InstructionsRules
Purpose Eligibility Deadlines Requirements Review & Awards Help Disclaimers

Purposes of International Schools CyberFair

  1. International Schools CyberFair is an international online collaborative learning activity designed to:
    • Encourage educators to adopt a new and powerful instructional methodology called online collaborative learning (OCL)
    • Provide concrete ideas, guidelines and tools to support
      content standards and authentic learning
    • Encourage schools and other youth organizations
      to exploit the unique abilities of the Internet
      to build relationships and alliances with different people
      and groups within their local community
    • Identify and recognize exemplary models of student
      effort and achievement with awards contributed by
      the business and professional community
    • Prepare students to be responsible and literate "global" citizens

 

Purpose Eligibility Deadlines Requirements Review & Awards Help Disclaimers

Eligibility

  1. Your students must be between the ages of five and nineteen years.
    Schools which serve a majority of students within this age group are eligible to participate. Universities and other institutions of higher learning are not eligible.

  2. Schools and organizations in states, provinces, or nations which tax, restrict or prohibit participation in an event such as International Schools CyberFair are not eligible to participate.
    It is your responsibility to ensure that your school or organization's participation in this event does not violate any applicable laws.

 

Purpose Eligibility Deadlines Requirements Review & Awards Help Disclaimers

Registration and Entry Deadlines

  1. An educator or administrator must register your school or organization's intent to participate by the registration deadline.
    Registration lets us know that you are interested in participating in International Schools CyberFair. There are some benefits to registering early:
    • CyberFair mailing list participants receive the most current information.
    • Click here to request help

  2. You must submit your final Web project by the Final Entry  deadline.
    See the timeline for deadline dates.

  3. You must submit six Peer Reviews by the Peer Review deadline.
    To qualify your own CyberFair project for final judging, you must participate in the official Peer Review process. During the peer review dates you must submit evaluations on a minimum six other projects which we assign to you. These peer review scores are part of the final judging process.
     
    IMPORTANT: Please look at your calendar to budget enough time around your spring holidays!
 

Purpose Eligibility Deadlines Requirements Review & Awards Help Disclaimers

Project Requirements

  1. Each school or organization may submit only one Web project.
    A primary objective of International Schools CyberFair is to foster cooperation and collaboration within your school or organization and community. You are encouraged to involve as many students, teachers and community members as possible. Individual classes within a school should work together to create and submit only one project.
      
  2. Web projects may be submitted in only one category.
    You must select and enter your Web project in only one of the eight International Schools CyberFair categories.
      
  3. You must obtain permission and consent forms signed by participating students and their parents.
    Before you enter your Web project in this contest, you must obtain appropriate permission and consent forms signed by students and their parents. [Click here for a sample permission form. You can review related issues in our Web Tutorial: Harnessing the Power of the Web ].
     
  4. All of the content of your CyberFair Web project must be created and completed by your students.
    You may solicit community volunteers to help with the technical aspects of producing Web pages and related audio/visual resources, and/or mounting them on a Web server. However, the content of the entry must be generated by your students. This is in keeping with the idea that CyberFair is not a Web design contest. The real emphasis of CyberFair is on the quality of learning and community relationships.
     
  5. Your school must take responsibility for your students and their work.
    Neither the Global SchoolNet Foundation, nor any of the sponsors of CyberFair, is able to take responsibility for your students or their work. Therefore, in order to qualify as an official entry in CyberFair you will be asked to state on the Final Entry Notice that your students have been adequately supervised and that your school accepts full responsibility for their actions and the content they have posted pertaining to International Schools CyberFair. Your entry must be submitted by a responsible supervising adult in an official public or private school, home school or approved educational organization.
     
  6. Your Web Project must include the official CyberFair Project Narrative Page.
    An important part of your evaluation score will be derived from your Project Narrative Page. Important: Submit your Project Narrative through your official CyberFair Checklist

  7. You must submit your Web project in English.
    Because of the Peer Review component of judging (described below), your CyberFair project must be submitted in English. However, you are encouraged to submit your project in both English and your own native language.  

  8. You should organize your project with the Peer Review Evaluation Rubric in mind.

    The Peer Review Evaluation Rubric represents an evolving effort to establish objective guidelines and criteria to evaluate student-developed Web projects. (See Peer Review and Final Judging ).
     
    Here are some suggestions:


  9. Your project must include a bibliography page which properly cites sources of information used.

    When conducting original research and publishing a report or project, it is always necessary to identify the source of your information.  See examples of how to cite sources and create a bibliography.

    Your project must contain a separate bibliography page where you cite the sources for the information in your project and list the people who helped you with your Web pages (if any). You will provide the link to this page in your Project Narrative (see your checklist for the due-date for your narrative), and the review rubric evaluates your bibliography.

    Although we do not require any specific citation format, we recommend that you use the Citation Machine at http://citationmachine.net to generate and compile your citations which you can then cut and paste into your HTML editor.

    In any case, your students should leave the reviewers no doubt about where they acquired the information they used, and in no case should you permit your students to plagiarize.

    Your bibliography must also list the names of the people who helped you to assemble your Web pages. If you received no help, your bibliography should state that.

    NOTE: Your project will be disqualified if the reviewer can find no bibliography.

Purpose Eligibility Deadlines Requirements Review & Awards Help Disclaimers

Peer Review and Final Judging

  1. CyberFair Web projects will be evaluated in a two-stage process.
    • Stage One: Peer Review
      Between the peer review dates (see timeline) each
      CyberFair school must review six other participating
      schools. The scores obtained from these reviews will
      be averaged and used to rank each project in each
      category.

      *Additional reviews will be solicited from the Internet
      community.

    • Stage Two: International Judges
      The top-ranked Web projects will be further reviewed
      by a panel of "distinguished judges." This panel will
      determine the final ranking. Distinguished judges will
      use the same evaluation rubric used in the Peer Review
      process.

  2. All decisions of the judges will be final and are not subject to review or revision.


  3. In the event that any prizes or awards are issued please note these limits:
    • Eligibility
      Only schools and organizations in states/provinces and countries that do not restrict this kind of event are eligible to receive the offered awards, gifts and prizes. It is your responsibility to ensure that your school's participation in this event does not violate any applicable laws. It is the responsibility of the recipient to pay any associated taxes, tariffs, or duty charges.

    • Announcement of Winners
      The results of the final judging will be announced in May.

    • Time Limit for Redemption
      Any gifts, prizes or awards will be shipped by the end of August.

Purpose Eligibility Deadlines Requirements Review & Awards Help Disclaimers

Help & Project Assistance

  1. Web Server Space
    Unfortunately, Global SchoolNet can no longer provide Web space on our server for your CyberFair Web project. However, there are many companies that offer free or inexpensive Web site hosting. Please make sure that the host you select does not publish offensive or inappropriate advertisements. Listed below are a few places which offer Ad-free, free web hosting:

  2. Timeline & Milestones
    Our official CyberFair Timeline walks you through the steps which will help you to organize and complete your CyberFair Web Project.

  3. CyberFair Help Desk: To find the answers to your questions, you may:

  4. International Conversion Helper Resources
    To aide you in converting international currency, time zones, or language translation, we encourage you to use the International Conversion Helper Resources.

  5. Global Schoolhouse Web Tutorial: Harnessing the Power of the Web
    This tutorial contains insights, information, techniques, and valuable resources to aide you in developing your project.

 

Purpose Eligibility Deadlines Requirements Review & Awards Help Disclaimers

Disclaimers

  1. Global SchoolNet Foundation is solely responsible for the design and implementation of International Schools CyberFair.
    Sponsors have generously donated prizes to support this valuable project-based online learning activity.
       
    Have a question?