iEARN in Action, May 3, 2004

"Amazing! The iEARN world in my opinion is a vision of global knowledge. It is so easy to interact with people in other countries in the shortest possible way. Beside adult learners, our students will also be motivated and encouraged to not only learn collaboratively but also to share their own thoughts and ideas with other students as well as teachers who can suggest them the best possible ways of learning. The projects and discussion forums will make them aware where the world is today. It is a lifelong communication to others and we can easily access anywhere we are without any difficulty. I think once you are sailing in the iEARN ship you never want to leave the voyage."
- From Kishwar Aqsa, Pakistan - Apr 16, 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.

Join Us! Seeking Contacts, Contributions and Collaborators

2003-2004 iEARN PROJECT BOOK. Versions are now available in Arabic, Armenian, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. See here. For a more complete listing of iEARN projects, see here.

AFTER 8 YEARS, THE TEDDY BEAR EXCHANGE CREATOR AND FACILITATOR, MURIEL WELLS, IS STEPPING DOWN AS COORDINATOR OF THE PROJECT. She writes, "I am sorry to say that after 8 years this very successful project is closing down. Thank you to all the wonderful teachers who have participated but it seems the right time to end the project." Thank you Muriel for all of your hard work to keep this wonderful project active for so many years! We are now considering creation of a new iEARN Forum in which matches for the project can be made in the future. If any teachers would like to volunteer as facilitators of this new forum, email Lisa Jobson in the USA. Please help us to keep this great project active!

2004 ISSUE OF HOLOCAUST/GENOCIDE PROJECT MAGAZINE, AN END TO INTOLERANCE IS PUBLISHED! This year's issue of the global student magazine of the Holocaust/genocide Project, An End to Intolerance, is 72 pages! It features articles, research, poetry, and art from Argentina, Russia, Germany, Sri Lanka, Australia, Israel, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and the USA. Editors are taking orders now. The price is $4. (US) per issue, which includes mailing. Please write to: coldspring@igc.org to place your order. Thanks! For more about the project, and to get involved, see http://www.iearn.org/projects/hgp.html.

DICHOS POPULARES Y REFRANES PROJECT. HOW DO WE THINK ABOUT OURSELVES? Join Spanish-speaking students in the process of learning about the metaphoric sense of popular sayings. How do they work on this? By choosing some sayings for comparison as well as discussion about the meaning in their context. If you are interested, check it in the Telar Saberpopular Forum at or contact Delia Aguirra in Argentina.

DIGITAL BRIDGES PROJECT. We would like to ask students from Finland, Turkey, USA, India and Ethiopia to answer some questions about their daily life. Webpages that will be handed in for a Siemens company competition for students. Contact Hans Georg Henkel in Germany.

"IS HONESTY THE BEST POLICY?" PROJECT HAS NEW FORUM! By sharing real life situations and perspectives on the forum, we seek to produce honest human beings and make " The World a Better Place to Live-In." Link to the new forum here, or go directly to Honesty Forum.

"MY COUNTRY PROJECT" AND "BREAKING STEREOTYPES PROJECT" SHARED FORUM. Login now to read and respond to recent postings by students in the Basque Country region of Spain, and students from Pakistan writing about economics, pollution, culture, and literacy in their country. Forum link. For more information about the Breaking Stereotypes Project, contact the student facilitator, Kate Kharitonova in Azerbaijan, or for the My Country Project, contact Salimata Sene in Senegal.

ONE DAY PROJECT - A DAY IN BAGHDAD. Ali, a student in Baghdad describes a day in his life under the difficult war situation in the One Day Project--a project in which students describe (and then discuss) a day in their lives from around the world: Ali's school is one of three Iraqi schools now online in iEARN. See the topic "A day in Baghdad...so hard...but exciting!" in the One Day Project forum. Drop by and share your day with Ali and the others in this project.

PARTICIPANTS IN THE DEMOCRACY PROJECT WANT YOUR IDEAS! Abdo Aldoy in Egypt writes, "We want to know if the democracy in your country is a model for democracy and, if yes, why, and if no, why too also... hope every one who reads this sends his comments around this subject with all freedom" Join in the currently ongoing discussion among students and teachers in Egypt, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, and the USA in the Learning Democracy Forum.

SPORTS PROJECT. Our project provides information and people's ideas of sports for those who are interested in sports (of course with your help)!! Contact Fereshteh Abbasi, Samira Abnar, Fatemeh Malek, Mina Sarmadi, and Mahsa Yousefzadeh at Farzanegan High Schoool in Iran or see join in discussions of the project in the Games Forum.

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

ENO-ENVIRONMENT ONLINE. 175 schools were chosen for the project, a global web school for environmental awareness. Schools come from Asia (47), Africa (36), America (17) and Europe (75). In the ENO web school, four environmental themes (dimensions of sustainable development) are studied within a school year on a weekly basis. ENO has been running since 2000 and is administrated by the city of Joensuu, Finland. ENO is also a part of the global iEARN network (www.iearn.org). Applicants came from 67 countries. More information: Mr Mika Vanhanen, coordinator, or see http://eno.joensuu.fi

iEARN ERADICATION OF MALARIA PROJECT FEATURED ON MY HERO WEBSITE. Students and teachers participating in the Eradication of Malaria project were interviewed and highlighted by the members of the "My Hero" Project. They noted: "Starting with global communication, awareness, and thoughtful discussion, he and the iEARN team of teachers, students, and others, are waging the battle against the seemingly undefeatable opponent, with victory as the only acceptable outcome." For more on this story, see here. Congratulations to Tommie Hamaluba in Botswana, Coordinator of the project!

VOICES OF YOUTH PROJECT (VOY). The newly redesigned and improved Voices of Youth (VOY) website will launch on 19 April, 2004 in three languages: English, French and Spanish. We would like your help in sharing VOY's new exciting site with your web visitors. VOY is a youth community website created by UNICEF. It is a platform where young people can explore, discuss and partner on issues related to human rights and social change by using tools like e-discussion boards, guidelines and news. See http://www.unicef.org/voy/

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

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.

iEARN-USA TO SPONSOR INTERNATIONAL RECEPTION AT NECC, JUNE 2004. When 16,000 educators come together in New Orleans June 20-3 for the NECC (National Educational Computing Conference),iEARN-USA will sponsor a reception on June 20 from 4:00-5:30 pm for international participants and US educators wishing to make international connects. For information on the conference, see: http://www.iste.org/necc.

iEARN REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN AMMAN, JORDAN. During the first week of July some 150 educators from 18 countries will convene in Amman, Jordan to promote cross-cultural education through student-centered learning projects. The Second Regional Conference will be held in Amman from July 06 - July 10, 2004 under the auspices of the Jordanian Ministry of Education. The conference will be hosted by iEARN-Jordan in partnership with iEARN-USA, and in cooperation with iEARN country programs. iEARN-USA is still looking for 4 US teachers to participate. As well, there are places available for teachers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iraq. Please contact Christine Habib or see http://www.thebridgeproject.org for more details.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 11th ANNUAL iEARN CONFERENCE AND YOUTH SUMMIT IN KOSICE, SLOVAKIA, JULY 11-17, 2004. The 2004 iEARN Conference WANTS YOU! ....with over 60 workshops, presentations, cultural demonstrations and other activities already lined up for the conference, the time is now for you to register yours! Come show off what you know! Or what you've been doing!! Or just how you can groove to the iEARN beat!!! You'll be moved by the artwork of youth from Iran. You'll be jammin' with the Taiwan Culture Festival. You'll be swinging with the great apes of Africa and the teddy bears of Turkey. You'll be hanging with heroes from the world over. And most of all, you'll be lovin' life in Slovakia - and your friends and family from across the iEARN universe are just waiting to CHECK YOU OUT!! Scope out all the programs and get yourself hooked up at! http://www.iearn2004.net.