Pathfinder Networked Learning Lab
apec@avatar.ntntc.edu.tw
APEC Cyber Academy (ACA) is a
FREE networked learning environment designed specifically for K-12 students in
APEC member economies. It is under the auspices of APEC EDNET and Ministry of
Education of Chinese Taipei (
ACA will conduct an
international online contest starting in October, 2003. The contest is focusing
on 8 networked collaborative learning programs and APEC Journalistic Kids. Students
and teachers in K-12 schools are all welcome to participate in this exciting
online contest.
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Networked Collaborative Learning Programs:
The eight collaborative learning
programs are featuring on topics such as Money, Let’s Go to
Convenient Store, Food Pyramid, Bacteria Assembly, A Day
in Our Schools, Our Advertisements, Typhoon and Tornado, and Our Holidays. In these programs, students
are expected to form teams, take part in the weekly activities, accomplish the
assignments collaboratively, and even communicate with their distant learning
partners through interactive communication tools in the learning process.
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APEC Journalistic Kids:
The goal of APEC Journalistic
Kids contest is to encourage kids to write down what they observe and share it
with other students among APEC member economies. Any K-12 student interested in
reporting on stories, news, and interesting events or occasions is welcome to
apply for becoming APEC Journalistic Kids. The ultimate tasks for APEC Journalistic
Kids are to prepare their articles and upload them to ACA. The improvement of interpersonal
interaction, reading, and writing skills are expected for journalistic kids
after this contest.
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Awards:
The winners will be awarded the certificate of merit from APEC and Ministry of Education, Chinese Taipei. Furthermore, top 3 teams in Networked Collaborative Learning Programs and top 2 Journalistic Kids will be awarded a personal computer respectively. The winners even have opportunities to participate in the annual APEC Youth Camp that will be held in Chinese Taipei in 2004.
Compared to other educational
web sites, one of the special features in ACA is its rich communication tools
such as synchronous text communicator and video conferencing, and discussion
forums. Users in ACA will be able to freely apply those tools to interact with
their international peers.
Even though ACA offers open
communication tools, children’s online privacy protection procedures are taken seriously
in ACA. Therefore, with the support of US Department of Education, ACA complies
with “The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act” and requires the parental
or teacher’s consent before the kids under the age of 13 accessing ACA.
There are approximately four
thousands people including parents, teachers, students, and others from APEC
member economies registered in ACA so far. Even now, journalistic
kids from US,
For
more details, please go to
Please come on board and join the excitements!