CyberFair Project ID: 7476

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Delight Hsien-Hsi, Community Promoter ~ Hsing-Wu Huang
Category: 1. Local Leaders
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2013/gsh7476/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2013/gsh7476/8-1.htm

School: Hsien-Hsi Junior High School
    Changhua County, n/a, Taiwan

6 students, ages 13~14 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 15, 2013. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2004, 2005, 2012

Classes and Teachers: Jen-Chieh Hsu, Yi-Jen Chen, Shu-Yen Chen

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.hhjh.chc.edu.tw/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Our community-- Hsien-Hsi is located at the northwest of Changhua County, Taiwan; west faces Taiwan Strait and south neighbors Lukang, a famous township in Changhua. Hsien-Hsi has the least population and is the smallest township in Changhua, with an area of 23.4 square kilometers and a population of 17,125. Basically, most of the inhabitants earn their live as farmers, fishermen, or industrials. However, it lies on the area of so called “tip of wind and tail of water,” and that brings us the strongest Northeasterly wind and causes the poor soil. Fortunately, our community has been gradually promoted by several passionate people in Hsien-Hsi even though there are so many locational disadvantages in our township. With the efforts of these hard-working persons, Hsien-Hsi will no longer be an unknown place to the public.

2. Summary of Our Project

The community promoter Hsing-Wu Huang has devoted himself to preserving and passing down all kinds of traditional cultures of Taiwan, such as dough figures, shadow shows, and many other children’s folk crafts, for a long time. He helped to develop the community in Meishan, Chiayi County, by establishing a shadow show troupe in Ann-Jing Elementary School from 1995 to 2010. Thanks to his endeavors to hand down the declining folklore so that the younger generations like us have the chance to know and appreciate them. Now, Hsing-Wu Huang comes back to Hsien-Hsi and is stimulating the development of our community.

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

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

During the project, we faced several barriers, and among them, there were two main problems for us to overcome. One was the technical difficulty. Since this project relayed so much on the Net, computers played a critical part in accomplishing it. However, two of our members’ computers didn’t work, so we had to type the information we got with the computers at school. It became a test of the team members’ typing speed. Another challenge, also the biggest barrier was the time limit. Because we are from different classes and have different class schedules, we could hardly find time for gathering. What’s more, one team member couldn’t attend because of illness, so that our progress was seriously lagged behind. As we all knew how time flies, we were really worried about our project. Luckily, other members were willing to help with his unfinished part, and finally we finished the work on time.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We all agreed that the most interesting part of this project was to make our own dough figures. Molding the dough into the figures based on the imagination of our own brought us lots of happiness and satisfaction. Contrariously, writing down the reports was the most difficult part for us as we all thought of lots of things and couldn’t see eye to eye on everything. Despite the difficulties, we still communicated with each other to come to a consensus in the end and tried our best to accomplish this project.

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

As we all knew that participating in this project would certainly take us a lot of time and even some of us were worried that it might influence the performances of our regular courses. Yet, the fact is that we have made great progress in many ways. First, doing the survey and interviews has made a great impact on our Chinese diction and speech abilities, and we also learned the interview manners. Also, we have known more about the history, environment, and the future development of our community through this project. We also learned how to make the dough figures and many other traditional folk crafts and the importance of preserving these folklores from the community leader. Thanks for the guidance from Mr. Hsu, our technology teacher, we have improved our abilities and skills to build webpage. The last and the most important impact that we have got from the Cyberfair project is the importance and power of the collaboration. In the beginning, we tried to do all the tasks together which took us lots of time and led to little progress. Therefore, we decided to divide the projects into tasks for the members, and each of us had to hand in the completed work to integrate. And then all the members cooperated to make our own Cyberfair project done.

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Project Elements

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

To accomplish this Cyberfair project, we used some useful information tools and technologies. First of all, we used telephones not only to conduct the interviews but also to contact with the team members. When interviewing in person, we took many pictures with digital cameras and also recorded it with a digital video recorder. Besides, most of us stored the information we got in the USB flash disks, and we integrated the research we had done with the computers (at school) or notebooks (outside of school or home). We also used our printers to print out the information we needed. Finally, to publish our research online, we used the computers and a digital drawing board to make the framework of our website. Thanks to the project, we have learned how to use the software, such as Microsoft Word 2010, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004, PhotoCap 6.0… and so on. In addition to the tools mentioned above, we also had the chance to use “Google Drive.” It’s an intelligent technology with which you can store the files with others in the same space, upgrade the information, and share information with others anytime as long as you can get on the Net. What a useful technology it is!

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

To accomplish this project, we had to contact and talk with Mr. Huang through phone calls. Actually, we all felt very anxious when we interviewed Mr. Huang in person. However, he eased our nervous tension by telling us some amusing jokes and a few interesting anecdotes. He was so humorous that our laughs with joy gradually replaced the embarrassment. He also shared us some stories about our community and his future plans for the community development. Finally, we thought that Mr. Huang must have got carried away because he couldn’t stop talking. When the interview was done, our legs had already been asleep and could hardly walk immediately! Beside the interviews, we helped several people in our community to ponder their understanding of the traditional arts through questionnaire survey. Also, we set the webpage to give people who are interested in Hsien-Hsi a chance to learn more about it. We’ll continue upgrading the information on our webpage so that it would become really topical and attractive to whoever reads it.

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

Through the participation in the Cyberfair project, we became more familiar with the traditional arts and started to take the mission of recalling and prolonging people’s memory for the folk art crafts in Taiwan. Also, people who visit our website will find that the folklore and the folk artists are no longer as boring as they used to think. On the contrary, people will start to appreciate these folk crafts and feel more respectful to the folk crafts artists.

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

Because of the help from many people that we can accomplish the Cyberfair project. First of all, we’re very grateful that community members who preserve and pass down the folk arts like Hsing-Wu Huang accepted the interviews, provided all kinds of information about the traditional art crafts, and guided us the way to explore our community. Then, we’d like to say thank you to our teachers who helped us to proofread, set up the webpage, and look for the phone numbers of the interviewees. Finally, we are also thankful to have those who helped us complete the questionnaire survey.

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View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 7476)

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