School: Institut de Gurb
    Gurb, Barcelona, Spain

74 students, ages 15-17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 19, 2019. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2019

Classes and Teachers: 2 teachers and 3 classes

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.institutdegurb.cat

1. Description of Our Community

We chose to explain the industrial landscape evolution in Vic and Gurb from its origins to the present. According to the different industrial revolutions we are anticipating how it will be in the future. This area has experienced different evolutions in a few square kilometres but all this has influenced either the community or the economical lifestyle.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our local community is located in La Plana de Vic, Osona (one hour from Barcelona city). Our local community was created as a municipality in 1820. It includes four old rural parishes: Sant Andreu de Gurb, Sant Julià de Sassorba, Sant Cristòfol de Vespella and Sant Esteve de Granollers de la Plana. Gurb has grown during recent years even more than other municipalities in the region. Our community is in a privileged geographical situation with a new network of access road communication.

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:4-6

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

We usually work in cooperative teams and an individual laptop for each member. Our college has a dedicated Internet connection using optical fibre. We used many image edition softwares and other resources, but we had never created a webpage before.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Our barriers that we found doing this project was that we couldn’t speak with the other members of other classes in the groups, this was the biggest problem because for every thing we didn’t understood or we wanted to ask something, we just couldn’t and it was really frustrating so we met outside the school. Other problem we faced was that we had many difficulties to access to the archives. In Arxiu Comarcal d’Osona we weren’t allowed to go as students and our teacher had to went to look up for the files. In Arxiu de Gurb they are changing the archivist and now it is closed. We overcome it thanks to Gurb’s Town Hall employers, who provide us the internal collection of pictures and maps. And at last, the Arxiu de Vic had a lot of work with a symposium and we didn’t visit the physical place, but they answered our questions by e-mail. The last problem we faced was that we couldn’t distribute correctly the work and the teachers had to help us and say what we had to do.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

This project gives us a lot of knowledge about how were Vic and Gurb in XIX and XX centuries, how are they now, and how they will be in 50 years. It made us aware about the strong changes suffered by the cities during the last 200 years. We divided the work in groups, where each one was in charge of working on different aspects. The main sections were: historical maps, old photos, interviews, timeline and news. It was a great opportunity to study the local history through primary sources, like archives of historical manuscripts, oral interviews and family memories of some of our students.

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

Our content curriculum standards involve to analyze the relationship among the rise of industrialization and small scale rural-to-urban migration. Know the effects of industrialization on living and working conditions. Describe the changing landscape, including the growth of cities linked by industry and trade. Finally, to think how will be the future (about the possible future and the probable future). The curriculum guidelines of Catalonia include establishing the industrial characteristics that distinguish our community from others such as textile and meat factories, road infrastructures (for example, the main road between Barcelona and the Pyrenees). Understand the concepts of continuity and change. And, finally, increase the vision of our community to explain it to the world. We usually work in a cooperative teams with individual laptops. We are a new High school (eight years old) that use the Internet for teaching and learning from the beginning. We use edition programs and other resources, but we have never created a website. For that, this project is a great opportunity to learn new skills based on the webpage development. In a new industrial era where the digital technologies dominate the world, the students must be competents in this area.

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

We use to complete our CyberFair project different information tools and technologies such 74 laptops, one from each student, smartphones for video recording interviews and scanner documents, one school scanner and specific software like Wordpress, Google Earth for maps and Google Drive to share the study materials between the students and the teachers. These software are the most helpful because they provide us the necessary tools to make our website. We also use 3 public library books, 2 physical archive documents, online newspaper libraries and online old and contemporary topographic maps and orthophoto maps from the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC), as well as some thematic maps. The cartographic institute’s tools are ideal for edit maps and compare different historical periods. We use Visir and Instamaps primarily. Finally, we made 10 oral interviews, most of them to relatives of our students.

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

Our students interviewed people directly in person, through emails and by phone calls. They tried to contact to the old people’s home of Gurb, but it was not possible to meet them in person. The same problem occurred when they tried to talk with Archive of Vic, but they could solve their doubts by email. The groups weren't able to visit any of the archive in person because one was closed, and the other was totally focused preparing a meeting. Finally, the third and last didn't allow them the access due to they had less than 18 years, the legal age to be considered adult. So, the groups used the talks with Gurb’s Town Hall and the photographies that provided them. All of them were impressed with the project and they would like to know the final results. Because it is a recently finished project, we still can not show the website to our community.

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

We did a project to look at the differences between past and present of the industry of our city. This work is aimed at people who are interested in the history of their municipality and how it can be in the future. We hope that our project made a difference because it is unique in our local area, but we have not yet exposed it to our community.

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

Although we needed some help we have developed the work correctly and enough easly by ourselves. We have visited Gurb’s town hall to recollect some information about the past of Gurb, like images of the streets, the campside or stuff like this. The visit was possible thanks to the teachers who programmed it. We have been helped by the teachers of the High School as well, who have answered all our doubts and problems. As we have done the project together it was more easier because we divided the work in parts and we did each of the parts in pairs. We want to be grateful to our professors who made possible do this project and say thanks for their help, and also say thanks to people who made possible the visit to the town hall. We say thanks too to people of the archives of Gurb, Vic and Osona although we couldn’t enter neither Gurb’s archive nor Osona’s archive, but teachers could went to Osona’s. And also say thanks to people who accept to be interviewed.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

The objective of the project was to learn how it works the factories and the colonies (a traditional industrial communities in the 19th and 20th centuries). To know how it works the factories we searched the methods of work. Finally we arrived to the conclusion that the most important thing was the life quality of the people who live there. We didn’t do any interesting discovery because we studied this theme in the school. We think that every person has her story and there are a lot of bad stories relationated with the factories. A relative of one of our students lost her hand working in a factory.