This section explains the project elements found in the CyberFair Project Assignment.
Our involvement in CyberFair '97 fit quite well into our required school curriculum guidelines for computer technology, research skills, the writing process, social studies, and our language arts, spelling and reading curricula. Through this project we discovered that research is FUN! Groundtruthing and interviewing have been very exciting. Seeing our published works up on the BIG SCREEN and traveling across the world is unbelievable to us. Our knowledge of the vast technology available is extremely exciting and we will be able to use it for the rest of our lives. The huge amount of research we have done and the exciting information we have gathered about our community has been very rewarding for us. We now feel we KNOW our town. The ties we have made among us, our school, and our community will always be a part of us because of this project. As we read and learn about the other countries and states involved in CyberFair'97, we continue to stretch the required school curriculum to geography and the arts. We would not trade this great opportunity for the world. THANK YOU!!!!!
Our class used a variety of information tools and technologies
to produce CyberFair'97. Working hand-in-hand with
informative community members and our technology teacher, our
class used telephones to gather information and interview people,
a VCR and video tape to identify and learn more about historic
buildings in our area, the QuickTake and Casio Digital
cameras to photograph historic buildings, the computer to download
the images and Macintosh PowerBook with an LCD overhead to project
the images on a screen while a community member expert told
information and exciting stories about the historic buildings.
Tape recorders were used to interview community members in order
to gather valuable historic information and we used our personal
cameras to photograph various buildings in our town as we toured
our community in a school bus. Students used The Writing Center
to enter their information, Kid Pix to draw some
pictures, PhotoFlash to edit pictures taken with the
QuickTake camera, Ofoto to scan and edit pictures,
and Page Mill to set up the web pages.
We were "ambassadors" and spokespersons for our CyberFair '97 project. After using our computers to create an interview sheet, we each chose a community member(s) to visit and interview. We telephoned the people, set up conference times, and visited our community member. Using our interview sheets, we learned important information, unique family stories, and historical events about our town's history. (See our web pages for some of these great stories). We also took several field trips around our town to visit and learn more about it's history. Our interviewees were valuable sources for our project, with fantastic accounts about the historic buildings that are still a part of our beautiful town. As we told our interviewees about our CyberFair'97 project, they became more and more impressed with the state-of-the-art technological knowledge with which we as students are very familiar. These fine people will be our guests at our CyberFair Tea we will be hosting in May. Ms. Barrows, our Computer Teacher, and our Principal Mrs. Hoffman met with the Wiscasset Business Association to share our projects and some ideas we have to help the community.
Our involvement in CyberFair has made a great difference in our community. Community members (many elderly) have shown more interest in the technology we are using at our school because of our involvement. Many people are fascinated with the huge amount of information we have been able to gather with the tools and technology of this project. These tools and technology for fourth graders make this project unique. We have been able to teach people who have been living in our town since birth new and exciting facts and bits of information about the historic buildings and ships in our community. Many want our project to be available for tourists and visitors so they too can learn these fantastic tidbits of information. We have established new working relationships with people in the community through the research and information we have gathered. As fourth graders we feel fortunate to have made so many new elderly and adult friends in our community.
We feel confident that people around the world will want to visit our fine community in Wiscasset, Maine thanks to CyberFair '97.
Our school is very proud and pleased with our efforts. We have learned fascinating facts about our community. As a result of this, we will be planning and creating a Walking Tour of Wiscasset, Maine for our community members and the hundreds of tourists that visit "The Prettiest Village in Maine."
Our project would not have been possible without the continued help of many community members. When we first took on this exciting project we decided we needed lots of help from people who have lived in our community for many years. So, using the computer we sent a letter to our families asking for help. Our families gave us names of people who could help us. From there we created our interview sheets and we got busy telephoning the people we wanted to interview. Our telephone calls lead to conferences. We contacted the individuals who own or live in the historic homes we were studying. We set up field trips and interview conference times to meet and discuss the historic homes. This was a VERY rewarding time for our community members and us. The people could not believe how advanced we were in technology. They were also VERY impressed with our interest in the history of Wiscasset. Every person we contacted to come to our classroom and speak to us came with great pride and enthusiasm. It has been a wonderful time for our community and our classroom to "Share and Unite!"
We learned that it is actually easy to be patient and wait until our teachers are available. We learned that we have a community filled with very helpful and smart people. We learned that "too many cooks may spoil the soup." What we mean by this is - We became frustrated when too many people were working on one subject. We discovered some very interesting things about the landmarks that we use to take for granted. (See our beautiful web pages). We now have a much greater appreciation for our lovely town, it's people and the buildings we live in and with.