CyberFair Project ID: 7144

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Together, We Can!
Category: 2. Community Groups and Special Populations
URL: http://yeswecanstnicks.weebly.com
Bibliography: http://yeswecanstnicks.weebly.com/credits.html

School: CHIJ ST Nicholas Girls' School
    Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

14 students, ages 15-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 16, 2012. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2008, 2009, 2011,2012

Classes and Teachers: Miss Choo, Mister Tham, Mister Lau , SNInfocomm Club

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.chijstnicholasgirls.moe.edu.sg/default_secondary.aspx

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

I consider my 'local community' to be the entire nation, made up of all races and all citizens. These people come together and create various organizations and groups to cater to people with common needs and interests shared experiences in the community group itself to aid in the bonding of citizens.

2. Summary of Our Project

This year, the theme for Cyberfair 2012 is “Dream and Unite!”. In our website, which is based on the category of Community Groups and Speciality Groups, we will guide you through the journey of how the dreams, actions and contributions of the locals in the past have improved, preserved and united Singapore.

Community groups play a vital role in our societies. They bring together clusters of people from all walks of life who share a common dream: To create a better, brighter and more promising future for Singaporeans. This is evident in present Singapore, where these community groups bring people together, transforming them from unassuming strangers to friends who are now linked by a common bond as members of the same community group. This is done by helping people of common interests, needs and backgrounds to come together, and interact with one another. More importantly, they are now united as citizens of the same country.

In this website, we show you how community groups such as the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA), Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) and Mendaki managed to help piece together Singaporeans’ dreams and direct them onto the same path towards a common goal.

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:not sure

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

As all of us came of different classes, we have clashing schedules and hence was unable to meet up apart from the limited time we had during co-curricular activity (CCA) sessions in order to discuss and build up the work. Many of the participating students had also never taken part in previous Cyberfairs before. Also, since we were a big group, many of us had differing views on what the cyberfair project was to be about. Thus, it was always hard to reach a unified decision.

However, we overcame these problems by effectively dividing the team into five different sections, each being in charge of one particular community group. This helps to speed up discussions because working in these small groups allow each group to meet up together outside CCA time, and during CCA many of them had already reached a unified decision on certain areas of the project. Eventually, due to the combined efforts of the students, we were able to finish everything on time.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We were able to learn and recognise how much of an impact various community groups have in the unifying and the maintaining of peace and stability within Singapore.

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

Many of us practised effective communication with one another through the use of e-mail and text messaging. Despite clashing schedules and being unable to meet up often to discuss and work on the project together, whenever we could, information was relayed quickly and efficiently.

The school also teaches us that there is “a leader in every student”. Through this, we have had students who took the initiative to come up with more ideas and did more than expected to contribute to the website, such as the addition of an animated introduction to our website aside from a textual one.

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Project Elements

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

Smartphones, Laptops, Desktop Computers, Google docs (instant edit function) These tools helped us to communicate more efficiently with one another plus being able to do research on-the-go. The most valuable tool would have to be the instant edit function in google docs, where multiple persons can view a document at any one time and all edits done are visible to everyone that's viewing the document. This helps us to speed up discussion and brainstorming of ideas for the project as we could discuss ideas without having to meet up, while being able to contibute to the contents on the website immediately.

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

We used quite a number of pictures and other media contents on our website and hence we have to ask for permission from the respective organisations to use their intellectual properties. Hence, in our email to them, we need to explain what our cyber fair project is all about and what it involves, hence effectively promoting Cyberfair on-line. In person, we consulted family and friends on their views of each organisation so as to fulfill the needs of the 'Our Take' page on our website. Hence, this effectively help us to publicise Cyberfair as we got to explain what this project is all about to them in order to gather their views and opinions.

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

Many of these communities were interested in what we were doing and requested to see the final product of our Cyberfair project when we emailed them for permission to use their intellectual properties. Hence, it really bonded our school and these local community groups as they get to understand how we as students view these organisations and to look out for any opportunities for improvements while we get to do research on them, learning more about their dreams, history, aims and efforts in uniting the local community.

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

Many people helped us with our CyberFair project, which includes our teachers and seniors that have taken part in the Cyberfair project before. Via the use of the internet, we could update our teachers regularly on the progress of our project, while asking for feedbacks and critiques of what was done at that point in time. Hence, we got to edit the things that were not done well but was not discovered by us earlier, due to the observant eyes of our teachers. Our tech savvy seniors also came to help us by giving us advice of what sort of of web design or web content would be more suitable for such a competition, and how should we organise ourselves to achieve the best possible outcome in group discussions.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 7144)

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