CyberFair Project ID: 7938

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Local News Broadcast by Hsinpintao CATV
Category: 3. Business and Community Organizations
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2015/gsh7938/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2015/gsh7938/bibliography.htm

School: Ping He Elementary School
    Changhua City, Changhua County , Nil, Taiwan

10 students, ages 10-11 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 24, 2015. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2012,2013,2014

Classes and Teachers: Chia Fen, Hsu

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.phes.chc.edu.tw

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Hsinpintao CATV is one of sub-companies of Kbro Inc., located at No. 768, Sec. 2, Chungshan Rd., Huatan Township, Changhua County , and is about 5-10 minutes drive from our school, Pinghe Elementary School. The service areas cover 408.45 square kilometers including Changhua City, Huatan, Dachun, Hsioushuei, Puyan, Fusing, Lugang, Hsiansi, Shengang, Hemei and Fenyuan. The number of subscribers is 201515. Therefore, it is indeed a local broadcasting corporation.

2. Summary of Our Project

The goal of our project is to know our local broadcasting corporation, Hsinpintao CATV in depth. Besides equipments, we look into program production and broadcast, as well as news interviews, to get a first-hand experience. Moreover, we also make our own TV news preprogram, Dove NEWS, on a school basis. Not only the program is anchored by students, but also the interviews and reports are done by students too. Hopefully, we will get to understand news broadcast and Hsinpintao CATV better.

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:more than 6

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):

Our school has three well-equipped computer labs with one hundred and five computers in total. Plus, there is one computer in each classroom at least. The network in school is part of Taiwan Academic Network (TaNet), and internet access is available in each classroom. Besides, the wireless coverage is around seventy-five percent of the campus. While discussing the project at school, we can search information and print data online and we would also collect data and make process report through the access to broadband.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1)Difficulties in arranging time to entourage photography and interviews — we had to make the most out of our holidays leisure time. 2)Lack of experience in interview — we always simulated the interview beforehand. 3)Bad sound recording during the interview – we use a digital voice recorder higher sound quality. 4)Dark studio — our school helped to light it up 5)Forgetting wording due to nervousness — we practiced more often and used posters and a caption machine.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

With the help of Mr. Liu, the manager of Hsinpintao CATV, we had a field trip in the broadcasting corporation and experienced the production of a news program, including interviewing, video shooting and anchoring. We had a very enriched summer vacation. We got to what a film studio looks like and to understand how many efforts are put in to make a news program. We took turns to interview, to report and to anchor. We did everything by ourselves, including deciding topics, interviewing, drafting, editing, video shooting, post production and broadcasting. It looked easy and it was not.

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

Our project is designed in accordance with Grade 1-9 Curriculum administered by the Ministry of Education. The Grade 1-9 Curriculum centers students’ life experience and aims to equip students with carry-on capabilities, which include abilities: A.to accomplish teamwork (self-express, communicate, and share); B.to research (plan, organize, and execute); C.to adopt technology and information. Such core competences may be categorized as follows: 1.Language Learning: During the research process, we practiced the four language skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing. For example, before interviewing the anchorperson, Ms. Kuei-yin Lin of Hsinpintao CATV, we read the related information, planned and designed our questions, and practiced questioning with our team members. 2.Arts and Humanities:When we carried out our interviews, we designed our own T-shirts. The logo was designed and voted among our team members. Plus, we also designed and made our Dove NEWS stickers, which were given as a present to our interviewees.3.Social Studies:While making our own new program, Dove NEWS, we team members learned the essence of teamwork and had hands-on experience, interviewing, reporting, anchoring, which in turns gave us opportunities practice various capacities and also a great sense of achievement. Plus, this program has brought about more interactions among teachers, and students, as well as mutual understanding between our school and the community since the program was broadcast on PTA meetings. 4.Integrative Activities:While doing interviews and reporting for Dove NEWS, we really came to understand the importance of cooperation. We had to work closely together to make the program successful. 5.Information Technology Education:Our team often met at our school’s computer lab because we needed the computers there to search relative information and to hand in our assignments. We used web browsers to search and word processing software to write our reports and journals. …

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Project Elements

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

We adopted different technology tools on different tasks. 1)Visits:When we visited Hsinpintao CATV and attended the presentation, we used digital cameras and smart phones to record the whole presentation and what we saw in the visits. We also recorded and noted the key points of the presentation with voice recorders or pens and paper. 2)Interviewing and news coverage:We used video and audio recorder to record our interviews and keep notes at the same time. And then we used word processing software on our computers to draft, edit and print out our news report. We also used video editing software to post product our video clips. 3)Dove NEWS video shooting:Our anchorpersons used headsets for news reporting. While doing camera shooting, we used caption machines for fluent reporting. The video clips are post produced after shooting. Narrations were recorded with digital voiced recorders afterwards for better audio quality. 4)Interview:We called our interviewees on the phone in advance to confirm the time and place of our appointments. Computers were used to organize our questions and notes. We used video recorders, sound recorders, digital cameras, pens, and paper during interviews to record and keep notes for future coverage.

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

1)We would like to be a cable TV expedition for Hsinpintao CATV:We hope our research project can give a clear introduction of Hsinpintao CATV, not only the programs or set up application but also the news program production. 2)We would like to be a campus news expert for our schoolmates:we produced our own news program at school, Dove NEWS. We simulate the production of a real news program, which are selecting coverage issues, interviewing, drafting, video shooting, editing, and broadcasting. And hopefully we can become the news experts of our school and bring about more interactions and understanding between students our news team, so our schoolmates will have a better understanding about a news program production. We also invited news professionals as our instructors or interviewees so we, as well as our fellow students at school can have a first hand encounter with these professionals. 3)We would like to be a news broadcast station for our community:We had a person-to-person contact with staff of the news department, including broadcast directors, anchorpersons, reporters and camera operators. We also got to observe on site during their interviews, and commercial shooting so to look at the whole process of program production. And therefore we would like to show people in the community what we have seen and get them to know better about this company and news program production. And we also would like Dove NEWS to become a community news broadcast station to show the community what we see.

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

While doing our research project, we had a close look at Hsinpintao CATV. Going along with the staff for interviews, visits and video shooting, we had more frequent interaction with people in our community and they were interested in our project. We produced our own news program, Dove NEWS. We worked as reporters and anchorpersons and tried to cover whatever is interesting on our campus. So our teachers and students could get to know what happened in our campus. And now they are also interested in and looking forward to watching Dove NEWS. We have a lot of positive feedback on our program from students and people of the community. We have known better about Hsinpintao CATV and we even got interviewed by United Daily Newspaper because of the project.

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

1)Thanks to Mr. Tao-yuan Liu, the manager of Hsinpintao CATV, for his great help, we were able to look at Hsinpintao CATV more closely. Thanks to the three anchorpersons of Hsinpintao CATV, Ms. Shu-wen Huang, Ms. Kuei-yin Lin, and Ms. Shu-ching Yang. They not only agreed to be our interviewees but also our guides during our visits and observations of the video shooting. And they also shared their tips of how to be a good anchorperson. Thanks to Mr. Chun-ling Tseng, the broadcast director, he explained the process of program production and allowed us to have a first experience of video shooting. Thanks to Ms. Wuei-yin Lin, Mr. Hsi-liang Chang, and Mr. Wen-hsing Chen, the reporters of Hsinpintao CATV. Even though they had a really tight schedule, they still spent time teaching us what to look at during observation and how to draft our news reports. 2)Thanks to the principal, Mr. Shuei-mu Lin, and office directors of our school, we were able to use our media studio and computer lab to work on our project. They even helped to repair lights and broadcast equipment in order for us to produce our news program. Thanks to Ms. Li-huei Tsai, our English teacher for her help with bettering our English pronunciation in our English reporting. Finally, our thanks also go to Ms. Min-chu Liu for her great assistance when we were video shooting in the studio. 3)We thanked Hsinpintao CATV’s broadcast director (Mr. Tseng), the anchorperson (Ms. Yang), and the camera operator (Mr. Lu) for allowing us to observe while they were video shooting news coverage. We also thanked Mr. Szu-wei Chen for guiding us through our tour around Ching-rong Chinese Mitten Crab Farm. He shared a lot on crab farming, both sweetness and hardships. He even taught us how to catch a crab and let us do it on our own. 4)We gave thanks to our school’s student orchestra for the music they played for our program and to our art teacher, Ms. Yu-cheng Lai for her wonderful design of Dove NEWS logo.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

1)It was an interesting experience playing an anchorperson. It was until then we found the caption machine to remind the anchorperson of the report texts. And we also found the background is changeable according to the broadcast director’s instruction. During the anchorperson experiencing time, we found the lights really stung our eyes. The anchorperson, Ms. Huang, clipped the headsets for us. We could hear the broadcast director’s instruction. When he asked us to start reporting the news, we found it so difficult just to read the sentences on the caption machine. We stuttered on every sentence we said. Now we really understand how hard it is to be a good anchorperson. 2)We went along with the reporters for interviews and news coverage for three times. We got to know better about the profession of being a reporter and understand that it is really a hard work. The reporters of Hsinpintao CATV have really tight schedules, they often have to cover more than one piece of news a day. And they have to draft and edit their news coverage within a very short period of time to keep up with the news broadcast. We think the reporters are amazing. 3)We took what we learned from observing news program production at Hsinpintao CATV to produce our own news program, Dove NEWS. We target to cover what’s interesting on our campus. We paired up and look for what to cover on campus. We have to hand in three pieces of news each the time limit. We had to decide the topic, interview, collect information and materials, draft, record the video clips and narrations. Every single step was a challenge for us and luckily we had teachers and parents to help us. Our program is only about fifteen minutes long but takes more than one month to produce. Compared with reporters of Hsinpintao CATV who interview and collect materials in the morning, draft in the afternoon, and broadcast in the evening, we still have a whole of room for improvement. They are really our heroes.

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