iEARN in Action, March 24, 2004

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 11th ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE AND YOUTH SUMMIT IN KOSICE, SLOVAKIA, JULY 11-17, 2004! See announcement below, and link to http://www.iearn2004.net to learn more about the conference, to register, and to propose workshops.

iEARN CHILDREN SUPPORT CHILDREN IN EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATED BAM IN IRAN. IEARN-Iran has received hundreds of solidarity messages from all over the world. JEARN members have sent drawings by Japanese children and also a donation of $2,650 to set up a paint shop for the traumatized kids in Bam. Also children of the Jack Hulland Elementary School in Canada raised over 2,100 Canadian dollars for Bam through a penny drive, bake sales and a recycling campaign: see photos here. For more information please check iearn-Iran's website at: http://iearn.saf.ir

NO SPAM ORIGINATES FROM THE iEARN SITE. If you have received spam from any email addresses (such as 293492384923849@us.iearn.org), it's due to e-mail spoofing/forging. Spoofing/forging is the practice of changing the sender's name in an email message so that it looks as if it came from another address. If a recipient were to reply to the message, the reply would go to the spoofed address, not to the sender's actual address. Although spoofing can be used legitimately, it is most commonly used by senders of unsolicited commercial email and others who don't want their messages traced back. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done since these senders are just using software to fraudulently create the headers. If you have received spam claiming to be from iEARN, please remember these emails are not coming from us. However, if you would like to be removed from any iEARN forum or News Flash list, please let us know at: unsubscribe@us.iearn.org (mention the name of the forum).

Join Us! Seeking Contacts, Contributions and Collaborators

2003-2004 iEARN PROJECT BOOK NOW POSTED IN FRENCH AND SPANISH! New versions are now available in Arabic, Armenian, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. See here. For a more complete listing of iEARN projects, see here.

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS PROJECTS. Recently posted is a request from Besma Maraoui in Tunisia to launch a discussion on children's rights in Tunisia in comparison with other countries. Children's Rights Forum.

FROM JAPAN TO SLOVAKIA WITH LOVE GLOBAL ART PROJECT. Inspired by the 2002-2003 project "From Russia to Japan with Love," the 2004 project is on the way from Japan to Taiwan now! As one of the participants of this art project, iEARN Taiwan takes great pleasure to announce the follow-up campaign held on Sunday, March 28. The art workshop and display of Japanese partners' works will be held in National Science & Technology Museum Sunday on March 28, from 2:00 pm ~4:30 pm. With great cooperation with NTSM, the main focuses include the video interaction with JEARN and Vietnam partners, creating Taiwan traditional "lucky charm" bags to share in the 11th iEARN Conference in Slovakia, introducing kids in Taiwan about our traditional arts, and more importantly, passing our love and care to Bam people in Iran. Two hundred to four hundred people are expected to join this activity with a cooperative campaign on their "E-pass " student card. After this workshop, the art works created by students will be sent to Vietnam together with Japanese art works! Please visit iEARN Taiwan, here, and iEARN Japan for further details.

HEAR SONGS WRITTEN FOR THE CHILD SOLIDER PROJECT. iEARN-Sierra Leone Coordinator, Andrew Greene writes, "Songs portray very powerful feelings about peace and those that were done by the war affected children and youth of iEARN Sierra Leone, with Canadian friend Bill Belsey of iEARN Canada, have far reaching effects!" http://www.childsoldiers.org/ourvoices/. Join in directly in discussions in the Child Soldier Forum.

SWEET WHISPER PROJECT. Join in a forum, organized by students in Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in which students worldwide are sharing their writings and discussing their ideas and experiences of Friendship, Love, Freedom, Studies and etc. All are welcome! Sweet Whisper Forum.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING TO VIRTUES PROJECT - MAY 7TH. Mary Ann Gormley from Boston, USA and Farah Kamal of Pakistan are involved in compiling and editing the first book of Virtues, a publication that will have the students' contribution in the Virtues project. The deadline for posting all contributions is MAY 7th. We would like you to invite you to have your students join any of the interesting discussions that are ongoing on the Virtues forum. Any form of posting is acceptable: a narrative (essay or paragraph), poem, drawing, chart, cartoon, collage, poster... Virtues Forum.

Check it out! Resources, Web Sites and Postings (including resources that are not part of iEARN)

APPLY FOR ENO PROGRAMME 2004-2005, DEADLINE SOON! ENO (Environment Online) is a global Web school for environmental awareness. We are looking for new member schools for the 2004-2005 school year. The deadline for applications will be soon, March 31, 2004. Interested? Find the application here.

SEE PHOTOS FROM THE VISIT OF iEARN STUDENTS FROM BENI SUEF SECONDARY SCHOOL IN EGYPT TO PARTNER SCHOOL, THE NOTRE DAME ACADEMY IN WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, USA AS PART OF THE BRIDGE PROGRAM.

MOVING VOICES INTERNATIONAL DIGIFILMS FOR EDUATION AND CULTURAL AWARENESS PILOT PROJECT LAUNCHES ON MARCH 15! Teacher participants and their students from 15 countries and 5 US states are scheduled in the next 8 weeks to produce two-minute videos centered on the theme, "What I want the world to know about our school." Moving Voices aims to promote cultural understanding, collaborative learning and critical literacy through student-produced videos. Selected videos will be showcased at the iEARN conference in Slovakia this July. Watch future News Flashes for more information.

iEARN FEATURED FOR YOUTH ENGAGEMENT! iEARN is featured in a new "online tour" of websites that actively promote the civic engagement of youth, Click on "Global Issues." 'Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation,'. A groundbreaking study by the Center for Social Media at American University, challenges the tired cliche that young people today are unconcerned about and uninvolved in civic and political affairs. The research identifies and analyzes the new genre of "civic websites" that facilitate youth involvement -- ranging from voting and volunteering, to online journalism, international collaboration on educational projects, sophisticated political activism, and more.

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

JOIN IN THE NAVRUZ - 2004 ONLINE CAMP! Organized by iEARN Uzbekistan Center and School Connectivity for Uzbekistan Project (IREX), March 22-28. Students and teachers worldwide are welcome to join in this unique online camp experience allowing them to meet, exchange ideas and collaborate together on common projects! The website is available in Russian, and in English. Most of the work will be organized using iEARN forums.

JOIN IN THE "WORLD WE LIVE IN" PROJECT DISCUSSION CAMP, MARCH 22-26 IN MINSK, BELARUS - JOIN A CHAT ON MARCH 25! An open internet-conference will be the main part of the spring discussion camp of the youth Internet-project "World We Live In". Anyone can become a participant of the conference, which will occur March 25, 2004 from 14.30-18.00 here, by registering (preferably during the first half hour of the conference) and choosing the channel #belarus (common room for meetings, greetings, questions, and conducting work). Total length of the conference is 3.5 hours. Camp made possible due to the support of iEARN - Belarus (International Education and Resource Network in Belarus) and "Internet-2" project ProUNO in Belarus, Minsk Palace of Children and Youth and "Transformation of Humanities" Association, Belarusian Club Federation of Internet Education Alumni and European Humanitarian University, Internet Access and Traning Program in Belarus. Questions? Contact Sofia Savelava in Belarus.

JOIN IN A CHAT ON MARCH 27 at 1:00 p.m. GMT (8:00 a.m. New York time) WITH iEARN PARTICIPANTS WORLDWIDE! Jamaldin Slimani of Morocco writes, "The topic is: How can an iearner make a difference in his/her own community. The questions we will try to answer are: -- How can an iearner make a difference in a community where "making a difference" is not yet a familiar notion? -- How can an iearner make a difference in a community where some of the decision-makers think only of their own interests? "See" you soon in the chat room": To enter the chat, go to the iEARN Teachers Forum and find the link to "Teachers Lounge Chat Room."

iEARN INDONESIA TEACHERS' WORKSHOP. The first iEARN Indonesia National Workshop for teachers is being held from March 24-26 in Jakarta. 25 educators from Jakarta and some nearby cities will be working together at the Vocational Educational Development Center-Sawangan. Farah Kamal from iEARN-Pakistan and Doris Wu from iEARN Taiwan are honored to be facilitating the three days session with our colleagues from iEARN Indonesia. Please send your greetings for this group and also share your successes with iEARN here.

iEARN MALAYSIA - FIRST iEARN TEACHERS WORKSHOP, MARCH 29-31. Doris Wu from iEARN-Taiwan, Farah Kamal from iEARN-Pakistan with our colleague Zait of iEARN Malaysia will be working with a group of 30 Malaysian educators gathered at USM Faculty of Education in Penang. Please send your welcome messages for this group sharing how iEARN made a difference to you your students and fellow colleagues.

iEARN AT TESOL CONFERENCE IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, MARCH 31-APRIL 2, 2004. Dalia Khalil, iEARN Coordinator in Egypt, and Mourad Benali, iEARN Coordinator in Morocco, will be participating in the International TESOL conference in Long Beach, California, USA and are interested in meeting any other iEARN teachers who will be attending this event. Contact Dalia or Mourad.

YOUTHCAN 2004 CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD IN NEW YORK CITY, BEIRUT AND OTHER CITIES ON APRIL 26. For info on YouthCaN click here.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 11th ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE AND YOUTH SUMMIT IN KOSICE, SLOVAKIA, JULY 11-17, 2004. Wow! Registrations are coming in fast & programming is heating up, leaving workshop space and some accommodation options in Hotel Slovan quite limited already. Availability for all conference spaces is on a first-come first-serve basis for PAID registrations only, so if workshop space and choice of accommodation is important to you, then get informed and get registered NOW at: http://www.iearn2004.net.