School: Elementary School
    Nanao Township, Ilan County, Taiwan

16 students, ages 11-12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 19, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): no

Classes and Teachers: 2

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.bhoes.ilc.edu.tw/

1. Description of Our Community

Piho Community is situated in Ilan County, at the southern-most region of Nanao Township. The majority of the residents are Atayal, with a population of over 1000. The townsfolk are proud to be known for an abundance of three things: an abundance of people, an abundance of Chiefs, and an abundance of heroic deeds accomplished. Old Piho, as known to the Piyahaw, symbolizes the root of the traditions and culture of the tribe. About 65 years ago, the Atayal people put up fierce resistance against the Japanese Colonial government’s “Lee Fan (Tribal Affairs) Policy”. The Japanese went about trying to flame ethnic and bloody strife between the Piyahaw and Khogang, which led to the tribe moving to several different locations before finally settling in at this area. Fortunately, since the Piyahaw moved as a whole community all those times throughout the many years, their culture and traditions were preserved mostly intact.

2. Summary of Our Project

We started off the project doing interviews of the people closest to us, our relatives. In this way, we got to know Piho’s past and present even more closely. For events that took place much longer ago, our plan was to go: interviewing the elderly, poring over (history) books, going online to look up information, and talking with the people who had previous experience holding major community events in the county and district. We also had much help from the Piho Community Development Association, not only finding a wealth of information in their in-house files, but also gleaning much more from our talks with the President and Secretary General of the Association.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:less than 20

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:4-6

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

The elementary school now has one computer classroom, where the students have use of 20 computers running Pentium-II 233 MHz CPU’s, 64M SD RAM memory, and a 5 GD HDD. A Pentium-III 800 MHz CPU, 128M RAM memory, and 20 GB HDD computer is available for the teachers’ instruction use. In all, including computers in the computer classrooms and the office, the school had a total of over 50 units. Computers in the Computer Classroom and the office have become the centerpiece of online activity. The computers are connected to a Chunghwa ADSL high-speed exclusive Internet connection, linking it to the Ilan County IT Educational Center’s TANet. Despite the advanced equipment provided in the schools, many of the students only have a dial-up connection at home, while other students do not even have a computer in their homes, creating an environment greatly lacking in widespread high-speed Internet use. The current situation is that a majority of the students only have access to a computer at their schools, thereby substantially reducing the amount of computer learning time.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1. Setting Our Sights On A Topic The reason we picked this subject “The Community Clans & the Tribes” was very simple. Our reasoning was that we wanted to show to all the citizens of the nation the traditions of the Atayal tribe, but the further we delved into this study, the more we found that if we did not make a concerted effort to preserve what we have, the end result is that the whole culture would vanish little by little until it was completely extinguished. And this would happen without too much concern from the masses. But fortunately, through the efforts of a “gardener”, who carefully “irrigated and cultivated the soil”, the Atayal culture is being preserved. This “gardener” is none other than the Piho Community Development Association, and thus, we have made this association an integral part of our focus on this subject. The meaning to this topic is clear now – the clans and the tribes must constantly strive to create further development and put in a greater effort for the sake of the community.

2. Skills in Interviewing When we learned from our teacher that we would be becoming “little journalists”, we were more than ecstatic. But the questions followed: What kind of questions do we ask? If the interviewee says too much, will I remember everything? How do you use a digital camera? Well, it is a good thing that our teacher gave us a few pointers on this subject, telling us that preparation is the key to doing a good interview. The teacher told us to go in there with a plan, and to be courteous and have manners. Also important is how you respond to situations around you. And we had to learn how to get the best shot with the camera. If we did not have time to get something down on film, we would have to listen to an audiotape later on to help us in our work. We learned how to handle a digital camera, and after we got through the first several interviews, we proved to be doing better and better. In fact, it seemed that the mothers that were being interviewed were the nervous ones, not us.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

# I had never interviewed my mother before, and I had never seen her so nervous. She looked almost embarrassed. I think what we are doing is something that is really meaningful. - Shao-chih

# When we went to talk to Yaki at A-Shao’s house, we saw that she was quite old, and didn’t speak a word of Mandarin. I hope my mother turns out to be a better talker. That way, we can ask her more things about Piyahaw’s past. – Chiao-suan

# “A rainbow appears in the sky!” These are the words the great Atayal, Budanaya left us. “I’m here in the Big Sky to look over you all, my descendants!” This folk story had a hidden meaning in Atayal culture: Fellow clansmen, you must respect and revere the teachings of your ancestors. This, in Atayal, is known as gaga. Gaga is what keeps this village settlement together and as one; it is the destiny that is common to all in Piho. The times are a-changing for the better. The spirit of gaga must, for the sake of contemporary life, continue to change through evolutionary thinking.

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

1. Establishing a School Curriculum The school curriculum developed by Piho Elementary School puts emphasis on the culture of the Atayal, with schoolwork at the sixth grade level allowing the students to get their feet wet in learning more about where they grew up, the surroundings and the colorful history of their past and origins. 2. Instilling Students With Skills They Can Take With Them This study project enabled the students to learn the tools with which they can consolidate data, gave them knowledge on how to compile what they have put together into book-form, and retouch their work and images to put on a website. 3. The Comprehensive Courses The Nine Year Comprehensive Curriculum stresses the importance of each course’s individuality while still part of being a comprehensive program, and how effective the school is putting the material to practical use. Through our thoughtful and careful preparation of the curriculum, the students were able to experience the individuality of each different course and its usage in their classroom. For Mandarin language studies, the students were able to actually go out and take part in conducting interviews, putting everything down on record and then writing up reports and editing the raw material into a final, completed work. The whole process helped the students immensely with their listening comprehension, and their speaking, reading and writing skills in a comprehensive manner. The study program, on the subject of the society and the community, enabled the students to grasp the facts of how the place, people and environment were changing, and they had the pleasure of learning about the beauty of Atayal culture. The Natural Science and Biology courses, besides allowing them the experience of doing interviews, shooting film, editing and preparing layouts on computers, and making technology and information work for them; undoubtedly had the result of schooling the students in the ways of creating ideas, and using their analytical skills and logic in their thinking. We truly believe that successful learning experiences like these will help stoke the students’ inner desire to learn more, and will also set a path for them to be capable of learning and studying on their own in the future.

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

Method of Interview Digital camera Digital video camcorder Audio tape recorder

Data Compilation Television Computer Reference material Photocopier Printer Computer software Spotlight Compact discs Internet hard disk Contact Numbers Telephone Computer Cell phone

Software Used Type Microsoft Paintbrush Microsoft Word Windows 2000, XP Micromedia, Dreamweaver MX Micromedia Firework MX Ulead Photoimpact 8.0 Micromedia Flash MX ACDSee 6.0 Internet Explorer Cuteftp 5.0

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

In doing this study, we had many opportunities being an “Ambassador” to tell others of the subject we were doing for this study program. Some of the methods used were: talking to them in person, calling them by telephone, and communicating through e-mail. The subjects of our interviews were mostly relatives and family members, village elders, and staff of the Piho Community Development Association, etc., making them not only intimately aware of the details of our program, but also enabling them to understand the great amount of effort we had put in.

What I think was one of the best examples of these “Ambassadors” successfully playing their role was in mid-December when our group went out to clean the streets and take part in the Cleanup Project. In a meeting before we set out, we told the Community Development Association’s President Lin of why we were here. We hoped to express our gratitude to the citizens of the community for all the trouble they had gone through in the many months we were running this project, and to show our sincerity by giving something back to the community. President Lin, besides thanking us, also brought up the excellent idea of cleaning the streets before the yearend New Year celebrations. We set our sights on the grassy slopes of the floodwall, because the regular streets were usually swept clean by the housewives who always were careful to sweep up in front of their homes. That said, there were no households positioned in front of the floodwall, so it was not kept clean. In the daytime, that area was filled with children at play, but at night drunkards drinking alcohol would converge to drink and then smash their empty alcohol bottles on the ground in frustration. The broken glass pieces would go flying across the grassy knoll, where barefoot children playing in the area the next day would accidentally cut themselves and get hurt. With Teacher Chen leading us, we spent one whole morning there picking up pieces of glass. It was tiring work, but we had a feeling of accomplishment after we had finished and looked out and saw a grassy slope all clear of glass pieces. It was, after all, because the Ambassadors of Piyahaw once again had successfully made their mark and had given their spirit and mind to Piho Community.

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

Piho is a small town so every time we set off to do our interviews, the whole village knew. Slowly but surely, the praise of the townspeople made its way back to Piho Elementary School. Their view was that we were still so small, but the way that we had put our hearts into the community and the development of its people for the future gave them much hope.

Through doing the interviews, our perception of the community was changed, not only in the above way. In our eyes, President Lin, to us before, was just Tze-ping’s father. He looked upon us as a kids, but after several interviews and talks with President Lin, we grew to have unrivaled respect for him because he is a great man with immense aspirations for the youth of Piho.

During the class convention, we are going do a Webpage Show for the mothers to watch. Mei-chih’s mother was using the computer at the Community Development Association to go online to view the Taiwan Schools Cyberfair website and show other members her own daughter’s work. She was laughing that she was going online because she loved to see her child’s webpage and she thought that her daughter had made advances in this area so quickly.

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

That this whole study program was completed so smoothly, we have to express our thanks to Ms.Lei, Amy and Mr. Cheng of the Hope Agent Development Association of the Republic of China. It was with them acting as a go-between that we got to know the Big Brothers of the Electronic (Computer) Engineering class at National Ilan University. They were the ones who provided us with the computers, digital cameras, and digital camcorders that would prove to be the tools that helped us finish our filming work More importantly, we have to thank them for coming down here twice from faraway Taipei to cheer us on.

The Big Brothers of National Ilan Univeristy were also some of the hardest workers. They are Yao-hong Guo, Shao-cong Wang, Bing-feng Lin, Yan-hui Lyu, Jun-wei Shih, Li-ren Li, Cong-ming Ling and Wen-yueh Shih. They gave up their days off to get up early on Saturday mornings to hop on a train and be here at the school by 9:30 a.m. They were by our sides in our discussions on doing interviews, they were with us at the interview sessions and they were there to take pictures with us.

We also have to thank Yaki at A-shao’s home, and A-shao himself, Aunt Ren-siang Chich (Tze-ling’s aunt), Aunt Shiou-hwa Liu (Shao-chih’s mother), Aunt Mei-yu Chu (Chiao-suan’s aunt, Grandma Bao-lian Chu (Wei-meng’s grandmother), Aunt Chun-chiao Guang (Cheng-ling’s aunt), Uncle Lin (a friend of Cheng-yuan\s mother_, Uncle Jhung-yi Fang (Shih-yu’s father), Uncle Ming-ren Chiang (Yao-cu’s father), and Aunt Ying-hua Chen-hsieh (Mei-chich’s mother). Thank you to all of you for patiently taking the time out to let us talk to you even though you may have still been at work or just had gotten back from a hard day at work.

Both President Lin and Secretary General Tsai of the Community Development Association were extremely generous in how they offered the use of the Association’s facilities for our interview work, and also agreed to be interviewed by us. By speaking about the happy and hard times of her past, President Lin’s mother (A-shao’s Yaki) who was an elderly 80-plus years old, was telling us about old-time Piho stories that she had witnessed firsthand. She was history right before our eyes!

The list of people we have to thank is endless. To this end, the fruits of our labor – Piyahaw’s Sky, is dedicated to all those who helped us in the completion of this project, and the caring individuals of our community.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

The biggest discovery: My father knows so much. He usually doesn’t say much, but when the “little journalists” came to talk to him, he was talking non-stop throughout the whole time.

The biggest thing we learned: There was so much work to be done on this webpage constructing contest. Our teachers kept reminding us to “split up our work, but work as one”. If we didn’t, we would never be able to finish writing down what we had recorded. There were also much too many progress reports that did not make it on to our webpage. That means that instead of being Little Valiant Spirits of Piyahaw, we are more like “Little Barking Pups”.

The biggest surprise: Living here everyday one does not come to realize it, but when the Big Brothers of National Ilan University, and Ms. Lei, Amy, and Mr. Cheng of the Hope Agent Development Association of the Republic of China first came to Piho, they exclaimed in surprise and delight: “This place is so beautiful! It’s beautiful in its naturalness, and beautiful in the simplicity and sincerity of the people!” It made me look at Piho again, and I was surprised to make a discovery myself, that “Our home really is beautiful!”