iEARN in Action, March 30, 2007

Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects!
1. New login instructions for iEARN forums and database.
2. Thousands of kites fly for peace on March 21.
3. NEGAI song project exceeds 700 verses!
4. Day in the Life Project welcomes new facilitator from Argentina.
5. iEARN Netherlands presents on Kennisnet International Day on April 10.
6. New iEARN Voices of the Future Podcast Project.
7. Japan Art Mile receives Asahi Newspaper Award, hosted by Ministry of
Education.
8. Celebrate 50th anniversary of European Union.
9. Share how you are making a difference in the Good Deeds Project.
10. Join the Spanish language "Reach Your Peak" project.

Resources, Contests, Websites and Announcements!
11. PEARL World Youth News youth journalists from around the world come to NYC.
12. New iEARN-Russia website.
13. 2007 World of Children call for nominations is underway.
14. 2007 SIGTel Online Learning Award Competition.

Upcoming Events!
15. Global Youth Service Day (GYSD).
16. YouthCaN Conference at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, USA.
17. iEARN-India National Conference.
18. 14th Annual iEARN International Conference and Youth Summit, Cairo, Egypt + scholarship opportunity.  

Recent Events!
18. iEARN-Taiwan hosts winter youth gathering and teacher professional
development seminars.

**********************************************************
Seeking Partners: iEARN Projects
**********************************************************

1. NEW LOGIN INSTRUCTIONS FOR iEARN FORUMS AND DATABASE.  Over the past several months, we have been working on a new "Collaboration Center" to enhance the interactive space in iEARN (forums/databases) that we are now using. As part of this process, we need to upgrade the iEARN database to make it possible for the various parts of the Collaboration Center to work together smoothly. In the new Collaboration Center there is a slight change in how to login to the iEARN forums and databases. User Names can no longer have a "space" between the names, so here are some examples:

If your old User Name was: Juan Garcia
Your New User Name will be: Juan_Garcia (note the _ between the names)

Or if your old User Name was: Amauri Diaz Solis
Your New User Name will be: Amauri_Diaz_Solis

This same User Name will be used to access both the iEARN forums and the databases. Passwords will remain the same. We look forward to your feedback, and thank you for your patience during this conversion process. Questions, contact support@us.iearn.org.

2. TALKING KITES AROUND THE WORLD - THOUSANDS OF KITES FLY FOR PEACE ON MARCH 21! See photos from Ruty Hotzen, project facilitator here. For more about the project, and to see press coverage, see
http://www.iearn.org/projects/kites.html.

3. NEGAI SONG PROJECT HAS 700 VERSES. Join over 152 participants from 40 countries in a project to build a global song.  More and more NEGAI (wish) verses are coming from around the world. It has over 700 now and coordinator, Suwako, in Japan, is busy translating English and Japanese. Visit, Watch, and Join! http://www.jearn.jp/2003conference/negai/index.html.

4. DAY IN THE LIFE PROJECT HAS NEW FACILITATOR. Marta Garcia Lorea of Argentina will serve as the new facilitator of the English version of the Day in the Life project.

5. iEARN NETHERLANDS PRESENTS ON "KENNISNET INTERNATIONAL DAY ON APRIL 10. Many of you will remember the name ?Kennisnet? as the main sponsor of the 13th iEARN conference in July 2006 in The Netherlands. Maybe also thanks to the impact of our conference, iEARN Netherlands has been invited to join the educational Kennisnet International exchange day on April 10th. Educators from all over the country will gather to be inspired by global learning best practices and sharing experiences in round table sessions. We would like to visualize and share the voices of iEARN and invite you to send your greetings to iearn@ict-edu.nl.  Thanks! Bob Hofman, Country Coordinator iEARN Netherlands.

6. NEW iEARN "VOICES OF THE FUTURE PODCAST PROJECT. Youth members of iEARN can create and post their thoughts and feelings about our world from a young person's perspective in podcast (audio .mp3) format. They can let the world know about what is on the minds and in the hearts of young people today. Bill Belsey, iEARN-Canada.

7. JAPAN ART MILE RECEIVES ASAHI NEWS PAPER AWARD, HOSTED BY MINISTRY OF EDUCATION.  See photos of Ms. Atsuko Shiwaku at the
award ceremony on March 16th in Tokyo and her students with Art Mile from Asahi News Paper here and here. For more about the Art Miles Project, see http://www.iearn.org/projects/artmiles.html.

8. CELEBRATE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF EUROPEAN UNION. iEARN Poland invites teachers and students around the world to a project aiming to celebrate the EU birthday! The project is coordinated by an international team of twenty European teachers and is open to all worldwide: http://www.project.cyberdusk.pl/.

9. JOIN THE GOOD DEEDS PROJECT. Exchange ideas about how to make a difference in the world, and ways in which you have had an impact in your own community.

10. SPANISH LANGUAGE PROJECT -- REACH YOUR PEAK. Este es un proyecto colaborativo interdisciplinario, de intercambio cultural entre escuelas, colegio y liceos de Latinoamérica y el mundo. Visita http://www.iearn.org/projects/dreamproject/. Contacta con la facilitadora del proyecto: Rosi Rivarola de Paraguay. FORO DEL PROY: apc.telar.tucumbre y a traves del foro del sitio iEARN.

**********************************************************
Check it Out! Resources, Contests, Websites, Announcements.
(This includes resources that are not part of iEARN)
**********************************************************

11. PEARL WORLD YOUTH NEWS JOURNALISTS VISIT NEW YORK CITY, USA.  As part of Channel Thirteen/WNET's Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference (May 23-24), young PEARL reporters from Ireland, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam, had the opportunity to travel to NYC to present their work and serve on a panel moderated by Daljit Dhaliwal of the PBS show, Wide Angle. While in NYC, they were able to meet Judea Pearl (father of Daniel Pearl) and visit some of the largest news agencies in NYC. Thank you to Channel 13/WNET for making this opportunity possible. Hear two of the young journalists on New York Public Radio, WNYC, on the Leonard Lopate Show. For more about the project, see http://www.pearl.iearn.org/pearlnews/ and Daniel Pearl Foundation: http://www.danielpearl.org/.

12. NEW iEARN-RUSSIA WEBSITE. We are glad to invite you to visit it to comment and to add any interesting and important information for our successful work in such a great unit like iEARN. Please visit http://iearn-russia.org and send us your comments. Contact persons for iEARN Russia - Olga Prokhorenko, Nina Koptuyg.

13. 2007 WORLD OF CHILDREN CALL FOR NOMINATIONS IS UNDERWAY.  Nominations are being accepted up through Friday, May 4, 2007. For more information and/or to place a nomination, please visit our Web site at: http://www.worldofchildren.org/.

14. 2007 SIGTel ONLINE LEARNING AWARD COMPETITION. Do you know of an INNOVATIVE educator who is ADVANCING online learning? Candidate nominations can be submitted at http://www.iste.org/sigtel by March 31, 2007.

**********************************************************
Upcoming Events
**********************************************************

15. GLOBAL YOUTH SERVICE DAY (GYSD), APRIL 20-22, 2007. GYSD is the largest annual celebration of young volunteers, where millions of young people in countries everywhere highlight and carry out thousands of community improvement projects. iEARN participants are encouraged to join GYSD-related activities in the Students Unlimited Project. http://www.iearn.org/projects/studentsunlimited.html. Register your project today.

14. YouthCaN 2007 EVENT TO BE HELD IN NEW YORK CITY ON APRIL 23, 2007. Watch http://www.youthcanworld.org for details of this and other YouthCaN events happening around the world. YouthCaN is a year-round network within iEARN of students using telecommunications technologies to undertake and/or share environmental work locally and around the world.

15. iEARN-INDIA NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN PUNE, MAY 3-5, 2007. The National Conference for 2007 will have the theme" We are the World" and will feature a small film festival of short documentary and animation videos created by participants in the Adobe Youth Voices Project. iEARN-India members interested in attending can contact Coordinator Sunita Bhagwat. iEARN members can see early drafts of participants' animation work here.

16. iEARN-EGYPT TO HOST 14TH ANNUAL iEARN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AND 11TH YOUTH SUMMIT, JULY 21 - 26, 2007 IN CAIRO. The theme of the conference is: Connecting Cultures and Respecting Differences: A Global Dialogue for Development and Sustainability. This theme will serve as an umbrella for iEARN projects and other sub-themes such as: professional development, new educational developments, new developments in ICT, iEARN initiatives and management, global dialogue and rural development. The conference is expected to attract 1000 participants. Parallel to the educators' conference, there will be an international youth summit with a focus on Leadership and Youth Empowerment. Check out the new conference website, designed by iEARN-Egypt students and alumni: http://www.iearn2007.net. General inquiries: <info@iearnegypt.org> & <dalia@iearnegypt.org>. Conference registration & call for paper: <iearn2007@yahoo.com> & <info@iearnegypt.org>. Deadline for workshop submissions: March 15, 2007. Conference and Youth Summit registration is open from July 1, 2006 - June 30 2007. Late fees will apply for registrations received after April 1, 2007.

*** See below for 2007 iEARN Conference scholarship opportunity offered by iEARN-Egypt ***

**********************************************************
Recent Events
**********************************************************

17. iEARN-TAIWAN HELD REGULAR WINTER YOUTH GATHERING AND TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINARS, FEBRUARY 10, 2007. With the help of iEARN Taiwan youth alumni, sixty students Grade 5 - 12 from iEARN Taiwan Allied schools joined together at Kaohsiung Municipal Shou Shan Junior High School, Kaohsiung City and learned more about iEARN history, iEARN projects, and English oral presentation skills. Young participants had a great time together and learned how they could collaborate with international students in the future through project-based learning. For teacher professional development, such experienced iEARN teachers as Ms Jane Kang, Mr. Richard Chen, Ms Joan Wang, and Ms Doris Tsuey-ling Wu shared the positive potential of how project-based learning can be applied into the curriculum context, discussing projects such as "Christmas Card Exchange around the world," "Special Place," "Teddy Bear Project," "Voyage Project," and "NDYS." See here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*** iEARN 2007 Conference Scholarship ***

The 2007 iEARN Conference Committee offers 8 scholarships (4 youth and 4 educators) for surviving educators and youth of natural disasters and/or recent conflicts in the Arabia region and those who took action to help them to re-build their lives. The scholarship is two fold on the give and take level.

The scholarship consists of an amount for covering the conference fee, accommodation, and meals. Traveling and visa expenses are at one's own account.

To be eligible, one should be an ACTIVE iEARN youth or teacher and:
a) Citizen of any member state of the Natural Disasters or Arabia region
b) Affected by natural disasters and/or recent conflict in the Arabia region
c) Has been engaged in activities aiming to rebuild the lives of youth affected by natural disasters and/or recent conflict

Application process: (all materials and inquiries need to be sent to
iearnegypt03@yahoo.com)

Select an essay depending on your situation:

Essay (a)
You survived a natural disaster and/or recent conflict
Write an essay (not more than 250 words) telling us about your situation after the natural disaster/recent conflict, how it affected your life and in what way your involvement with iEARN has helped you overcome the challenge to re-build your life.

Essay (b)
You conducted an activity to help those suffering from a natural disaster
and/or recent conflict to rebuild their lives
Write an essay (not more than 250 words) telling us about the activity you conducted, how it helped rebuild the lives of youth in your country and what you learnt from this experience.

For both (a) and (b), remember to include: your name, country, age, gender and contact details Send your application between: March 22 - April 7 2007.
Scholarships will be announced on the iEARN 07 Conference site by: April 15th 2007.

Selection criteria:

Applicants will be selected based on the relevance of the activity to assist /
help rebuild the lives of youth and community In addition, the committee will take into account diversity, gender, age and background.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------
TO SUBMIT AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE NEWSFLASH: Send your announcement (2-3 lines) to newsflash@us.iearn.org.
------------------------------------------------------------

iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is a global non-profit network that empowers teachers and students to undertake projects designed to make a meaningful contribution to the health and welfare of the planet and its people. Started in 1988, iEARN is currently active in over 120 countries, with 1,000,000 students participating as part of their education. iEARN-International: http://www.iearn.org

Download the 2005-2006 iEARN Project Book: http://www.iearn.org/projects/projectbook.html (available in Arabic, English, French, and Japanese) or for a full listing of iEARN projects, see: http://www.iearn.org/projects/
-------------------------------------------------------------