. We hope our project will help people know more about Mr. Ye, an eminent Taiwanese writer living in Tsoying, and appreciate Taiwanese literature.

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

Our project has successfully made more local people in Tsoying know Mr. Ye, at least our parents and neighbors now know about the eminent writer, and would say hello to him when they meet this small little old man on the street. Our website also help more students at school come into contact with Taiwanese Literature, which has been deliberately ignored for a long time due to political concerns.

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

The Head of the Kaohsiung Education Bureau ¡V Mr. Tzeng Shiann-jeng and our principal- Ms. Jou Yuh-shuang are two key persons to help us to find Mr. Ye. In order to help us contact with Mr. Ye, Ms. Jou made several phone calls and checked many documents. Finally, it is Mr. Tzeng that gave us the telephone number of Mr. Ye. We would also like to thank many teachers who helped us: Mr. Chiou Kuen-shan for offering us the best computer equipments and spending his free time teaching us computer skills; Ms. Horng Chiou-lan for her suggestions of literature and cooking dinner for us (because we stayed late at school). Thanks all the teachers in the office of the dean of studies for encouraging us. Finally, thanks to Mr. Twu Shyh-yaw for bringing us foods and drinks. Words can hardly describe our gratitude.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

When people succeed, what they remember well is the process, instead of the product. Thinking back about all the efforts we made, we truly feel they are worthwhile. Although we were often exhausted during the producing process, we have no regrets. Renoir. Pierre Auguste said that pains will go, but pleasure will stay behind. This is the force the drive us to go on.