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1. Description
of "Our Community"
Local community, according to the PWN Encyclopedia, is a group of people who live in one, common territory. It has also a common neighborhood, living conditions and a common culture. Nowadays, bonds between local communities are looser, and their borders are thinner. Bydgoszcz, which belongs to the top 10 largest cities in Poland, is the administrative capital of the Kuiavia and Pomerania province inhabited by 2.1 million people, that is 5.7% of the country's population. Bydgoszcz, numbering 400,000 inhabitants, is a city of young people: the "statistical" resident is 36 years old. Our young community is attracted by the higher learning establishments of Bydgoszcz- Bydgoszcz Academy, Academy of Music, Academy of Technology and Agriculture, Medical Academy- which prepare a highly-qualified staff of doctors, teachers, engineers, musicians, economists as well as advertising, marketing and management specialists.
In our opinion, a local community is a group of people from the same lass, school, backyard, district, village, town or city as well as foreigners living in Poland. Such people share the same interests, hobbies, studies, work, entertainment or leisure. Working on this project we created a small local community of our school, which was integrated around the common interests, passion and work on the project – Attractions of our Region.
2. Summary
of Our Project
We are presenting the natural and created by man attractions of Poland, the kujawsko-pomorskie district and Bydgoszcz on our website.
The image of Poland in the Western media is very inept, deformed and obsolete. Many foreigners think that a trip to Poland, as to the whole Eastern part of Europe, is a real survival lesson. Only after a few days of staying there, they change their opinion and come to conclusion that Poland is a usual part of Europe.
On our website, we are showing places which are worth seeing in our beautiful country. We all hope that we will manage to encourage both domestic and foreign tourists to visit our lovely homeland. Undoubtedly, one of the most amazing and picturesque region in our country is kujawsko-pomorskie voivodship and its beautiful capital - Bydgoszcz. In this 8th biggest city in Poland, you can admire a great number of interesting places of historical, architectural and cultural values. If you do not know how to spend your leisure time, kujawsko-pomorskie voivodship is an ideal region for your unforgettable holidays! On our website, you can find all indispensable information about the monuments, cultural places and entertainment in this charming corner of our country.
3. Our Computer and Internet
Access
A. Percentage of students using
the Internet at home:
80%
B. Number of workstations with
Internet access in the classroom:
10
C. Connection speed used in the
classroom:
115 kbs
D. Number of years our classroom
has been connected to the Internet:
5
E. Additional comments concerning
your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Write a brief description of the barriers, including technical obstacles, that you and your students faced during this project. Tell how you overcame or otherwise dealt with these obstacles.
The biggest problem we faced during this project was the translation of the texts into English. We asked for help our friends/pupils who learn English during their classes. Unfortunately, they found it really difficult and decided to translate the given texts using an online translator. Next day they came to English teachers with wide smiles on their faces and stated that “There is no use in learning English, we have got translators which do the whole job for us!” However, after a few days they face fell when they noticed lots of mistakes crossed out in red ink. Only then did they realize that a translator in not a reliable tool. It was a great lesson for them. Moreover, we had difficulties with translating a specialist vocabulary as we could not find it in any dictionary and literature. Thanks to the help of our great English friends we managed to find appropriate English equivalents of troublesome Polish words.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
“You glorify the foreign, but you don't know your own” These are the words of our famous poet Mikołaj Rej, who as a first noticed and wrote about the beauty of our country. The sounds of these words accompanied us through the whole process of creating this website. We wanted to show our motherland in the best possible way and in such a way make people notice the beauty of our country, especially of kujawsko-pomorskie district.
The Cyberfair competition has enabled us to get to know and appreciate the charm of our region, which is often called ‘the land of milk and honey’. Now we are going to prove it to you with pleasure.
6. How did your
activities and research for this International Schools CyberFair
Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum
standards?
Our project has corresponded to the requirements of certain subjects but also surpassed the curriculum of geography, society’s science, English and IT. Our students researched geographical texts and learned a lot about the tourist values of our country and region. Translating of texts was an exercise, which surpassed the curriculum of English. Creating web pages, animations and presentations required from our students deeper knowledge of IT skills. The students worked in small groups, each of which has a particular task. One group researched geographical book looking for some interesting information about tourist places of our country and region, another translated texts into English. There was also a team of students who search for photos of some captivating corners of Poland. Each team used the Internet. Some students were engaged in all the teams. It was a wonderful lesson of cooperative work for all of us. We also analyzed many previous CyberFair projects and they served as sources of inspiration for us. Using the Internet is surely more effective than using traditional methods. There is no greater and more effective tool for research than the Internet. |