Research Log

Progress report 1
Date	2010.09.27~2010.10.01
Hours of research	30 Hours
Research theme	Research on information relative to night school, introduction and the name of the team.
Description	Elementary night school is a mean of learning for foreign spouses and individuals who are at the age of twelve and over and have not completed elementary school education. It’s a three times a week curriculum and it’s in session on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7PM to 9PM. This is a three year curriculum and it’s divided into three divisions; the junior grade division, the senior first grade division and the senior second grade division. Once fully completed the three year curriculum, a graduation certificate will be given and a direct admission to a Junior Supplementary High school will be granted.
Problems and solutions	When searching on the internet, there was little information relative to the topic of night school. Much time was utilized searching yet with little outcome. Evidently, most people are not too familiar with night schools.
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Progress report 2
Date	2010.10.04~2010.10.11
Hours of research	15 Hours
Research theme	An analysis and comparison of the old and new versions of the night school Teaching Material. (Social Studies)
Description	In order to discover the differences between the new and old versions of the Social Studies textbooks, a substantial amount of investigation and comparison is required. The discrepancies between the old and new textbooks were as followed: the pictures of the old textbooks consisted of only real-life photos, whereas, some of the pictures of the new textbooks were of computer animations.
Problems and solutions	It was difficult to find the main-point! -!
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Progress report 3
Date	2010.10.04~2010.10.11
Hours of research	8 Hours
Research theme	An analysis and comparison of the old and new versions of the night school Teaching Material.(Music)
Description	The old versions of the music textbooks were printed by the Taiwanese Bookstores. However, the new music textbooks were self-printed by the teachers of the schools. In the past teachers taught their students to sing Taiwanese folk songs such as, “The Jasmine Flower”, “ The Chrysanthemum”, “Rainbow Sisters”, “The Flower in the Rainy Night “,“The Ode to the Republic of China”, “The Taiwan Retrocession Day Song” and etc…. In addition, the common music notations were also taught. Graduation Songs were sang during graduations. On the other hand music teachers now teach Taiwanese popular songs with the aid of karaoke Machines.
Problems and solutions	Don’t know what the new textbook is teaching but we can always ask the Music Teachers of the night school.

Progress report 4
Date	2010.10.04~2010.10.11
Hours of research	12 Hours
Research theme	An analysis and comparison of the old and new versions of the night school Teaching Material. (Mandarin)
Description	For the purpose of analyzing the differences between the old and new versions of the Mandarin textbooks, we had come up with different ways of comparing the two and recorded them on a table. In addition, for the convenience of filling out the table, short descriptions of the differences between the two versions of the textbooks were recorded. For the instance of the pictures, the old versions consisted of hand sketched pictures and were somewhat dull; whereas the new versions consisted of mostly photos and cartoons, and were more interesting. The junior grade division Mandarin class started by learning ㄅ, ㄆ, ㄇ, some simple phrases and strokes of the characters, some short stories and tongue twisters. In the past, short stories and tongue twisters were not part of the curriculum; only Chinese characters and ㄅ, ㄆ, ㄇ were introduced.
Problems and solutions	In the beginning we couldn’t find any differences between old and new versions of the textbook. However, after careful comparison we had found some discrepancies. A table was created to show the difference between the old and new versions. Nevertheless, the night school textbooks were numerous and heavy; not convenient to carry around. Not only that, two of the old versions textbooks were missing, so we were unable to compare them.
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Progress report 5
Date	2010.10.12~2010.10.18
Hours of research	20Hours
Research theme	Interview Topic and Questionnaire Design
Description	Design questionnaire for the residents of the community and night school students to fill-out. The contents of the questionnaire were night school related questions, such as: “Have you ever heard of night schools? Do you know what the curriculums of night schools are?” And etc…. Tick questionnaires were used, in the fear that night school students were mostly illiterate. The questionnaires were mainly created for night school students and teachers. This way, it would be easier to collect information. Then we incorporate the data and make it into an easy to understand file.
Problems and solutions	The questions were really hard to come up with. We couldn’t ask questions which were either too hard or inappropriate. During the design process, we could first ask teachers and parents some questions. This way we would have a better idea of topic then we could easily come up with questions for the questionnaire.
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Progress report 6
Date	2010.10.25~2010.11.22
Hours of research	90Hours
Research theme	Interview with night school Teachers
Description	While we were interviewing the teachers, we noticed that there was a teacher who had taught for over ten years. The teaching methods of the teachers were all very interesting; some would show films, and some would use pictures. I find them quite amusing. Usually prior to interviewing a teacher, we would get the questions ready (questions to ask the teacher). Furthermore, each question had to be read out loud and clear, because the teacher might hear the questions wrong and lead to misunderstanding. However, by interviewing night school teachers, we were able to grasp the learning conditions and habits of the night school students; such as, “What kind of curriculums were they learning? How did the teachers teach them? How focused were the students? What were the differences between the techniques of teaching elementary school students and night school students? Was it tiresome? In short, the conclusion is that interviews with the teachers helped us gained more knowledge of the conditions of night schools. Also, from the interviews, we now know when the night school students get-off from school, and their attitudes, and from the above we can see that they were quite different from us. At the same time we could also see that the teaching methods of the night school teachers were different from that of an elementary school teacher. We used meeting times, nights and weekends to make the questionnaires. Through interviews with night school teachers, we were able to gain more information and history of night schools. During the interview, we had discovered the difference in learning attitudes and learning methods of the night school students from us. I found interviewing night school teachers very interesting, because they stuff they told us about were very interesting. I can’t wait to go study with the night school students!
Problems and solutions	The classmate asking the question was too fast. Therefore, we had to burrow notes from other classmates. I got very nervous when interviewing the teachers. Quite often, I wasn’t fast enough to write down what the teacher had said. Therefore, when it was time to make records, I didn’t have enough time to do so. Later, we found that we could write down the teachers’ answers briefly and then finish writing the rest after the interview.
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Progress report 7
Date	2010.10.25~2010.11.22
Hours of research	30Hours
Research theme	Interview with night school Students
Description	By interviewing night school students, we were able to gain a better understanding of their feelings toward the school and difficulties they had while learning in school. We could also find out the ages of the students, the types, and what their favorite classes were. In order to learn more about why the night school students went to school there, and other relative problems concerning night schools, we interviewed the students there. The students consisted of not only grandpas and grandmas; there were some foreign spouses from Indonesia, Vietnam and etc. When we got there, there were many grandmas and foreign spouses giving us lots of cookies. During music class, they asked us to sing, and I honestly felt their warmth and their love for helping others. After interviewing the night school students, I realized that there was a lot which I could have learned from them; such as, their learning attitudes, ability to focus and etc…. These were the virtues which we should learn from the night school students. By interviewing the night school students we could gain a better understanding of night schools. Especially the grandpas and grandpas would usually share with us their personal learning and daily experiences. Students who were enrolled here could be foreigners from another country or people who were deprived of education at the age of twelve years and over; nonetheless, people who wanted to learn. It was fun during the beginnings of the interview, however, I felt a little tired during the end of the interview. Nevertheless, after the interview I felt that all the hard work was not in vein. Because from this interview I had learned that there was little studying opportunities when they were young; so I will work harder in school!
Problems and solutions	Sometimes we couldn’t understand their accents and the grannies’ Taiwanese. Luckily, the teacher would translate for us. Many times, when we were interviewing, I didn’t have enough time to record everything. Later I realized that I only had to write down the main points of the interview.
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Progress report 8
Date	2010.11.06(13.27)
Hours of research	56Hours
Research theme	Conducting Surveys on the Streets
Description	In order to find out the level of understanding the a general public had on night schools and their views of the night school student, one Saturday some classmates and I went to Xisong Elementary school to ask the voters information related to night schools. At first we were too scared to ask, afraid that we would be rejected. Therefore, because of that I was starting to get frustrated. Luckily, we asked the police officer for some surveying tricks, and then we started surveying the pedestrians. We completed conducting the surveys before it reached ten o’clock. Later, some of the team members and I went to the markets to conduct more surveys. Although in the beginning we were rejected, but there were many friendly people out there who came forward to help with our questionnaires. By interviewing the public we could find out how much most of the mass know about night schools, and their view toward night school students. Finally, we were able to attain the correct calculations and begin analyzing the data.
Problems and solutions	Some of the people were unwilling to fill-out the questionnaire, so we would find someone else.
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Progress report 9
Date	2010.11.08~2010.11.26
Hours of research	40Hours
Research theme	One day experience with the night school students.
Description	Because we wanted to gain a better understating of the learning conditions of the night school students. Therefore, we had decided to go to class with them to observe the attitudes of the students and the teaching methods of the teachers during class time. At this time I had found some differences between night school students and us elementary school students; relative to attitudes during class time. The grandfathers and grandmothers welcomed us with open arms. They even gave us cookies! From this experience we had also found the teaching methods of the night school were quite different from that of the elementary school. Many of the foreign spouses had problem pronouncing the words correctly, so the teachers had to teach them to read over and over again. It was fun having a class with the night school students at night. They worked hard in class and were young at heart and very friendly. It was fun having a class with them. They didn’t make a sound during class; unless us, we were talking all the time. This is a virtue worthy of our learning.
Problems and solutions	Since most of them spoke Taiwanese, sometimes we didn’t know what the grandmothers were implying. We didn’t know what to say, so we would just pretend that we understood what they were saying.
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Progress report 10
Date	2010.11.29~2010.12.03
Hours of research	24Hours
Research theme	Sorted Out the data from the street surveys
Description	We had sorted out the data from the surveys which the other team members and I conducted on Saturday. We had categorized and sorted out the data from the surveys, and had also filled out the statistic table for the street surveys. However, due to the fact that there were so many different questions to add up, we had to spend a lot of time sorting out the data.
Problems and solutions	None
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Progress report 11
Date	2010.11.29~2010.12.09
Hours of research	54Hours
Research theme	Sorting Interview Information
Description	Because we had interviewed the school director, teachers and students of the night school, we had to sort on these data from the interviews. First, we had to listen to the recording files once, because relying on the written records of the students were not detailed enough. Also, we had to try to document every single detail of recorded within the record file. In fact I realized that it’s faster to type and listen to the record file at the same time. Also, when sorting out the information from the interviews, we had t to listen to the questions one at a time; listen to one sentence then type a sentence and then make the appropriate analysis.
Problems and solutions	Sometimes it was unclear, so we needed to listen to it a few more times. If we still couldn’t make out what the recording was saying, we would have to make a guess of its contents.
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Progress report 12
Date	2010.12.13~2010.12.17
Hours of research	12Hours
Research theme	Make an analysis diagrams for the data of the street survey.
Description	Lately, I had been working on creating analysis diagrams for the survey. Although I was nervous at first, but the more I worked on it the more I got the hang of it. In fact, it was kind of fun! All I had to do was sort out the data, question by question using a statistical diagram (pie diagram) and it’s done.
Problems and solutions	Because it was the first time I used Excel to make a diagram, when I first started I had to ask the teacher for help constantly.
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Progress report 13
Date	2010.12.13~2010.12.17
Hours of research	20Hours
Research theme	Write an overview of the project plan, the key elements of the project and an explanation of its contributions.
Description	We had to make a table, a pie diagram, write an afterthought and make a rough plan for all the information we had researched on. Due to the fact all of them had to be posted on the website, we picked our brains. Guo-yan Jang was responsible for typing out the explanations of the contributions of this project. Everybody used the works of the previous Cyberfair project team as reference. However, Guo-yan discovered that the contents of the contributions written by the previous Cyberfair project team ware almost the same as ours. The only difference was they wrote more.
Problems and solutions	None
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Progress report 14
Date	2010.12.20~2010.12.24
Hours of research	16Hours
Research theme	Analysis of the Street Survey Table
Description	Because we had given out many questionnaires to pedestrians and night school students, we would have to be prepared to calculate the numbers of the “yes’s” and “No’s” of each of the questions asked. The degrees of knowledge ordinary people and night school students have on night school and their views toward it. Later, after we had calculated the quantity survey table, we would check which answer had the most votes, and then guess and analyze the reasons why most people picked this answer.
Problems and solutions	If we couldn’t come up with an answer, we could only guess or we could analyze the answers provided by the surveys to find out the possible reasons why most people chose that answer.
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Progress report 15
Date	2010.12.27
Hours of research	6Hours
Research theme	Register for membership on Taiwan School Net
Description	To register for the Taiwan School Net membership, you must fill-in an account name, password and personal information such as; birth date, and address. This is similar to registering for blog memberships and email accounts. Since we were participating in the Cyberfair, we had to register, and apply for an account. However, I had made many typing errors. In order to participate in the Cyberfair project I must register as a member. The registration process drove me insane. After a while, I finally I was able to finish the steps of the registration. It was so hard. The Taiwan School Net membership confirmation process is similar to the process of email accounts registration. You had to fill- in a lot of personal information and confirmation password. It’s just plain troublesome. Because you had to retype the registry form each time you make a mistake
Problems and solutions	The first letter of the account had to be in lower case, but I didn’t know how to do it. It was so troublesome. After I had finished the registration, I couldn’t find the confirmation letter in my mail box. I didn’t know whether I had received the mail or not. Later, with the reminder of a classmate I had realized that the confirmation letter was in the junk mail section of the mailbox. I could never know where I typed wrong, so I could only guess.
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Progress report 16
Date	2010.12.28~100.01.20
Hours of research	72Hours
Research theme	Afterthought after completing the research and a Self-introduction.
Description	After most of the data were documented, the last documentary would be the afterthoughts of this research project. This was the last report we’ve documented before the winter break. After this entry was finished, the making of the website had also come to an end. Everybody worked hard to come up with rich afterthoughts! We typed out some stuff about ourselves and our interests. In order to let others know about us, we had to do a “Self-Introduction”. We had to write about our interests, personalities and….. However, we had to also write about research afterthoughts. I realized that I had gotten to know night schools even more. Sometimes when writing self-introduction and research afterthoughts, I couldn’t think of anything to write. So, I looked at the work of the classmate next to me. I knew that I wasn’t doing the right thing, but I just couldn’t help it. I believe having taken part in this project is worth all the while. Because, from writing research afterthoughts, I’ve learned to search for information more efficiently, and many of my skills had also gradually improved.
Problems and solutions	There were always times when I didn’t know what to write, I would at the works of classmates for reference.
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