iEARN in Action, April 16, 2001

LIVE GLOBAL CHAT. iEARN participants are welcome to join a live chat on April 17th with a student in India who is making a difference. Kuheli is 15 years old and lives in Pune. She has created an immunization program that provides vaccinations to poor children under the age of two years old. Her program is being highlighted by "Netaid.org," a partnership between the UN Development Programme, Cisco Corporation, and Peacechild International. They look for examples of young people who are making a difference. iEARN-India has been in touch with her as well. To participate in the global live chat, register at http://www.netaid.org/go/meetkuheliearn.

CONTRIBUTE TO 2001 I*EARN "INTERACTION" NEWSLETTER!!!! http://www.iearn.org.au/interaction/. Send news and/or images of I*EARN activities in your country or school to Aaron at interaction@us.iearn.org by May 1st, 2001. If you are planning to submit or would be interested in helping translate the newsletter into other languages, please let him know soon so that he can begin coordinating submissions.

BALKAN VOICES PROJECT SUMMIT. Almost 100 iEARN teachers and students from throughout the Balkan Region came together in Bankya, Bulgaria March 21-25, 2001 to share their work thus far and plan for the next year's program and schedule. The new Balkan Voices www site was announced http://www2.arnes.si/~sskkssb2s and each country agreed to create local Balkan Voices www sites as well. A new forum has been created for discussion of recent historical and political events. Photos available at: http://teachweb.wify.com/balkan/bankya and http://www.geocities.com/bvsummit2001. "Thanks" to Dobrinka Radeva, Ivan Kolev and a team of Bulgarian teachers and students who helped facilitate the event!

US-CHINA YOUTH EXCHANGE. The first Chengdu, China exchange participants are departing for Phoenix, Arizona this week to spend three weeks working withtheir U.S. peers on the project, "Citizens & Local Government - A Comparative Study of Phoenix and Chengdu." The schools will examine the ways in which citizens participate in the affairs of local government in Chengdu and Phoenix, and share their efforts in the discussion forum . The deadline for selection of 25 U.S. and 25 Chinese schools for future exchanges is June 30, 2001. Hardcopy applications are now available for U.S. and Chinese schools from both iEARN-USA in New York and iEARN-China in Beijing, or online at: http://www.iearn.org/china/exchange or http://www.iearn.online.edu.cn/project/YEP/join.htm.

Join Us! Seeking Contacts, Contributions and Collaborators

For a full listing of iEARN projects, see iEARN.ideas.

BREAKING THE SILENCE. A project dealing with issues of teenage health. http://www.araratcc.vic.edu.au/users/web/speakout/index.htm The project is currently seeking retired doctors who are online at home who wouldn't mind dropping into our database to answer questions on issues of teenage health and, in particular HIV.

INTERESTED IN MUSIC PROJECTS? The students at Mt. Nebo Primary School, Jamaica went on a field trip to Islington, and interviewed the members of the dance group, who not only spoke to them but showed them the traditional dance, Dinkie Mini. See this subject and others in iearn.music.

NATIONAL DRINKS AND RELATED TRADITIONS. http://iearn.osgf.ge/drinks Pavle Tvaliashvili, project co-ordinator.

THE TEDDY BEAR PROJECT. Developing tolerance, understanding and language skills. Want to work with a partner class in a different country? There are classes currently waiting for partners for this project. You can participate in English (register in the database on the web site), German or Spanish. The link for email registration for German and Spanish is also on the web site. Register when you are ready to start. Web site http://www.iearn.org.au/tbear Or you can register on the iearn.kidscan conference.

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

MAKING A DIFFERENCE COLLEGE AND GRADUATE GUIDE. A college guide for students who want to use their education to make a difference. Making A Difference College & Graduate Guide profiles colleges with an ethic of concern for peace, social justice and the environment, and provides information about scholarships, awards, social entrepreneur funds and fellowships for student volunteers and activists. See http://www.making-a-difference.com.

2000-2001 PROJECT DESCRIPTION BOOKLET STILL AVAILABLE AT FOR DOWNLOAD AT http://www.iearn.org/projectbook00-01.pdf

GEMS CHINA WEBSITE. See pictures of students at Chengdu No. 12 Middle School on an environmental and waste treatment fieldtrip http://www.iearn.online.edu.cn/project/GEMS/sichuan/chengdu12environ.htm as well as students activities and newspaper clippings of students at the other five GEMS schools doing project work. The updates are at http://www.iearn.org/gemsreport

Coming Soon! Upcoming Events and Projects!

3RD MEETING OF RUSSIAN I*EARN and GEMS SCHOOLS. To be held on April 21,2001 at 10 a.m. Students and teachers meet at school # 689,Moscow to discuss their work in I*EARN projects during the school year, introduce new ideas and share their problems. Those willing to participate please contact Natalia Uglava sch689@mtu-net.ru.

YOUTHCAN ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE. April 30, 2001, New York City, USA. Over 1,200 students gather in different parts of the world to facilitate an online network of students using telecommunications technologies to undertake and/or share environmental work locally and around the world. See or http://www.nyu.edu/projects/youthcan/.

ESCHOLA EVENT. May 7-11, 2001. Schools throughout Europe are invited to take part in ‘eSchola – learning together’ – a week for eLearning in Europe to demonstrate the potential of ICT in the classroom. http://eschola.eun.org

AFRICA CONNECTS/I*EARN CONFERENCE - REGISTER NOW! 8th Annual I*EARN Conference- Capetown, South Africa. - 8th July 2001 -14th July 2001. Contact info@ac.wcape.school.za or http://ac.wcape.school.za to register. The conference will be hosted by the Western Cape Schools' Network and SchoolNet SA, in conjunction with their annual educational computing conference (July 10-13). Participation is open to all educators who are share an interest in enhanced learning through on-line project-based learning. AFRICA CONNECTS is sponsored by MWeb and Microsoft SA. Call for Presentations/Workshops: Please register and submit workshop proposals on the conference web site at http://ac.wcape.school.za. Contact prog@ac.wcape.school.za if there are questions about the process for submitting workshop proposals. Selected Presenters will be notified as soon as possible, but no later than June 15.