iEARN in Action, April 12, 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.

CONGRATULATIONS TO iEARN MONGOLIA, AND APPRECIATION TO iEARN-TAIWAN FOR THEIR SUPPORT TO PURCHASE COMPUTER AND PRINTER!!! iEARN-Mongolia Coordinator, Ts. Nyankhuu writes, As you know, we, Mongolia, joined into the iEARN since 1998, however, we did not establish the iEARN-Mongolia formally. However, yesterday [April 7], the iEARN-Mongolia NGO founders meeting was held...The meeting concluded that to establish the iEARN-Mongolia NGO formally... iEARN-Mongolia will be registered soon by the Ministry of Justice." In addition, Ts. Nyankhuu shares that "Recently, I*EARN-Mongolia bought one Pentium IV computer set and laser printer for iEARN-Mongolia center by donation money of iEARN-Taiwan teachers. The iEARN-Mongolia teachers are very grateful to iEARN-Taiwan teachers and Ms. Doris Wu for their support, and encouragement. This is our first asset for our newly established NGO. The computer set will be used for iEARN-Mongolia teachers, and I believe Mongolian teachers will cooperate with you all by using this computer. Thanks again for it." For a photo of the new iEARN-Mongolia office/staff, see: http://www.iearn.org/globe/globe_Asia.html.

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.

"HOW CAN WE MAKE THIS YEAR/2004 A YEAR OF PEACE AND LOVE" PROJECT. Join the discussion in the iEARN Peace Forum: Contact Nour_eddine Laouni in Morocco.

JOIN IN DISCUSSIONS AND ACTION PROJECTS ON THE ISSUE OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN YOUTHCAN! Students in Egypt, Lebanon, United States and Malaysia are working on the issue of waste management in their countries. The discussions have ranged from how waste is disposed to recycling. Some students measured their families' daily waste to calculate how much their entire school produces each week. Other students embarked on campaigns to end the use of plastic bags, preferring to move toward paper or cloth bags that can be re-used each time someone goes to the store. Still other iEARN students launched "clean-up" days, working together to clear beaches along the Mediterranean Sea and school yards. Join in! See the iEARN YouthCaN Forum.

"MovingVoices:" INTEGRATING DIGITAL MOVIE TECHNOLOGY INTO THE CLASSROOM. 21 iEARN schools in 16 countries are piloting a new project in which students are designing, filming, editing and producing two-minute digital movies for downloading from the Internet. This project is being funded by the US Department of Education, Advanced Network and Services and the Longview Foundation. JVC is providing digital movie cameras to each participating schools. Teachers are taking an online course as part of the project and students will showcase some of the new videos at the iEARN conference in Slovakia. For a description of the project and list of countries, see here.

MY HERO PROJECT ACTIVITY. PROJECT NOW IN SPANISH! Announcing the launch of MiHeroe.org. Miheroe.org encourages submissions in Spanish from iEARN members of all ages about heroes from all walks of life. http://miheroe.org. Age: All. Date: Current, ongoing. Language: Ingles, Spanish (Español). Contact: Claudia Herrera Hudson. Or myhero@myheroproject.org. 2) VISUALIZE HEROISM. Announcing the launch of the MY HERO VIRTUAL ART GALLERY. All iEARN members are invited to participate. The Gallery has a user-friendly template created for on-line submission of original works of art that visualize heroism. http://myheroproject.org/. Ages: All. Date: Current, ongoing. For more information contact: Victoria Murphy.

TAKE A DIP: THE WATER IN OUR LIVES, AN ENVIRONMENTAL COLLABORATIVE PROJECT. Join students around the world in in a project where you will have the opportunity to team up to test water quality and research the cultural significance of fresh water. From March 15 - June 4, 2004, you will test and compare the water quality of your local river, stream, lake or pond and the stories and practices dealing with water in your community with other fresh water sources around the world. Interested... Go here for more information (also available in español).

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

THE TECH MUSEUM AWARDS ARE SEEKING NOMINATIONS FOR INNOVATORS AROUND THE WORLD! Seeking nominations for innovators who are using technology to benefit humanity. A unique and prestigious program, the Awards will honor 25 finalists at a gala event on November 10, 2004 in San Jose, California, USA. Awards are presented in the categories of Education, Equality, Environment, Economic Development, and Health. One Laureate in each category will be awarded $50,000. The deadline for nominations has been extended to April 19, 2004. Nominations may be submitted online at http://www.techawards.org/nominations.cfm. For more information on The Tech Museum Awards please visit http://www.techawards.org.

iEARN TEACHER SPEAKS OUT: "Many thanks for your effort and concern to help Palestinian school kids to be more involved in the world communication and interact better with other kids from the world: 1. My students have become so enthused to search and find things by themselves. 2. They have exchanged cultures and thoughts with others. 3. They have appreciated others opinion what ever they are. 4. They have believed that they can make the difference and change the world to achieve peace. 5. They have learnt how to cooperate and collaborate with others despite the distances. 6. They have become aware of others problems and how do they think, moreover they are using technology to enhance their knowledge and awareness. my best regards," Kahraman Arafa, Ramallah Secondary School for Girls, Palestine.

GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR EDUCATION. During Action Week, April 19-23, join in the excitement as the Global Campaign for Education brings together a worldwide chorus of teachers, students and others speaking up for every child's right to an education. Don't miss out on this year's exciting events! Everything you need to participate in Action Week 2004 is available online at the official U.S. registration center.

iEARN NARNIA PROJECT FEATURED IN GLOBAL JUNIOR CHALLENGE. http://www.gjc.it/2004/en/arch_interview15.asp. For more information, see http://www.narnia.it (the official web site of the Italian project).

UNESCO YOUNG DIGITAL CREATORS (YDC). YDC is a web-based initiative that provides a variety of online programmes for young people to create and communicate on global issues such as water, urbanization, HIV/AIDS, cultural diversity, etc. It especially aims at promoting interdisciplinary approaches of arts, science, and technology in fostering interactive platforms of
quality education. Go here, and register by 19 April 2004 to be involved in the next session.

RWANDA ALIVE - VIDEOCONFERENCING PROGRAM. The Global Nomads Group (GNG) is launching Rwanda Alive, a videoconferencing educational program that will guide K-12 students across Rwanda, enabling them to learn about this country directly from the source (the people that live there!). For more than a month, a GNG team will travel across this amazing country, setting up live broadcasts from remote locations and beaming them straight into classrooms. Rwanda Alive will feature 8 broadcast series. Of those, two will highlight the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and another will feature the first ever live broadcast from the natural habitat of the mountain gorilla (in association with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund). The Rwanda Alive website will be updated throughout the expedition with information sheets, webumentaries, diary entries from the expedition team, live webcasts, and much, much more. The adventure begins in April, 2004. Don't miss it! Learn more and register your class: http://www.gng.org/rwanda.

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

YOUTHCAN 2004 CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD IN NEW YORK CITY, BEIRUT AND OTHER CITIES ON APRIL 26. Key highlights will include a video-conference between NYC and Beirut as the two sites launch their YouthCaN events. Additional video-conferences will be held with Australia and Japan. For more info on YouthCaN click here and for a list of the workshops at the NYC event, see: http://www.youthcanworld.org/ and click on "New York" in the left navigation bar. For YouthCaN-Med in Beirut and other YouthCaN sites, click on "Others."

iEARN TRAINING WORKSHOPS TO BE HELD IN HANOI, VIETNAM, MAY 13-16. In coordination with the Ministry of Education, iEARN will be conducting workshops May 13-16 for secondary school teachers, as well as faculty of the Vietnam National University and the University of Education. Workshops will focus on ESL applications of online interactive project-based learning.

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.

Recent Events!

FROM JAPAN TO SLOVAKIA WITH LOVE PROJECT FEATURED AT NATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM IN TAIWAN, MARCH 28, 2004. With great coordination among Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia, the project has drawn to a wonderful end in National Science & Technology Museum in Taiwan on March 28. During the first section, teachers and students said hello to each other and sang songs together from different parts of the world, Yoko and Japanese teachers in Japan, Faye and Jane with lots of participants in NSTM in Taiwan, Uyen in Vietnam, and Doris together with Malaysia teachers. Right at that moment, the love passed across Asia!! Later, Taiwan side continued to move on to the demonstration of traditional "lucky charm" bag and then all the participants were invited to create their own unique one. Meanwhile, many of Taiwan students also expressed their care and love for Bam (Iran) children by making their lucky charm bags to them. In total, eight newspapers and 3 TV broadcast covered the activity. For more details, see here. The art works will be sent to the next stop: Vietnam.

US AMBASSADOR TO UZBEKISTAN VISITS SCHOOL ACTIVE IN iEARN. On March 24, US Ambassador to Uzbekistan Jon Robert Purnell visited Gimnasium #1 to officially open the School Connectivity Program (administered by IREX) in Karakalpakstan. Ambassador Purnell participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and then visited with students who use the resources at the school's Educational Internet Center. Students had the opportunity to share with the ambassador the activities in which they participate. His remarks were followed by Karakalpakstan Ministry of Public Education Deputy Minister Arapbek Narymbetov. Thanks to Karligash Ishanova,teacher Coordinator in Republic Karakalpkstan for sharing this on the iEARN Teachers Forum.