School: Ying-Hai High School
    Tainan, , Taiwan

11 students, ages 17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 12, 2015. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2005, 2012

Classes and Teachers: Hui-Chun Yang, Yu-Hui Yang, Jia-En Li/ Wen-Hsuanms Chou, Yu-Ting Lin, Jou Yuan, Yi-Fang Lai, Po-Yuan Mao, Jui-Ping Yu, Yu-Lian Lin, Yi-Hsaun Lin, Yuan-Shen Dai, Ya-Jin Lyu, Yi-Cing Wang

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.yhsh.tn.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Shiang Yu Museum, located in Jiangjun District, Tainan city, one of the six towns of the Salty Zone. The Salty Zone Culture is one of the most famous cultural community groups. Shiang Yu Museum has been playing the role as a spiritual home for many art workers. Its founder, Mr. Lin Jin-hwei, raises a lot of money and artworks from many artists, recruits a group of volunteers and builds this building as a place to exhibit and hold artistic activities, especially featuring these artists coming from the Salty Zone. Since the Japanese-occupied period, the Salty Zone has been famous for his numerous talented persons: doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs, writers, and artists. These people use their talents and resources to depict their hometown and to show their love for this land. So that’s why Shiang Yu Museum is here. It officially opened in November, 2007. Its main aim is, serving as an exhibition hall and workshop, to introduce and promote the artistic and literary works of the Salty Zone since the Japanese colonial periods.

2. Summary of Our Project

By chance, we know Mr. Lin Jin-hui, the founder of the Shiang Yu Museum, and his ambition to preserve and promote the Salty Zone Culture. The more we know this old man, the more we are touched by his love and sense of duty for his hometown. He works hard and runs everywhere to raise money and gathers a group of people who have the same vision as he. Now this museum stands in front of us, emitting the rays of love and duty for hometown. Mr. Lin’s hometown is my hometown as well. So I think it is also my duty to let the world know how beautiful our hometown is. These respected artists and writers use their brushes and pens to show their love for hometown. Hence, my teammates and I decide to follow their footsteps, in our own way, to use our power and knowledge on Internet to tell the world about the stories and people and the beauty of our hometown.

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):

Our school computer classroom is our main studio. It is equipped with 100Mbps optical fiber cables and servers, so we can make our websites easier and faster. While at home, the teammate members and teachers use 2M/256K Chunghwa telecom ADSL service to search for some concerning materials and do the editing. Once a week, the members will gather in our studio to work together. If there are any problems, we will solve them together. With cooperation and teamwork, our efficiency enhances greatly at the same time.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

The skill obstacles: Owning to the lack of experience of website designing, we are not good at many skills. In many parts of art designing and software using, we faced many difficulties and challenges. Thanks to the instruction and help from Ms. Yang and the teammates, we can exercise our talents to the full and overcome the problems and finally finish our allocated work in time. Progress report: First, we do our personal assignment individually. But in fact, we often meet problems that we cannot solve personally. So that is the reason why our teammates are required to have a meeting once a week in our studio. In this meeting, we cast out our personal problems and try to find out any solutions under the directions of Ms. Yang and with the help of other teammates. A Chinese proverb says well: two heads are better than one. That’s true. Researching time: Once a week after school, our team meets in the school computer classroom. Sometimes, some members are unable to attend, because of examinations, the sports meet, club activities and some personal affairs. In order to finish our work in time, we have to learn how to make good of our leisure time and to strike the balance between our schoolwork and personal assignments. Luckily, when we are not together, with the aide of Facebook, Line and Internet, we still can discuss and share our problems and discuss the collected materials on line. Planning for interviews: In order to collect more information and materials, and better understand the persons and culture that we have studied. We went to Shiang Yu Museum to visit Mr. Lin Jin-hui and three artists. This was our first time to have a formal interview with celebrities. We made a lot of preparation in advance. Even so, we still missed some points. Our interviewees were very understanding and kind. They knew that we were green hands, and later, they were willing to make time for us to make our interview better by phone and by e-mail. We are very grateful for.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

We relate to the love and the beautiful experiences of the artists to their hometown by getting close to them in person and working together seamlessly. By doing so, we hope to make their unsung hard work heard by the whole world.

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

In this program, in order to make a website, we learn page making, layout designing, website connection, art designing, navigation bar connecting, flash animation. These will not be taught so completely and thoroughly in our formal classes. It is after joining in this team that we know how hard it is to build up a website. We find that Taiwan’s education institution focuses too much on the knowledge of the textbooks and examinations. The result is that students spend most of their time in memorizing the facts of textbooks instead of realizing them fully. We students are passive, not active to learn something. On the other hand, we also find that what is learned outside campus sometimes is as valuable and useful as what is taught on campus. Take ourselves for example. Many skills used on this website are not taught in class; even so, they are important and indispensable. Without these skills, it is impossible to complete this website. So it seems that there exists a great gap between what we learn on campus and what we practice in real life. That is an existing big problem for the current Taiwan’s education institution. It breaks the limitations of time and space. It can be used to improve learning efficiency, particularly on transmitting and looking for information. And it also helps the teamwork to run smoothly. Take our team as an example. We use the Internet to share exchange and discuss the information and collected materials when we are not together. It enables us to connect with one another. So when it comes to learning, it is much more efficient than the traditional method. Besides, we also find that, in the Internet learning, having an independent thinking ability is very important or we are easily to get confused and lost in the Internet World. It's just like a kaleidoscope, charming and full of wonders. However, it's also like a maze, challenging and full of temptations. Only with independent thinking as a compass can we avoid being lost in the …

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

Function Desktop Computer: To manage information and create a website. Photographic Equipment: To record oral Interviews. Scanner: To scan pictures and photographs. Printer: To print document. a single-lens reflex camera: To photograph the research process and interviews. Software Flash CS5.5: To create animation. PhotoImpact X3: To image drafting. MicroSoft Office Word 2010: To manage documents and files. Dreamweaver CS5.5: To create a website. PhotoImpact X3: To image editing. Others MS-IE8.0 : To search for Internet data and inspect results Voice Recorder: To record interviews with consultants; act as personal data recording devices. USB: To carry information more convenience. Telephone: To contact with teachers, teammates, consultants, and related departments. Printed Material, books, and magazines: Searching for and double-check information. Oral Interviews: Oral statements from related professionals Above these are provided by our school and group members.

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

From the beginning, we have decided to employ the Internet to introduce our native land to the world. Because it is the most modern, convenient and effective method, and above all, it is cheapest, almost for free. With a computer, a cable and a little English ability, we can interact with the outside world and let the whole world know our hometown. Besides, we also inspire the friends and classmates around, who bear the same mission as we, to play 'ambassador' role in their own way whenever and wherever they have opportunities to do so.

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

There is a lot of the local treasure belonging to the salty zone in the Shiang Yu Museum. All of these are the priceless experience of the Ou-Wang ancestor. In order to conserve the culture and let the tradition pass down forever, Mr. Lin Jin Hwei do his best to prevent the cultural values that are worth to cherish from being destroyed. And he founded the Shiang Yu Museum to give the modern people a place to realize the local heritage. Thanks to the Mr. Lin Jin Hwei's efforts, everyone living in this community even the entire world can be acquainted with the endangered traditional culture in Ou-Wang and pass down the history to next generation. Now, we can not only study the old literature but also learn a lot about life. If we have any problem with something, we can go to the Shiang Yu Museum. Although we may not research the exact solution in the museum, we can found out some inspiration from their experience.

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

The Lin families are great helpers and assist us a lot. Mrs. Lin who is also our teacher gathered us to join the journey of discovering the local culture (this project). Without her help, we would not be able to complete this project. She solves us a lot of problems with how to use the software. Because of her introduction, we could contact Mr. Lin Jin Hwei, and got the opportunity to interview him in person. He gave us a lot of information about salty zone. And that is also a great factor that helps us finish this website. Without his help, we cannot learn about the salty zone more. Fortunately, their son and daughter also help us to find out the errors in our website. Without their help, it is impossible for us to finish this project. Here we want to give them our thanks and appreciation sincerely and hope that more and more people can walk into this museum and more and more students can come here to go on field trips and learn more about their hometown. Because all the efforts they do for us shall not be in vain, we have to make great use of the holy place.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

There is a time limit to the technology we learn from daily school time. After joining this team, we finally realize how hard it is to set up an ordinary website that we surf every day. From zero to a complete website, we have learned layout designing, website connection, art designing, typesetting, Flash animation. We are pleasant to get these useful technologies and they will become our ability forever. And it was also our first time to attend such a long-term, complex-contented and various contests, so we learned a lot from it. This was a very different experience, for everyone pulled together, racked brains to gauged and advanced toward the goal. The earnest and most active attitude often encouraged each other so that we can support one another and finish. When finishing, we cannot explain the mood by words. The obstacles we surmounted were gifts. This research project not only changed our skills, broadened our horizon, but most importantly it also changed the attitude we faced problem with, and more ways to deal with people. It made us closer to the world but not confined to the campus life. The sense of achievement of finishing this mission shaped us more active, positive to future challenges. This overcome also has great relevance to the subject of our research. While collating and reading literature in the museum, we have been touched gradually by the writers working hard for literary and ponder further what our aims are in such happy time. We don’t need to fight against the threats and oppression others gave for our thoughts and traditional culture, and don’t live in poverty-stricken conditions; thus, what can we dedicate to this community? Because of this research, we began to image and plan our future life.