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1. Description of Our Community
National Palace Museum houses lots of collections of Chinese cultural artifacts and artwork, which makes Chinese People everywhere very proud. It’s located in the Waishuanghsi neighborhood of the Shihlin District. The museum is a tourist attraction and offers a fantastic learning place for children living in Taipei. Children can not only learn and experience previous generations’ wisdom, originality, culture, and perspective on art, but also be taught how to take great care of these legacies to make them renowned across the world. National Palace Museum address is 221 Chih-shan Rd., Sec. 2; Shih-lin, Taipei. The museum consissts of a couple of traditional Chinese palace architectures and stands in its scenic hillside setting. Although there are many museums in Taipei, National Palace Museum is managed by the national government. Besides, with its collections items, conservation techniques, and reputation, the museum is regarded as a top four museum. We think National Palace Museum is the best museum in Taipei and worth of being introduced to all over the world.
2. Summary of Our Project
With its conservation, selection, research, exhibition of Chinese art, emphasis on technological restoration and maintenance, better visit enjoyment by improving the interior layout and facilities, use of high-tech media to make visitors more knowledgeable about collections, and sturdy commitment to education, National Palace Museum ranks as one of the four best museums in the world. Our research group comprises professionals and twelve twelve-year students. Hopefully from the viewpoint of young students, we can deepen our research into the museum and then introduce the museum to domestic and foreign visitors by a friendlier website. The following are our Research Project Outline:
I. About Museum (An Introduction to the National Palace Museum) II. Works of Art (An Introduction to a variety of Collections) III. High-Tech Museum IV. Department Information (Learn More about Departments) V. Executive Interview (Interview VIP in Museum ) VI. Perspective on Museum (Learn More about Museum from Visitors)
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:2-3
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
The project research mainly applied the computer system at school and secondly the PCs at home. Currently, there were three computer rooms at school. Among them, one was for producing multimedia materials. Each class was equipped with computers but some could not be used. We didn’t have our class computers. We borrowed the available computer room to have our classes and make reports. Fiber network was used to connect externally. It was not easy to borrow hardware, such as digital camera, DV, audio recording equipment, for producing multimedia materials. The stuff were prepared by teachers and classmates. The software existing in the computer room was applied. As to information and reports, the progress reports, FTP at school, portable hard disc, etc were used for information exchange and applications.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
The conception of this project was initiated last August. Our teacher often brought us some antiques to appreciate. In addition, Director Lin Mun-lee started holding many activities close to the citizens. The Cable TV stations played many research reports on National Palace Museum. Business Weekly and newspapers often made reports on NPM. All of the above factors contributed to our curiosity about National Palace Museum. As a result, such project was born. After commencing from the structure of the research, we spent a lot of time to coordinate with NPM. This was because, first, the research we conducted involved many units at NPM. We had to figure out what each unit was engaged in and those units involved did not understand why those “kids” were trying to do such difficult project. A lot of communications were required. Second, NPM was one of the important institutes in our country. The flow of submitting official documents lasted for one month. We wasted a lot of time upon not knowing if the project could be realized. Finally, it was confirmed that we could visit NPM. It was also difficult to make the appointments with them. Sometimes they had meetings. Sometimes we had activities or tests. Each contact we made required long time. Third, NPM was really a professional organization. Our instructor organized a lot of information and brought us a great pile of books for making book review so as to avoid nonsense we might talk during interviews. Such process was hard but we gained a lot. Our interviews went on till summer vacation. Several times were arranged to interview different unit. We spent a long time to prepare the interviews, which improved our concepts in formal interviews. We really appreciated Miss Chen Yen Hsuen’s assistance and coordination. She helped us to interview the units smoothly.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
1.Good communication involves body language, words used, listening, and politeness.The more interviewees we interview, the more interview experience we have. Hopefully, for interviewees, we are impressive interviewers. We are proud on behalf of new generation to show our enthusiasm about heritage, works of art, and technology to interviewees. 2.Deliver what we learn to everyone by internet. A saying goes, “Rome wasn't built in a day.” Hope that when visitors expose themselves to each single display, they can appreciate whatever efforts these professionals make on the display and realize that every display is cultural and artistic. 3.Children today should respect and admire everything by heart to be able to foster an insight into everything and grow up by learning. 4.Respect different cultures no matter how ancient or how modern they are and learn more wisdom by appreciating them. 5.Knowledge is supposed to be organized first and then to be applied.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
A. Focus on implementation and development of Grade 1-9 Curriculum Core Competence Grade 1-9 Curriculum emphasizes on the development of ten competences. We show our Competence of Voluntary exploration and research in what topic we will work on, how we do this project with a suitable research, and so on. We experience Competence of expression, communication, and share during project discuss and carry on Competence of respect, concern, and team cooperation when there are various opinions. We make our project feasible with Competence of plan, organization, and implementation. This project reveals us the importance of culture learning and being culture-conscious by learning more not only Chinese culture but also museology, antique conservation, and art history. Certainly, the process of webpage making executes the use of technology and research. B. Combination of curriculum of Language Arts and Social studies The goal of language arts is to teach Speech Arts and Enjoyment of Beauty. Our teacher, Ms. Ho, often trains us to speak clearly and effectively in class, very helpful for our project interviews. In addition, the focus of social studies this semester is on activities in our society. Ms. Ho properly makes good use of collections in National Palace Museum, the life of the ancients, the modern economic activities and the role museum plays in our society to deepen our understanding of social studies and to broaden our view of points on this project as well. This project is a solid example of combination of language arts and social studies. C. Practice of Information Technology Education Ms. Ho often reminds us that any knowledge is not real until it is practiced. Because of this project we definitely understand why she says so. We have learned production of homepage and animation for almost one year, but they didn’t work when needed. Ms. Ho does her best to help us with relevant computer skills during midday breaks and winter holidays, such as FTP, skill of picture revision, methods to make and edit homepage, and so on, to make us more familiar with what we have learned.
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1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?
1.Internet--Needed to search relative information, especially information offered on the National Palace Museum Website. 2.Printer--Needed to print many materials, such as the questionnaire, the matters needing attention and so on. 3.Digital camera & Voice Recorder--Necessary when interview is proceeding. 4.Cell Phone--Needed to communicate with the NPM. 5.FTP?E-mail--Necessary to store or to exchange articles/relevant information. 6. Flash Drive--Convenient to carry lots of files. 7.Software--Helpful to have our project done well, such as Office Word, ACDsee, Dreamweaver, PhotoImpact, Flash, CuteFTP and so on.
2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.
A. Contact the National Palace Museum and its departments through paper work We’re often told that we are not familiar with our culture and we don’t agree with that. Coincidently, the National Palace Museum is promoting many exhibitions and they attract us very much. With Ms. Ho’s suggestion and assistance, we resolve to do a project on the NPM. Before we get help from the NPM to process our project, long paper work to and from the NPM is required. One month later, we are pleased to hear that we get full support from the NPM. “National Palace Museum in New Generation’s View” is our project topic and we are ready for any challenges. B. Impress Interviewees by active contacts From the very beginning, though we are enthusiasts about our project, we have no idea about everything inside of the NPM. We spend much time searching and studying, trying to be more prepared. Before actual visit, Ms. Ho gives us much strict training of interview, trying to make us more qualified. We keep what Ms. Ho says in mind that prepare interviewees with gifts or hand-made cards, be smiley, express clearly and be polite when we first interview with visitors. The more interviewees we interview, the more interview experience we have. Hopefully, for interviewees, we are impressive interviewers. We are proud on behalf of new generation to show our enthusiasm about heritage, works of art, and technology to interviewees. C. Deliver what we learn to everyone by internet. We will make a website based on the research results to let those who would like to do research on the NPM understand this organization more. A saying goes, “Rome wasn't built in a day.” Hope that when visitors expose themselves to each single display, they can appreciate whatever efforts these professionals make on the display and realize that every display is cultural and artistic.
3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?
During the process of doing the research, we learn: a. Children today should respect and admire everything by heart to be able to foster an insight into everything and grow up by learning. It seems that almost interviewees feel the same way. b. Respect different cultures no matter how ancient or how modern they are and learn more wisdom by appreciating them. c. Good communication involves body language, words used, listening, and politeness. d. Every work as well as the work in the NPM has it own difficulties. The work in the NPM is profession-oriented. People who work in the NPM are working hard, studying diligently, and doing researches every day. e. The team working in the NPM not only makes every exhibition prepared but also has to be knowledgeable about antique history, antique artistic value research, museology, and conservation with hi-tech. Taking care of antiques is not easy. f. Knowledge is supposed to be organized first and then to be applied. From this project, we realize no matter how much information we read, we just know we’ve read. That makes us go nowhere. After we know that organizing what we have read is an integral part of interview process, even our project, we can tell the difference between “read only” and “understanding truly”.
4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?
It is amazing to complete this project research. Everybody tells us that this project is not an easy one. We want to express our special thanks to the people or units below for helping us complete the project. 1. Miss Chen Yen Keng from the Exhibition Division. Miss Chen’s minor is Museology at National Taiwan University. She knows museology very well. She also supports us to do the research. It is a really tough work to contact, communicate and coordinate different units at National Palace Museum. We have cancelled several appointments at the last moment with the units at National Palace Museum due to our being busy. In such case, Miss Chen had to re-coordinate. Thanks for her hard work. This project cannot be completed without enthusiastic Miss Chen’s coordination. 2. Director Lin Mun-Lee. Since Miss Lin started her work as a Director at National Palace Museum, she has been endeavoring to bring NPM out to the world. In her term, she has held a lot of activities which make NPM closer to the people. NPM’s exposure rate has thus been increased a lot. Director Lin has been really busy. We are surprised and glad that she promised to receive our interview for one hour. Observing from this event, we understand that Director Lin values opinions coming from different age groups. Director Lin has been endeavoring to bring NPM to the audience; therefore, we can have this unprecedented trans-unit interview at NPM. Many thanks to Director Lin. 3. All the people being interviewed. We thought that the professionals working at different units in NPM would be very serious. Out of our expectations, all the people being interviewed were very kind to us. They answered our questions and raised many questions to test us. Sometimes they also made us laugh. 4. Our school provided assistance during the process of producing this project. For example, Instructor Shih Chiang lent us computer rooms and Information Division Chief helped us to open FTP and a website space. Our dean helped us to issue official documents so that we could finish our project. Thanks! 5. Parents who lend us a hand. We want to thank the assistance given by every parent in the process of interviews for this project. They picked us up for interviews and accompanied us for audience interview. Sometimes, they stayed with us for reading information. It was really nice to have our parents’ support.
5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)
Since Miss Ho started to discuss about this research project with us, we have been thinking naively about the vague line between reality and dream. In the process of completing the interview, we realize National Palace Museum is not only covered with “mysterious mask” but also extremely strict, scientific and professional. We thought about “very expensive antiques” while the antiques were examined, recorded, verified for their context, cultural backgrounds and production techniques, and protected carefully. For another example, people are prohibited from shooting and taking pictures at the exhibition halls in National Palace Museum. However, our research cannot be well understood if we could not present the real scenario in the exhibition halls. For obtaining a permit to shoot and take pictures in the exhibition halls, we had to make an application to NPM for approval. After obtaining the approval, we had to register for wearing an orange waistcoat at the service counter (in the registration book, the signatures showed that most of the people worked for famous TV stations or media). In the process of shooting, we were accompanied with the NPM staff. Each exhibition hall is arranged a security guard to check and register who we were. We were checked everywhere we went. Wow! It is really strict and cautious. Not to mention that each entrance of the administration building is guarded by the police. We have been the first group which conducts trans-unit research in the past several decades at NPM. We are also the first group of graduate students who are not majoring related subjects and entering into NPM. With so many firsts, we are actually happy. Most importantly, we hope that our project research can be approved and affirmed.
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View our CyberFair Project
(Project ID: 5291)
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