CyberFair Project ID: 7650

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International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Heading To the Challenges-HTC
Category: 3. Business and Community Organizations
URL: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2014/gsh7650/index.htm
Bibliography: http://librarywork.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2014/gsh7650/page5_b2.html

School: Kang Chiao Bilingual Elementary School
    New Taipei, , Taiwan

10 students, ages 11~12 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on February 12, 2014. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2007,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013

Classes and Teachers: Chin-Hua Yang

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.kcbs.ntpc.edu.tw/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Xindian District is located in the South of New Taipei City, which is beside the mountain with fabulous view and is the biggest district in New Taipei City. Since 1960, the government has set Xindian to be an export industrial zone because Xindian is close to Taipei City, without traffic jam, and no risk of flood. In addition, it is easy to get workers and land. That is why over time, many companies such as Yulong Motor, Taiwan General Electric, and GIGABYTE all set up their companies in Xindian. Our main focus, HTC, also set up its headquarters in Xindian. The Taipei headquarters of HTC mainly focuses on product development, marketing, and it is the decision-making center of the company. Its establishment not only provides New Taipei City an opportunity to gather passion, dream and creativity, but also gives the New Taipei city a stage of innovations and creativity to light up Taiwan.

2. Summary of Our Project

HTC is one of the key companies that makes smartphones and PCs under its own brand. The company was founded in Taoyuan in 1997, and it started as an OEM factory of PDAs and cellphones for other global brands. In 2005, it started its own brand of HTC. In 2011, HTC became one of the top 100 brands in the world. In the year of 2012, HTC moved Taipei headquarters to Xindian. While most of Taiwan’s electronics companies chose to be OEM, HTC chose to sell smartphones under its own brand and became a key player in the market. Along the way, HTC has faced a lot of challenges, but they kept focusing on “innovation” to make miracles, and “courage” to excite the world. It created a lot of surprises for Taiwan, and for itself, too! In this project, we’ll research about it through reading paragraphs, visiting its factory, conducting a questionnaire survey, asking the professionals, doing hands-on activities, etc. We’ll talk about how HTC used its own name to make its way to the world market, as well as the challenges and hope behind its success.

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:more than 6

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

Currently, the school has sufficient host servers, and each classroom owns a desktop and internet access. There is an IT department in the school to provide teachers and students with a convenient and multi-service network environment including ample spaces for website and mail. In order to participate in this Cyberfair competition, we spent our extra-time, noon break, and after-school time to set up the website. We first uploaded the website page to FTP server of the school, which enabled us to modify Web Pages at home, making the whole process smooth.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

1.Getting Permission from HTC: HTC is a busy and successful company. Thus, getting the permission from the company for sharing information with us was our first challenge. We wanted to thank Mrs. Chang because she helped us submit the research proposal to HTC and get the permission from HTC. This gave us the chance to visit the company and collect a lot of precious information. 2.Organizing the visit: Our second challenge was to complete the interview and collect all the information needed within a limited time, and leave a good impression at the same time. We divided ourselves into several small groups to prepare the topics and questions for the interview, and we also rehearsed for different situations that would likely happen during the interview. We also sought for our parents’ assistance in taking photographs, making videos, and recording, in order to have a complete record of the entire process of our interviews. 3.The Busy Interviewees: In the year of 2013, the competition in the smartphone industry started to become more and more intense. HTC faced a critical challenge that they had never faced before. We could see it from the busy schedule of the HTC leaders. Thus, our visit was postponed several times, and we did not get to interview the senior executives of HTC. 4.Lack of the Knowledge of Technology: While we were discussing the history of HTC and reading information from news articles and magazines, we found many technical terms that we had never learned from text books. Through searching online and solving this problem from the interviews, we were able to overcome this. We also want to say thank you to the parents who work in computer companies, for teaching us the terminology.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Only through treating others in a humble and pleasant manner, and only through thinking creatively about the future, can a person seize the opportunity in the ever-changing world. Then the blue ocean in life will be found.

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

1.Language: invitation, interview, writing the content and experience/after-thought. 2.Math: making statistical charts and analyzing data by Excel software. 3.Social Studies: setting up research topic direction and framework, designing questionnaire, and organizing questions. 4.Integrated Activities: integrating manuscript, questionnaire, network, written documents and all kinds of data, the completion of the web production 5.Independent Study: studying all kinds of research skills, including brainstorming, KWHL chart, questionnaire, interview, data collection and organization, etc. 6.Nature and Life Science: We hope to include the knowledge of telecommunications and development of cell phone, so we added a subtopic, Encyclopedia. We hope the visitors of our website can learn more about this area.

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Project Elements

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

Phone and E-mail: 1.Invite and contact the interviewees. 2.Collect the first hand information from HTC. Internet and Newspaper: 1.By internet, learn about the projects of previous winners. 2.Google the media information of HTC. 3.Use internet as a channel to discuss the information and share the experience with each other. Smartphone:Operate smartphones by ourselves to know the function of HTC smartphones. Computer:Use different application software to edit photos, writings, and data statistics in order to integrate them into Web Page. DV:Take photos of each visit and interview, and document our research and training process. Printer:Print out the guidelines of the interviews, online information, questionnaire, interview notice, and other related information. USB:Store the project information. Software:Computer application software: Photo Impact, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Word, Excel, Ftp, IE, etc.

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

1.We not only saw the factory in our Taoyuan factory visit, but also we talked with some major employees. The thing that was most valuable was experiencing how people thought of new ideas and enjoyed the fun of brainstorming in Magic Lab. 2.With the help of Mrs. Chang, the mom of one Kang Chiao student, we got two interview sessions with Mr. John Wang talking about the mysterious Magic Lab. He also talked about the “Quietly Brilliant” that we didn’t even know before. We’ll put this on our website to share our deeper understanding. 3.The bulletin board outside our classroom is the place where we put our achievement in words and in diagrams, as well as get feedback and advice.

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

Our deepest impact would be the issues of “Quietly Brilliant” and “failure.” Actually, “Quietly Brilliant” includes two meanings. They are the humble attitude and the ability to make innovation. For school, life, and work, only being modest can you see other people's goodness and find your own shortcomings. We should have no arrogance in victory and no despair in defeat. A proverb said, “From clogs to clogs is only three generation.” If we want to break it, we must be very humble. “Failure is a very important thing.” This is what John Wang told us. Yes, if you do not regard failure as an important issue but fear of it, you will not dare to innovate. Every unique and important invention is derived from the perseverance. Creativity and failure can help you in your entire life.

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

1.Mrs. Chang: She helped us connect with HTC and schedule a visit. Also, she helped us to arrange an interview with John Wang, the former CMO of HTC. 2.Mr. Chang, Deputy General Manager: He was one of the important people who helped arrange the visit for us. He also told us the philosophy of HTC. 3.Ms. Lai, the manager: She was in charge of our visit of Taoyuan factory and told us HTC’s story of brand. 4.Mr. Lu, a board manger: He introduced the foundation to us and answered us many questions. 5.Director Ye: She answered us the questions about the staff benefit. 6.Mr. Kao and Mr. Lin, the engineers: They led us to experience as much as we could in the workshop and told us things about Magic Lab. 7.Mr. Wang, the former CMO: He shared with us his personal experience in HTC and Magic Lab.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

HTC keeps encountering challenges, but it continues to grow and learn from the lessons and failure. This is the company that became one of the world’s top 100 brands, HTC. From the time of OEM, to the time of creating its own brand, it has been a journey. Although the obstacles HTC encountered were difficult to conquer, it solved all of them. The weapon it used was innovation. While HTC was selling its phones very well, the war of patent started. Although the lawsuit between HTC and Apple ended with compromise, it still influenced the market of HTC in America. Also, the patent suit between HTC and Nokia may also lock the market of HTC phones in America and Europe. We admire the courage of turning from OEM to making its own brand. We also praise that HTC has gotten so many “number ones” throughout its life. We also trust its insight. We believe that HTC will fight its way out and find its new goal. Make another miracle for Taiwan, HTC! Go! Go!Go!

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