¡» Cyberfair Entry Category: Local Leaders
¡»Description of "Our Community":

    Lujhou is a low and flat shoal by the side of Tamshui River. The dense reeds grown along the riverbank wave beautifully in the breeze. In early days, the area was suffered from flood due to alluvion of the river. Today, the urban planning has transformed the area into a prosperous city.

     As Lujhou grow rapidly, the cultural and scenic spots have been developed as well. Under the planning of Taipei County 18 Cultural and Artistic Routes, Lujhou Elementary School becomes one of the important historic spot, in which the exhibit of Teresa Teng is our research focus.

¡»Summary of Our Project:

     Teresa Teng is closely related to Lujhou. She graduated from Lujhou Elementary School, and grew up in Lujhou. Lujhou is her hometown, and there are still many fans of hers visiting her old residence in Lujhou. Therefore, as people of Lujhou, we study her past in Lujhou, as well as the features of Lujhou, to introduce Lujhou to everyone through Teresa Teng.

     We attempt to gain a better understanding of Teresa Teng through field research and interview. Teresa Teng was an ordinary girl from military dependents¡¦ village, but became a well-known singer, and remained a super star in the mind of all Chinese around the world after her death. The charm of this eternal star is unfold in our research.

    Our School has a 100MB fiber optic network connecting to the Education Network Service Center of Taipei County. The participating members of this project have access Internet via 56K dial-up, ADSL or community internet services. Meanwhile, we also used the FTP provided by the School to establish a back-up file system and to organize the homework. Internet photo album sites and blogs were utilized to store images and documentations.

(1)Tight deadlines & the need to juggle with a variety of activities¡G

    We made a head start at the end of October by initiating the research topic and outlining the content. We were a late starter compared to other schools that have experience in this content; therefore, we needed to work non-stop. In addition, there were difficulties in coordinating as our participants came from the fourth, fifth and sixth grades and these students had differing schedules. Take for example, the sixth grade students were on their way to the graduation trip. The fourth and fifth grade students were engaged in the signing and dancing competition. The fourth grade students were required to complete the certification in folk arts and sports. Some students were also occupied with their cram school education after-hours. It was often difficult to gather all the members of Teng's Investigation Team at one time due to the members' conflicting schedules. This has made the research work a challenge.

¡¹ Teng's Investigation Team met up during lunch breaks and sometimes morning study time to accomplish the majority of the work. The teachers would squeeze some time during classes and the short breaks after finals to guide us through the story of Teresa Teng and instruct us on the promotion of the project. Of course, we needed to spend time logging on the Internet for documentations of status reports. We have learned a great deal and found the project very interesting, even though it demanded a fair amount of hard work.


(2) Difficulties in communications across different grades¡G

    Teng's Investigation Team had members across the fourth, fifth and sixth grades and they came from classes 406, 506, 604 and 612. Therefore, it was rare that all members could gather together at the same time during terms. The short lunch breaks became the only viable solution. Also, as these students came from different grades, it took them a while to get familiar with each other at the beginning of group studies.

¡¹ We split into study groups to carry out this project. The teachers divided us into three groups across different grades. Sometimes it was impossible to assemble all the members at the same time to conduct field investigations so our team leaders would coordinate the communications and manage the to-do list. Meanwhile, we also communicated via the bulletin board that was exclusive to Teng's Investigation Team so that we could post our messages on the board. Our teachers would also post announcements under the section News so that we knew what was expected of us.

      During the process of this campaign, our teachers created the opportunities for students across different grades to work together in the forms of debating, story-telling promotion and coordination. We developed a close bond during the process of such collaborations and met a lot of new friends.

 


(3) Lack of experience & difficulties to establish text files¡G

    We had no experience in Cyberfair and Teacher Lai and Teacher We, who instructed us on this competition were also new to Cyberfair. It was a tough ride at the beginning when we tried to tackle the challenge, more so for the teachers that guided us each step of the way. In addition, we found it very difficult to transcribe the audio tapes that recorded our numerous interviews because of the sheer volume of the interviews and the poor quality of voice quality.

¡¹ Our solution was to come up with a schedule to spell out our activities and follow the calendar for the implementation details. In this way, we would not feel disoriented or lost and our teachers could monitor our progress against the schedule.

    We resolved the issues in transcription by dividing the audio tapes into a large number of sections with the help of appropriate software and split the transcription work among ourselves. Meanwhile, our teachers would issue learning memos before we set out for interviews so that we had a clear outline of interview questions. We recorded the interviews and then transcribed the tapes afterwards. The transcriptions were organized according to the outlines so that we did not have to duplicate efforts.


(4)Insufficient technical competence & difficulties in website deployment¡G

    In the beginning, we only had students from the fourth and fifth grades and generally speaking, their IT competence was not very strong. We were worried that we were not able to meet the deadlines when it came to website deployment.

¡¹ We sought assistance from the School. Mr. Wu, Teacher Lai and Teacher Wu recruited a couple of computer whiz kids from the sixth grades. After the screening process, we established five IT teams, a boost to our website production efforts. Meanwhile, the teachers also gained knowledge from various workshops and transferred such knowledge to us. During the process, we learned how to use a number of software applications in coloring, designing and layout. It was a lot of fun indeed.

    Our biggest learning throughout the study of the story of Teresa Teng was her dedications. Born in a poor military village, Teresa made it in the entertainment business with her efforts in learning performing techniques and songs from different countries. We believe that her dedications in career are a fine example. Therefore, we would like to demonstrate the same dedications in Cyberfair by putting our best efforts in all activities and assignment as a team.