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1. Description of Our Community
Yilan is situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan, and is a county and city with much rain. In the past it was always fondly referred to as “The Area Behind the Mountain.” Ever since the Yilan County Government sponsored such activities as “A Year of Joy in Yilan,” “International Green Exposition of Yilan,” “The Yilan International Children’s Folklore & Folkgame Festival,” etc. it has striven to promote tourism, letting Yilan no longer be limited to being just a county and city in someone’s impression, but become instead a prime region for attracting numberless tourists to visit and for site-seeing during vacations. Whenever tour buses come rolling into Yilan one after another, tourists sigh in praise of the wonderful landscape of Yilan; as residents of Yilan and custodians of its honor we feel proud, and hope to be able to do our best for Yilan. Therefore, taking as our theme “An Encounter with Rainbow—the Goodwill Ambassadors of Yilan International Children’s Folklore & Folkgame Festival,” we recorded the course of how we shouldered the responsibility of serving as goodwill ambassadors to host Russian “Rainbow Children’s Dance Ensemble,” to pass on our “love” for Yilan.
2. Summary of Our Project
“The summer of 2010 in Yilan was a season for every child!” Ever since 1996, when the Yilan International Children’s Folklore & Folkgame Festival was first held, it has convened 14 times and has already become an artistic festival that surpasses normal popularity. Each year it attracts tens of thousands of tourists to visit Yilan County and this simple and welcoming city. This year during the opening ceremony of the 40th session of the International Folk Art Festival Association World Conference (CIOFF®World Conference), it was awarded the “International Folk Art Festival Association” (CIOFF®) certification for being an international art festival associated with the International Folk Art Festival Association World Conference. It is the fourth international folk art festival in Asia to be so designated, and the first designated folk art festival in Asia with a theme devoted to children. But this year we are not only tourists but also goodwill ambassadors with the responsibility to host foreign performing ensembles. It was our honor to host the Children’s Dance Ensemble, Raduga from Stavropol, Russia. Our special topic is based on the myriad of details concerning hosting the Children’s Dance Ensemble, and record this story that transcends region, language, and age, and through a specialized web page, to transmit the deepest thoughts and good wishes to the summer of this year.
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):
The school provided for student use a T1 internet from China Telecommunications ADSL internet, with a 1.5M broadcast width with a continuous online environment.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Not being able to speak Russian:Fortunately, most of our Russian friends could understand English; Teachers and students had different perceptions of the special research. Although our workload kept increasing with the ceaseless uploading of materials on our web page, our teachers and students all felt proud of their own “accomplishments.”
5. Our Project Sound Bite
We were good at utilizing the opportunity of participating in activities to get to know some individuals, and introduced to them our research project.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
With regard to our own school, we utilized our flexible time to integrate Chinese, social studies, and synthetic curricula to implement trans-discipline specialized learning, and arranged for members of small groups to make reports on the activities of the goodwill ambassadors of the children’s Folklore & Folkgame festival.
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