School: Shilin High School of Commerce
    Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan

8 students, ages 15-17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 7, 2011. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2011

Classes and Teachers: Tseng Yu-Duan , Chen Chun-Ju , Huang Yu-Hsun , Chen Szu-Ching

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Community

Today, it has become the most recognized daily newspaper in Taiwan focusing on Mandarin and education. It is regarded as a multi-functional periodical for both young children and their parents. Besides, it enhances its editorial activities to promote juvenile books, offers quality extra curricular activities for children and broadens its charitable activities. Mandarin Daily News therefore has developed into a comprehensive educational organization with profound influence on the lives of children, families and education as a whole. Moreover, thousands of Taiwanese children have also joined the various charitable activities held by Mandarin Daily News. These learning and social experiences have a life long positive impact on them and our society. Besides that, Mandarin Daily News has become the teaching and learning material for foreigners to learn Mandarin and Taiwan local culture. Growing up with the companion of Mandarin Daily News, we have always appreciated its contributions and effects on our society, which intrigues us to do the search for this project.

2. Summary of Our Project

Mandarin Daily News is a well-known Chinese children’s newspaper, the only newspaper that prints the Chinese characters with its corresponding phonetic symbols to provide the correct Mandarin pronunciation. Because of its step by step, it intrigue to do some search on organization.

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:1

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):

1.ADSL 2.Digital Cameras 3.Printer 4.Flash Drives 5.Mobile phones 6.Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 7.PhotoImpactX3 8.Macromedia Flash 8 9.Internet Explore 8 10.Office Excel 2003

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The problems we encountered during this project can be pointed out with three parts:

1.Students didn’t have great skills on Dreamweaver and other software. Luckily, our teachers know how to use those software, we can ask for teachers' help and guidance.

2.Specific data are difficult to collect. So, we decided to visit the Mandarin Daily News Office. They gave us lots of useful data and history about them.

3.Text correction: We have to replace the bad words with better words.Because the initial data was found by different members, all content have be modified to become a better one. It really takes a long time to get work done and our eyes sore much.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Treasure map for children.

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

With the rapid development of information, newspapers play an important role to provide us the latest news. However, not all newpapers are readable for children; therefore, Mandarin Daily News is the newspaper that made for child. They not only report news but also promote Chinese culture to the world and provide ideas of education. These features are quite unique in newspaper market. To tribute Mandarin Daily News' achievements, we use our computer knowledge and set up the website. By doing this, we hope we can lead people underatand the importance and meanings of newspaper’s educational functions. Although this project overloaded our schoolwork, we learn a lot from interpersonal communication, computer technology skills and have a wonderful experience.

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

We used the internet, digital and film cameras, scanner, printer, portable hard drives.

As far as software, we used Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, Photo Impact X3, Macromedia Flash 8, Internet Explore, Office Excel 2003 and Word 2003.

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

At first , we contact Mandarin Daily News by telephone and e-mail. We asked questions, and interviewed Ms Zhu, who works at Mandarin Daily News. With Ms Zhu’s help, we are able to visit Mandarin Daily News. During the interview, Ms Zhu is very enthusiastic by introducing the history of Mandarin Daily News. We are grateful to Ms Zhu’s help.

The visit enabled us to better understand the contributions that Mandarin Daily News has made to our society, which motivated much to deliver the message we want to express to the public.

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

Through our website, people living within our community can learn more about Mandarin Daily News. Not only realizing the process of printing newspaper but also understanding its history, motivations, founders, publishment, awards, educational events and so on. Readers then can learn the other sides of Mandarin Daily News, which are not so familiar to the public, such as charitable activities, cultural events and so on. The website let readers of all ages in our community learn more knowledge and more historic events about Mandarin Daily News.

Via the way we had completed, Mandarin Daily News can get more ways to spread Chinese all around the world. And through this global contest, the features of Mandarin Daily News can be recognized by people all over the world easily. This website can make foreigners from different places take a look at Mandarin Daily News' world, its impacts on education and our society, its charitable events and the most important thing—to learn how to speak Chinese and learn Chinese’s culture. Besides , we hope to attract more participants around the world to join the children's literature creating competition, “Reed Pipe Award” as well!

By browsing our website, people can broaden their horizons about Chinese culture and Mandarin Daily News. They will get to know that newspaper can be a beneficial reading materials for children and family, and will realize the benefits of learning reading Chinese.

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

In the process of doing this project. We have asked for many people for help. Ms. Zhu , an employee who has been working at Mandarin Daily News over 30 years, contributed a lot to our subject. Every time we visit Mandarin Daily News, she always helped us to contact the other staff and prepared much information and details to answer the questions we have about Mandarin Daily News. Sometimes, she even sent us information by e-mails. She has helped us a lot and we are thankful for her and the staff of Mandarin Daily News.

Another ones we are thankful are the students of Shilin High School of Commerce and students' parents who accepted our interview and did our surveys. They are always so helpful and give lots of support to us. Thanks to them, the results of these questionnaires can be done on time.

Also, due to our teachers, Ms Chen and Ms Huang’s advice and supports, we can do the project step by step. Our teacher, Mr. Daniel Chen teaches us how to translate the website and ideas from Chinese into English and gives us some tips about writing English composition . It is really helpful for us to edit Mandarin Daily News website and improve our English writing skills.

Thanks to these people. You are the undeniable important contributors to this project. In the process of doing the research, we learn a lot about Mandarin Daily News. Besides, our team members also learn a lot about the appreciation toward hard-working attitudes, teamwork and communication and technical skills. Thank you, teachers and the people who had helped us ! Your supports are the power that keeps us move on!

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

In the ages of information explosion, running the newspaper isn’t easy at all. Therefore, Mandarin Daily News has to put lots of hard-work to achieve its mission, spreading Chinese all around the world, and this is what we are all impressed a lot. Despite its difficulty, Mandarin Daily News still keeps its faith to educate people who want to learn Chinese with interesting learning materials and help them to read and speak Chinese correctly.

After listening to the lecture of Ms. Zhu, who has worked at Mandarin Daily News over thirty years, we discovered that Mandarin Daily News always insists to give readers a better environment to read and we are also surprised to learn that how much efforts that Mandarin Daily News has made to improve our society with lots of charitable activities. Mandarin Daily News has won many people and foreigners’ hearts with their accomplishments. The efforts on children’s education that Mandarin Daily News has worked on are also undeniable, such as delivering newspapers and books to schools of remote areas.

Compared with other newspapers, Mandarin Daily News is not a profit-making organization, but a cultural and educational enterprise. This is the spirit that is worthy for us to learn, understand and keep in mind.