School: Public
    Taipei, N/A, Taiwan

11 students, ages 16~17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 4, 2005. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004

Classes and Teachers: Ms. Yi-Ping Shih, Ms. Mu-Ching Lu, and Ms. Shiou-Yi Wu

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.nhush.tp.edu.tw/

1. Description of Our Community

Yingge earned the reputation as 'Taiwan’s Jingdezhen (a township in mainland China that has been famous for its ceramic industry for centuries'). Yingge is well known worldwide for its beautiful ceramic artworks. In the early years, Yingge was the center of Taiwan’s pottery industry; therefore, it is like an historical book as for Taiwan’s ceramic art. Yingge ceramics main strip is located on the Jianshanpu road. Masters from around the island gathered here to explore their talents. This small town not only profoundly records Taiwan’s pottery history, but also, with ceramic masters’ hard work, unfolds Taiwan’s rich humanities. Thank to modernization, the pottery industry in Yingge has transformed to be an elegant and cultural-rich business. With full enthusiasm of many people, The two hundreds years of ceramic history marks a beautiful page in Taiwan’s pottery industry. Yingge has built this infamous ceramic kingdom of Taiwan!

2. Summary of Our Project

In this network communication and technology dominant world, people are drifted in the flood of consistent changing information, thus they hardly stop and feel the earth—the birth of life. The earth has been gradually losing her vigor! We know from the history class that Ceramic vessels made from natural elements are the earliest containers human being invented and used in the most ancient years. And according to one teacher, 'pottery was adopted by the archaeologists to distinguish the relations between various cultural time...ceramic products that echo the earth elements represents thought and the creativity of our culture.' All those concepts inspired us to report on Mr. Kuo-Jen Wong to further understand this primitive beautiful artistic culture. … With combination of life and ceramic creation, Mr. Kuo-Jen Wong held the humanities concern and started his creation of 'the Earth Cracks Ceramics'. This makes us to think it over that, in this information explosive world and with the globalization, we should obtain a pure heart to embrace life. By interviewing Mr. Kuo-Jen Wong, the 'Clay-o-topian' would like to learn something other than the school curriculum. Furthermore, we hope that people value the rejuvenation of traditional artwork after reading this article.

We would like to contribute this project to those hard-working people on the island.

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:none

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):

We use optical fiber to access the net at school, and it has 100Mb capacity to store the homepage of our project and make the backup copy. The school network is communicated with optical fiber too. Most students access the net in the computer classroom at school during lunch break and use home computer to access the internet after school.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

We are glad to have this opportunity to participate the 2005 CyberFair. The subject matter of our project is “local leaders”. At the beginning when we started the project, we had no idea of whom to interview, so we brain stormed the content first figuring that it’d be easier to locate the people with whom we would like to talk. We came up with the theme of “pottery” from the art class we took that showed us how to made a mug. We, thus, started to go for it. But the first problem we encountered was “what’s pottery?” “Pottery (or ceramic art)” is so alien to us, so we searched the net to grab an idea of it. Then we focus on Taiwan’s traditional ceramic artists and their artworks and decided to interview Mr. Kuo-Jen Wong. It took us long time before we located Mr. Wong without knowing that he and Director Huang in our school are good friends to each other. And thankful for this relationship, we embarked our journey of ceramics.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We learned more about the power of new work by participating the 2005 CyberFair. Actually few members in our team knew nothing about computer at the beginning when we started the project, but they eventually learned how to create and modify the page. This proved that environment had its impact on people. During this period of time, every one of us worked very hard thus we improved our skills. Various problems were occurred when arranging the interviews, but we’re not overwhelmed. Instead, we extended our potentials and worked closely to conclude the project. We gained a lot in every aspect and enjoyed the teamwork. We believe our achievement will blossom in very near future.

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

Recently, people value the traditional inheritance. Through online educational resources, we knew further about the land we live on, understood more about our history/folk tradition, and realized how hard our ancestors had gone through which made us even more eager for knowledge. We, therefore, are more affectionate about our culture and appreciate what’s around us and care about environmental protections.

Our abilities to appreciate the Fine Art were strengthened. Before, we judged a work piece right at the first sight, which is very objective. However, after the spiritual interview with Mr. Wong, we learned to listen to what the work itself has to say rather than only looking at its appearance.

In the social and humanities aspect, we understood art inheritance and ceramic history in Taiwan. From the information provided by Mr. Wong, we knew that the early ceramic artworks were made for daily use such as the pot used to preserved pickled vegetable and the pot used to contain water. With time went to the industrial society, people hardly use those traditional containers. This was the time when pottery became fine art that enrich people’s appreciation towards the beauty. The ceramic artists, thus, promote what’s beneficial to the society.

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

The information technology we use includes: email, telephone, MSN, recording pen, digital camera, DV recorder, scanner, computer software, related books, computer classrooms, media conference rooms, tours and the interviews. We distinguish them as the below:

Tools and technology used for Email, Telephone, MSN Communication at home to discuss, set up meetings, arrange activities and contact the interviewees. Computer classrooms, media conference Meetings and making homepage. DV recorder?recording pen and digital camera Getting and recording image, sound, photos. Scanner Saving the information and pictures.

Software and programs (FlashMX?Namo5.5?FrontPage2002?PhotoImpact8?CSS?HTML?JAVA etc.) Editing text and image and making the homepage.

Books and internet browser (IE6.0) Gathering information about ceramic art, reports on Mr. Wong, and how to create the homepage and Flash. Tours and interview Go to Yingge to interview Mr. Wong, and have Mr. Wong demonstrate how to make pottery and tour his facility.

When conducting the interview, we learned manners and ways to communicate. We also came up with questions to interact with the interviewee. We had to repeatedly locate coordination and change color arrangement when using Photoimpact 8 to design our homepage. It might sound easy but it requires plenty of practice, amendments, and hard work to accomplish. Using CSS was a challenge too. All these difficulties had puzzled us, but, thankful for the CyberFair, we eventually became very skillful of using the techniques. We leaned innovating tools and ways of creating homepage!

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

We interviewed few more people beside Mr.Wong, we politely asked for help and questions about Clay art, and also hoped that they could offer us any more information or even pictures. Due to he has done this kind of interviewed before, therefore, when he got our invitation, he quickly contact us and helped us a lot. After so many times of interviews, we actually became friends! I believe all those harvest would mean much more than just an interview, it will become a wonderful memory for them, as well as for us.

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

Communication plays key role in teamwork. Different opinions appear when each team member completes his/her own work. That creates conflicts, and conflicts are not uncommon when working as a team. We had this problem too, but, in order to lessen the mistakes to the least, we worked hard to coordinate communications among team leaders. We obtained this spirit, thus we reached our goal as a team.

Mr. Wong emphasized the concepts of giving best wishes during the interview. In his recent art pieces, Mr. Wong used pigs to deliver this message. “Messy” and “Stupid” might be the image people have towards pigs, but in Mr. Wong’s artwork, they were sculptured as chubby, cute and clever. This is the warmth and blessing he would like to give, which is what we lack of nowadays. Living in the modern world, people care less and less about people around them. The society gradually loses one important cultural medium - enthusiasm towards people. Mr. Wong’s concept about warmth and blessing might circulate a warm current in our society.

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

Of course we got a lot of help from people in our school. We posted the information about us and this competition, therefore, there are so many people who are interested in our subject as well, even though they are not a part of our team, but they actually feeled like one, they offered data, even places for discussing. We were truly aprreciated all the helpers and friends who cheere us up and gave us confidence!

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1. By participating this CyberFair, we felt the vigor of art. The artists fill their concepts into the works, and that’s the image they would like to deliver. The concept does awaken people sometime once they disclose the idea of the artists. We figured that’s the way the artists express their passion!

2. We realized that one single member in the team might drag the timetable all the way behind the schedule if he/she doesn’t finish his/her own work on time. If this happened in the workplace, the one who doesn’t meet the deadline, makes up excuses, doesn’t cooperate with other team members will be the one who got laid off. From working on this project, we learned to be responsible to achieve the goal.