School: Fongbin Primary School
    Hualien County, Taiwan, Taiwan

31 students, ages 11-12 years of age worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 10, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004

Classes and Teachers: Yang-Yuan, Lee

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.fbps.hlc.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

According to the legends of Ami Tribe, long time ago, a group of southern islanders lost their way in the sea. Only a brother and a sister survived the ordeal when they finally drifted to Taiwan’s east coast. In this beautiful paradise, they built a family that became the ancestors of today’s Ami Tribe, the most dominant tribe among all on eastern Taiwan. The place we call Fongbin today used to be called Maogong. We will use our wisdom to renew and enrich the heritage from our ancestors. We will be a part of the new Maogong’s legend.

2. Summary of Our Project

The most representative activity in Ami’s traditional ceremony is “The Harvest Festival”. However, the traditional ceremony has lost its original sense, due to the influence from the imported culture. People tend to have a false impression that it is merely a ceremony of drinking and dancing. Even the young Amis are unable to identify themselves with the precious tradition. Thus, the cyber fair provides us an opportunity to go deep into the tribe, interview the chief and elder, and discover the real meaning of the harvest festival. Then bringing the tradition back to school and retain our own Ami culture.

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:4-6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

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

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

We utilize the tribe’s newly built computer room, which was donated to Fongbin village by Indigenous Peoples Commission. Coordinated by Hope Agent Development Association, EHS (ET Home Shopping) also donated to our school one computer system, one digital camcorder, and one digital camera.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1.From computer-illiterates to fast-paced learners: We stared with no computer knowledge at all. This project motivated us to learn basic word processing and web searching skills. 2.From generation gaps to bridges: With only limited capability of communicating in native language, we seldom had any talk with the older family members. Thanks to the interviews conducted in this project, we learned that there were so many stories from the generations before us. 3.From isolation to cooperation: The relationship among students used to be thin and loose, so was that between school and the community. This project, like a catalyst, brought students, school, and the community together into the same mission. We started to see things from other’s point of view. 4.From viewer to doer: In the process of simulating Harvest Festival’s preparation, we were transformed from being spectators to being participants. 5.From disarray to integration: The coordination efforts got more complicated with the number growth of participants, so was the control of the project’s schedule. We had to sort out all the detail information collected and organize them into the framework of the project. This required the team spirit from every member in the project so we all could keep focused on achieving the goal.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

In retrospect, we have earned ourselves a priceless experience that allows us to appreciate the changefulness of life. We should be giving thanks to all the dear friends who helped us, and a big applaud for ourselves because we had given this project our best.

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

1.“Joint Venture”: To incorporate this project into classroom curriculum, it was decided that the 30 students of this class would all participate, so everyone would have a sense of being a part of this venture into a common goal. 2.Everyone is special in his or her own way: We do not want to see anyone one get left out or ignored. Therefore, all research and delegation decisions were made by the whole class after through discussions. All students were divided into five groups to encourage competition and teamwork. The trust we built in this team environment will help us face future challenges. 3.The warm welcome from the community: We walked into the heart of the village, interviewed the Chief and the Elders to recover the soon-to-be-lost knowledge, and brought those precious resources back to the school. In this process, we brought together the community and the school curriculums. 4.Build from the ground up: School’s curriculums place priority on developing Ami culture. Therefore, our first choice from the beginning was to study the main event of Ami culture – Harvest Festival. In the subsequent stage of course planning and design, teacher placed the project contents research into three sessions of flexible curriculum, three sessions of Group Activities, and three sessions of Arts and Humanities, totaling 9 class sessions and Wednesday afternoon. In addition, we made arrangements with Academic Affairs to place those courses in the afternoon when it was the best time for coordinating the helps from community volunteers and parents. We could then make the best use of our time doing research, interviews, and discussions together. This way, we mobilized all the resources to accomplish our goal of completing the research at the best of our efforts. This also accomplished the educational goal of project-based learning. 5.Learning and growing: In retrospect, we ask ourselves “What we have learned from this?” The answer must be the “growth.” We practiced the social manner for an interview. We learned the mutual respect for other’s opinions. We learned the lives of our ancestors. We picked up the information technologies. We understand more the importance of cooperation. The growth in all of us is real.

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

1.Hardware: a.Digital Camera b.Digital Camcorder c.Digital Voice Recorder Pen d.Computer Network e.Television Set 2.Software: a.PhotoImpact b.FrontPage c.MS Painter d.MS Word e.Power Voice f.PowerDirector Pro

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

1.Playing the acting role: We have to learn to encourage ourselves to take active roles in the shaping of this project and to gain some degrees of independence from adults and teachers. 2.School’s recognition: Our participation in International School CyberFair 2004 was announced by the principal in the student’s morning assembly as a drive to move into digital world of education. 3.Parents’ consent: Parents learned from the teacher in the Parent Education about what we were thinking and what we were doing. 4.Community Resources: Working hand-in-hand with the community, we started from the village. 5.Virtual World: With the help of computer network, we connected with students and parents from other schools, and people from other villages. 6.Voices from our hearts: We worked hard and now we can present our creation to the world via Internet.

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

1.This is the way to learn: We stepped out of the classroom. We met with people who were glad to communicate and discuss with us about our project. In our community, we found its appeals to us and an interesting chapter in the textbook of our lives. 2.Harvest Festival revisited: Beyond the ceremony of drinking and dancing. Harvest Festival should be for expressing the appreciation of gifts from Heaven, presenting a memorial of the ancestors, extending the fellowship within the village, and instilling a teaching for the offspring. 3.Another kind of Harvest Festival: To improve the village’s impression upon visitors, we, from the viewpoint of innocent children, would like to propose following changes: a.Drink responsibly. b.Don’t spit betel nut juice without discretion. c.Open the events for photographing. d.Open the events to people from other villages. Our opinion may be regarded as childish, but we are hopeful that the future events of Harvest Festival will be more enjoyable, more pleasant, environmentally friendlier, and distinctively better.

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

1.Text: The textual contents of this project were collected, abridged, and translated from both the interviews with the elders and the speeches by community leaders. We had obtained their consents to publish the stories. They will also receive a hard copy of our final web pages as our appreciation for their contributions to this project. 2.Art: The 30 students in the class created all the artworks, stroke-by-stroke by using Little Painter software. Everyone gave thumbs-up to our artworks, which were amazing to ourselves as well. 3.Pictures: Our student photographers, Xuhuang and Yising, took all the pictures by digital camera, after receiving consents from the person who was to be in the picture. The pictures were then transferred to computer for editing.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1.The importance of mother language: There was a language barrier between the interviewees and us because all elders cannot speak Mandarin well enough and we cannot speak Ami language at all. We have to rely on the interpretation assistance from big brother Jhihcheng. However, for us to understand fully our older generations, we have to start learning our mother language. 2.The sanctity of the Village Chief: We were very nervous during the interview with the Village Chief, fearing that we might say something stupid that made him angry. Unlike our usually romping selves in the classroom, we were as meek as the huddled kittens when we were at his house. You have to understand that Village Chief is like God to the rest of us. 3.Age strata: The tribe’s age strata system creates social order by segregate all young people into several age strata. People in upper stratum are responsible for supervising those in lower strata. This is how the village’s social order is achieved. 4.The care from the society: The Little CyberHero project from Hope Agent Development Association was the starting point that led us out of the tribe. From them, we felt the heart-warming care from the society, which gave us the motivation that propelled us.