CyberFair Project ID: 5715

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: The Bamboo Master- Chang Hsien
Category: 1. Local Leaders
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2009/gsh5715/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2009/gsh5715/ref.htm

School: Jaw Nan Elementary School
    Miaoli , Taiwan, Taiwan

9 students, ages 9-11 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 26, 2009. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2002,2003,2004,2005

Classes and Teachers: 3

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://163.19.159.248/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Jhunan is the most northern township bordering the shoreline in Miaoli County. It is where the mountain-and-ocean line from north-to-south straight-through railroad branched off at. And it is also the center for Chung-Kang Creek region. It served as the landing port for those who destined to pioneer the Chung-Kang Creek region and who were immigrants from either Fukien or Canton. In recent years, prompted by the speedy development of both industries and mercantile, with the installation of science park area, factories popped up everywhere, a sign of prosperity in the air. Nonetheless, if ever wandering around the street corners, you would find that it conserves many of the ancient relics left behind by those pioneers in the past, as well as the unsophisticated manners well noted in giving out warm welcome to strangers. All o f these would incite visitors with a sense of remembrance of the past. Both “tradition” and “modernity” find room for coexistence with appropriate infusion and exhibition side by side; and this is exactly the uniqueness Jhunan exemplifies.

2. Summary of Our Project

Nowadays, in a society stressing both efficiency and convenience, many of the past traditional workmanships gradually fade away. And these so called traditional workmanships were indispensible in the daily lives for their ancestors. Nonetheless, the end result of industrialization prohibits these from being witnessed again, even worse, they gradually disappear. Luckily, some of them are still striving to conserve what’s left. Jhunan, is one of them. Under the tutelage of family heritage, Master Chang not only familiarizes himself with each and every weaving technique, but also he goes one step further by making breakthroughs in preserving and passing on the bamboo weaving workmanship. This research primarily explores the Master’s creation journey through interviewing Master Chang. With his consummate craftsmanship, our special interview topics research not only led all of us to get to know Master Chang, but also understand the beauty of traditional bamboo artworks, with the possibility of passing on this heritage as well as preserving these hard-to-come-by quintessence of wisdom from our forbears.

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

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

In our school, there are 2 computer rooms each with 40 sets of personal computers. We can access the Internet through the TANET, by Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) with 1536K uploading speed and 384K downloading speed. Our members use computers to access networks by either 56 dial-up modem link through various network providers or wide band services (ADSL) at home.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1. Our team members, between the age of 8 to 12, posed difficulties to those who assigned us with work details due to our inconsistence in the sense of maturity. 2. Most of the team members learned to design webpage the first time around, and were quite unfamiliar with webpage artistic techniques as well as overall architecture. The learning itself did pose quite a challenge to us all. 3. Computers in the school tend to be crashed-prone. Web access response is extremely slow, this poses inconveniences for looking up information as well as uploading reports. Other than this, the dream weaver software for webpage making in school is the English version, entailing more hard work for all of us. 4. According to the age, experience level and capability, the work assignment is conducted as such. Big brother and sister naturally are responsible of workloads with much higher difficulty. In addition, they are also expected to guide the younger ones and help out each other for the sake of teamwork spirit. 5. Every one of us would take notes whenever the teacher teaches one or few techniques, and we would practice these techniques at home. For those who can’t, they would ask help from the team members affiliated with the church. 6. When school computer experiences troubles and rendering us unable to finish the assignments, we sign on websites at home to finish the assignments. While doing the assignment of webpage, for those who can’t read the English version, teacher would teach them how to do it right. And practice makes perfect, with a few more practices we all learn how to do it right finally.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Through this special topic research, we got to interview and exchange our thoughts with the Master. On top of it, we learned to appreciate the beauty emanated from bamboo made artworks. Furthermore, under the guidance from the Master, we learned firsthand and had fun in bamboo weaving technique. These were never touched upon by any of us in the past. Therefore, we really appreciated the teachers who sacrificed their precious time and spent efforts to lead us in conducting researches, which were backed up with time and time again onsite visits. They also taught us how to employ Internet access as well as teaching us the webpage techniques. We also thanked the Master allowing us acquire plenty of knowledge and capabilities.

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

Traditionally, education can only take place at schools. While this time, the resources of our community and parental supporting have played an important role on the research. We believe that diversified curriculums and more real time experience would motivate and stimulate students’ will of learning. The mission of education is to enhance students’ ability to think, to ask questions and to solve problems by themselves. Acquiring basic knowledge of computer is one of the benefits we’ve got throughout the research. The trend of using computers has gone international. It’s urgent for everyone to learn how to combine the skills and knowledge of using this modern technology in our daily lives. In addition to increasing our knowledge in science, we have learned skills like how to organize a team to work on a project, communicate with people and also the importance of cooperation. Learning is not just an individual activity for acquiring and storing knowledge. It’s beneficial to share what we have learned through interaction. Besides, it’s essential for teachers to provide students with an environment of abundant living materials. The result of our research would be used as a supplemental material for science and local social studies subjects.

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Project Elements

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

1. Telephone:To keep contact with people for interview and to arrange schedule. It’s also used for communication between members. 2. Digital camera system:To shoot the process of research and to pick up figures from books. 3. Computer & the Internet:For collecting or uploading data and to edit photos and written journals. 4. Computer software:Microsoft Office seriesUlead PhotoImpact 7.0 Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Macromedia Flash MX Macromedia Fireworks MX 6. Mp3 : For interview

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

Before encountering this research project, there was apparent lack of in-depth acknowledge to my hometown’s arts and literatures. Afterwards, it led my discovery that right at where I had lived, it has so bountiful of the so called hometown culture. This definitely deserved efforts of delicate taste and concentration instead. Maybe there are some of the hometown characteristics remained to be unearthed, worthwhile to our further exploration. We believe that our research findings are invaluable and full of significance. These materials not only can be used as hometown teaching materials, and are expected to be introduced to all about Jhunan’s hometown and arts through this research finding. In addition, I expect to adopt this research as the foundation and baseline for future researches. During this period of time, we proceeded to four teaching activities and interviews. In the first teaching activity, the Master told us about the varieties of bamboo, its applications and characteristics. He also taught us how to weave a frog out of bamboo. The second teaching was really an interview. We asked the Master twelve questions which further enhanced our understanding about the bamboo weaved workmanships. The third teaching was to weave a bamboo windmill. The finished windmill was not only beautiful but also fun to play with. The last teaching session was about the bamboo bell. We spent lots of time to finish off this rather complex bell. During this teaching session, we had hoped to share through the webpage access about our fruits of labor.

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

By doing this project, we found that the interaction between schools and our community has greatly increased. Through the understanding of our hometown, we’re more bonded to our lovely hometown. What we are trying to do is to promote our local specialties by introducing them through the Internet and raise our publicity as much as we can.

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

In the learning process for the past few months, both the teachers and my family members provided plenty of guidance and assistance as well, like looking for website information, survey query sheet design, interview, report writing and webpage making, etc. The school administration also encouraged our research endeavors and also provided computer classroom for us. In the overall research process, we conduct onsite interview with Master Chang, and we thanked him for making time for us to conduct interview. Master Chang also provided his artworks for photo sessions with narrations as well as bamboo weaving teaching guidance. All of these facilitated the smooth research process and the research contents would then be more fulfilling. I simply could not express my appreciation enough to all of these.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Right after we just started to conduct research, the teacher told us to respect and honor “intelligence property rights”. Therefore, in the process of collecting relevant information, there was absolute no plagiarizing, it had to be undergoing the process of reading, understanding and transformation before put down in our own wordings.

For each and every visit, we prepared the interviewing contents, including onsite questions, recording milestones and key events. This was facilitated with MP3 first, then had the recording transcribed into words. In between, cameras and videos were deployed to capture precious scenes onsite. Within the overall special research reports, the materials and photos were all part of our interview process and onsite observation records. Others, as long as referencing other’s materials, no matter whether from the books or website articles, we would register the source webpage along with the actual web address so as to show our respect for the intelligence property rights. Each one of us also wrote research diary, therefore all work progress reports were written by us all. All the exhibited photos, some of the contents were provided by either Master Chang or the team members or onsite photos shot by teachers or personally drawn pictures.

Each and every one of us put all the efforts in research with the expectation to deliver a rather lively and vivid webpage, which could have informed all who would be interested either domestic or abroad. We were aware of the fact that the bamboo weaving workmanship was one of the wonderful arts with so much fun. And in Jhunan, there was one man who utterly understood the bamboo weaving workmanship and was willing to devote himself to it; there was no other than the Master Chang.

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